Drifter Newsletter – Issue 7
Comments(0) Welcome to Issue 7 of the Drifter Newsletter
In this edition!
Drifter Labor Day Sale – Starts Friday Aug. 29th
We are clearing overstock on Musky Mania’s Double Trouble™ and Double Maniabou™ in select colors through the Labor Day weekend until September 29th.
Double Trouble™ 20% off – $10.39 in the following colors
- 01 Black & Silver
- 14 Black & Orange
- 16 Gold Fish
- 18 Chartreuse Silver
- 20 Pink & Purple
CLICK HERE TO ORDER DOUBLE TROUBLE™
Double Maniabou™ 22% off – $11.99 in the following colors
- 01 Black & Silver
- 02 Walleye
- 06 Crappie
- 08 Sucker
- 10 Fire Tiger
- 12 Clown
- 14 Black Orange
- 16 GoldFish
- 18 Pink & Purple
- 20 Chartreuse & Silver
CLICK HERE TO ORDER DOUBLE MANIABOU™
Musky Mike’s Trolling Secrets Book Now Available
This years book features 30 new baits and an updated guide on trolling for big game fish and it’s printed on the same quality waterproof paper as before. For more information on this valuble resource visit muskytrollingsecrets.com.
Order today!
The Famous Believer® does well with some large Lakers
Bill Rager sends along some great pics of some very big Lake Trout being caught on Drifter’s 10″ Believer. These great fish were caught during a recent trip to Lac La Marte. All of the fish were caught on 10 inch Believers® both straight and jointed in Fire Tiger and Orange Tiger colors. That’s some amazing catches!
As I sit down to write this column its April and while trying to decide on a topic I get a call from a friend who says,”Dick there’s still 25 inches of ice on Lake Of The Woods, last year I was trolling for lakers there at this time, what’s going to happen on the opener?”
Coincidentally,last night another friend had e-mailed about a recent crappie ice fishing trip to Rainy Lake wondering about the effect of extremely low water on his opener there.
Then, as I thought about an e-mail I had recently received from another friend from Wisconsin asking me to comment on his ‘plan’ for an upcoming trip to Lake Of The Woods it hit me, within days three friends with over 75 years of combined muskie fishing experience were expressing a lack of confidence in a season that hadn’t even begun. I thought wow, what’s up with that? Upon reflection nothing much really. Everyone,myself included,lacks confidence at times when fishing muskies. It goes with the territory.
Why? The friend from Wisconsin nailed it in his e-mail I think. He stated “I should be able to figure something out,again having confidence is the key, it’s too easy to talk yourself out of a good idea with these fish, they just don’t give a lot of positive feedback, there’s just not enough of them.” Exactly. Unfortunately he’s right, there are times when even doing things ‘right’ doesn’t work. Tough to stay confident knowing that isn’t it?
So what is confidence? Websters New World dictionary tells us confidence is trust, reliance, assurance, a fact of being or feeling certain, a firm belief in ones abilities. OK, so that’s what it is,but how do we get it,how do we lose it,and most importantly,how do we get it back when we temporarily lose it?
Click here to read entire article….
Early Season Fishing
Gary Bartlett is a Coast Guard Captain and guides on the Lake of the Woods from the Northwest Angle of Minnesota for muskies.
The waters of Lake of the Woods (LOW) were no different from waters anywhere in the northern states. The open water season started with late ice out conditions followed by much rain and cool temperatures. This affected the muskie spawn. I saw muskies spawning in May and still spawning in July. These conditions brought new challenges to us fishermen. Different areas of the Northwest Angle of LOW produced varying muskie responses to baits, if any at all. Some areas that have been successful during the first few weeks of the season held few fish, while other areas held some fish.
For the most part the basic baits again caught fish once you located them.
My early season choices consisted of Lilly Tails™, Sneaky Pete’s™, and Grinders™. Remember the fish will be in the weeds and bays for the first few weeks of the muskie season in Canada.
This is how I attack and fish the weeds; commonly referred to as slop.
The Lilly Tail™ is an awesome bait that works very well over the weed tops. This bait is designed and best used as a bulging bucktail. Move the bait fast until it starts to bulge then slowly slow the speed of the retrieve keeping it bulging.
When I cover the lower portion of the weed beds I will use a Grinder™. This year I have been using the 2 ounce, as it settles and stays down in the cabbage better then the lighter versions. The heavier Grinder™ also allows you to move the bait faster which enables you to cover more area in a shorter amount of time. When using the Grinder™ remember to point your rod directly at the bait. With a little bit of practice you will be able to retrieve the bait without weed foul-ups. Since I am talking about slop fishing I will mention that if a bait has weeds on it – do not give up. Muskies will hit a weed clogged bait.
The top producing bait for this year was the Sneaky Pete™. This bucktail is reversed tied which makes casting it effortless as the hair will not have the wind resistance like a regular bucktail. A fast to very fast retrieve is what produces. You can bulge, burn, or slow retrieve the Sneaky Pete™. Bulging and burning over weed tops are the key presentations for me this time of year. My congratulation here goes to Jim J. Who in his third time muskie fishing used the Sneaky Pete™ to catch a 45” and a 47” on opening day. I was using the Sneaky Pete™ and getting most of the follows in the boat so I took the bait off my line and snapped it onto Jim’s and the rest is history.
This is a short summary of my early season fishing on LOW. I have thrown the Exo on rock points and it too has yielded some nice fish for me and the Turbine with the #8 blades caught a 49” muskie for me. I will talk more about these baits in another month.
Drifter Talk message board coming soon!
Continuing our efforts to give our customers the best experience from our web sites, we are adding a message board for open discussions on all products. This will offer users valuable information on how to use our baits, possible support questions and a forum-based connection to the Drifter Tackle team. We hope to have Drifter Talk live by sometime in August and will be accessible from the Drifter Tackle website.
Drifter Tackle logo gets a fresh coat of paint.
Drifter Tackle updated its logo last month to help allign the tackle manufactuers brand with both the Musky Mania and ERC brands. Michael Paulus, Creative Director at Deploy worked with Drifter Tackle in designing all of the Drifter Tackle, Inc. brands over the past year. “It was important to bring all the brands together stylistically to help unify the entire brand family.” Paulus said.
Deploy is a multi-disciplined creative studio located in Toledo, Ohio, that specializes in interactive web design and development but has a passion for all things creative. http://www.deploycreative.com
