Baitrix
Baitrix
A while back, watching WFN I saw this fellow had an artificial softbait about the size of your artificial minnow. It was not as realistic as the Baitrix line but what was so interesting was how he hooked it and fished with it. Using just a bare 2/0 jig hooked through the side of the bait. He called it “side swimming wacky jig head rigged” (where do they get these names?). He was Bass fishing somewhere in the southern U.S. catching Small Mouth and Large Mouth Bass one after another having the time of his life. Made me wish I was there.
FRESHWATER SHORELINE FISHING
He was working a shore line with an electric motor and casting into every dock and weed bed he could find, letting the artificial minnow pause a bit to sink then pumping the rod with light jerks to wag the bait causing it to swim in the direction of the head. When it swam too far from the structure he would re-cast. “Wow” I thought this technique was brilliant. The Baitrix Minnow rigged this way would catch large trout of all species, Small and Large mouth Bass, Walleye and Crappie. I’m sure of it. Wow, so much to try, so much fishing to do. You’re going to need lots of help from Baitrix customers all over the world trying these techniques with your baits. I can’t wait for all the feed back and photo’s. I thought of a half a dozen salt and fresh water applications using the Baitrix Herring and Anchovy.
Could you imagine swimming the Baitrix Herring along the bull kelp for Coho Salmon or swimming Baitrix Artificials for Chinook Salmon on the wall using light gear.
Southern fishermen could use the herring bait for Tarpon fishing in the lagoons. I think this rig would be a great snook bait as well. Swimming artificial baitfish through the mangroves – It almost sounds romantic.
One more thing I have to say. I was managing a busy tackle store in Edmonton in the mid 80′s when D.F.O. changed the rules on barbed hooks on the west coast. Most of the good old boys that came into the store every year to stock up on B.C. supplies quit going. Their reason was simple, the collapse of the live herring bait industry due to the ban of barbed hooks made it hard to land fish or keep a live herring on a barbless hook. Mooching with live bait and the spin off business collapsed. Today anglers still mooch but with a cut plug herring.
A better bet would be the Baitrix Tunable Herring and Anchovy, quick strike rigged.
They are much more realistic than a frozen cut bait and are durable beyond anyone’s expectations. We still have to use barbless hooks but our senior and junior anglers will have a better chance of hooking fish using these baits. Maybe because of Baitrix artificial baits more anglers will dust off their mooching gear and get back at it.
Tight lines
Rick