The New Sonic BaitFish You've Gotta See It To ... - Mack's Lure

The New Sonic BaitFishYou’ve Gotta See It To Believe It!By Stan FagerstromPart 2There’s a great deal of wisdom in the words that a man with years of intense angling experience shared with merecently.“Anybody,” he said, “can figure out the what and where of fishing. It’s when you can figure out the why thatyou own the lake.”That bit of profundity came from the man I talked about in my previous column. He’s Mike Hall, a lifetimeangler from Ogden, Utah. Mike was one of the experts deeply involved in the testing of the new Sonic BaitFishthat Mack’s Lure is just now introducing to the world’s anglers.If you’ve not already done so, I urge you to take a close look at the new Sonic BaitFish. The first thing you’llnote is the options it offers. Here’s a lure that can be used in so many different ways it boggles the imagination.Every one of these beauties nailed a Sonic BaitFish. These new lures caughta variety of fish during their testing process.It can be fished much as you’d use a spoon style lure, you can jig it, troll it, cast it or you can hook it up so youhave a horizontal presentation. Each of these different hooks ups brings with it its own unique vibration orflutter.As some of the pros who have used it say, “Exactly how you use the new Sonic BaitFish is only limited by yourown imagination.” They suggest varying your method of rigging until you find the one the fish like best. They

also point out that this may vary from one trip to another or from one species to another.Mike Hall, and he’s used this new lure as much as anybody, says he’s often fished it as a vertical jig. Some of thetime he attaches his snap to the middle of the lure so it a horizontal position.All of us who’ve fished much have had good fish manage to shake free of our lure. They’re going to have a devilof a time doing that if the lure is rigged horizontally as Hall usually does for lake trout.“When I rig it horizontally for lake trout,” Hall says, “I attach my hooks to both ends. The lake trout I’vecaught that way tend to just engulf the lure when they strike. When they get nailed by the hooks at either end ofmy lure they just can’t shake free of it.”Hall says some of the time when he’s been fishing the lure for rainbow trout he attaches his line to the head ofthe lure and his double hook to the tail end. “Rainbow trout,” he says, “are more inclined to hit toward the tailend of a bait or lure. I get the best hook ups when I have my hooks on the tail end of the lure when it’s rainbowI’m after.”Like other experts I’ve interviewed over the years, Mike Hall depends on his electronics to locate fish. “One ofthe things I often find,” he says, “is that fish may suspend where there’s a bottom drop off and a water depthchange.The water may drop to 120-feet in depth, but the fish may be suspended at 60-feet. If I rig my Sonic BaitFishhorizontally I get a special vibration when I hop it up and a roll and flutter as it drops. The lure just has adifferent action than anything I’ve ever used.”You can be assured that Mike, now 66, has used a whole bunch of baits in the almost half century he has been aprofessional angler. He’s done it as a guide, in bass fishing competition and that’s just two of the different roleshe has played.One of the first things you'll notice when you examine a Sonic BaitFish upclose and careful is the variety of ways in which it can be attached to yourline.I was curious as to how Mike felt about the colors of the Sonic BaitFish he employs. He had his preferences, butwas quick to point out the color that works great in one lake might not be the best in another.“In open water,” he says, “I often do well on the fire tiger shade. Chartreuse can be excellent in the spring. IfI’m trolling, both green and yellow colors have been good.”You’re reading this as we’re heading into the warmest weather of the year all over the United States, but let memake a suggestion. Don’t let the cold weather season get here without laying in a supply of these new SonicBaitFish. The lures are proving to be the next best thing to dynamite for ice fishing.

If you read my previous column you’re aware of the success Mike Hall had in his ice fishing at Utah’s FlamingGorge Reservoir last winter. Using the 1/10th-ounce BaitFish he nailed a 40-pound lake trout as well as a totalof 450 crappies all from Flaming Gorge.“It took me almost an hour,” Mike says, “to tire that lake trout out enough I could finally get hold of it.”Hall fishes the Sonic Baitfish with his spinning rig as well as a bait casting outfit. He uses 10-pound line on hislevel wind reel and goes all the way down to 4-pound test for ice fishing with a spinning outfit.You'll get a special flutter and vibration when the SonicBaitFish is rigged asit is here. Anglers who've used it rigged this way say they almost neverlose a fish with the lure having hooks attached at both ends.“We’re really excited about introducing the Sonic BaitFish,” says Bobby Loomis, the sales and marketingdirector for Mack’s Lure. “Lures that do what this one can,” Loomis says, “are just awfully darn hard to find.”I expect anglers after everything from walleye to salmon as well as the bass and panfish family will be findingthat out for themselves before many moons come and go.After visiting as I did with Mike Hall, I decided it would be well to also talk to the man who came up with theidea for the Sonic BaitFish in the first place. As I’ve mentioned before, his name is Pete Rosko.Pete lives in Florida most of the year but spends the summer in Port Angeles, Washington. This has providedhim with a wondrous opportunity to fish his new creation from one end of the country to the other.Keep an eye peeled for my next column. Among other things, I’ll tell you how Rosko has used his new lure forboth largemouth bass and walleyes. That new column starts right here July 1.-To be continued-