The first day I drew Pete Gluszek for my partner and spoke to him prior to the first day launch and he explained we were making a long run and he was throwing topwater baits. So that night, I rigged up several topwater baits including a frog, buzzbait, and spook. I also had a senko rigged up as a follow-up bait. After a 50 mile or so run, we arrived at our first spot. I started off throwing the buzzbait and managed to catch my first fish that weighed around 3 pounds. Caught another keeper on the senko that was in the 2 pound range, followed that up by another fish in the 3 pound class on the spook. The night before I changed all my spook hooks out to the TK-310 and I’m sure glad I did as the fish was barely hooked and that Trokar got him in the boat! I culled out my smallest fish with one that ate my frog and wasn’t able to cull any more through out the day. I ended day 1 with 9 pounds and sitting in 4th place.

Day two comes along and I’m fishing with Fletcher Shryock. I caught my first two keepers flippin’ a tube behind him and my third keeper on a spinnerbait. It seemed day two was a lot tougher on me than the first day, but we were fishing different waters and doing something completely different. With 5 minutes to go I rigged up my confidence bait, just a 7 inch blue fleck power worm on a TK-120 and managed to land my biggest fish of the day that came in at 3 pound 11 ounces. That gave me a total for day two of 7 pounds and 15 ounces. Sitting in 2nd place only a pound out of the lead.

Day three puts me in the boat with Brandon Palaniuk. Talk about a great guy all around! I managed to catch several keepers through the day that fell for my senko rigged weightless on a TK-120. My day three weight was 5 pounds and 13 ounces and gave ma three day total of 22 pounds and 12 ounces.

Thanks,
Nick Leonard

The sun had just began to send its rays through the peaks on the continental divide and a small chop from the morning breeze kept slapping the boat. I had the Crestliner a long cast from shore. Steve had a Sebile Magic Swimmer and cast it towards the bank. About 5 or 6 cranks of the handle it stopped for a brief second Steve wondered if it was a snag then felt the head throb of a large fish. After a brief battle the 34” lake trout surrendered to my net.

I have been chasing trophy lake trout for over 20 years. I keep innovating and this year’s big “ah-ha” moment came this spring when I was fishing with a friend of mine, Steve Penley. Steve has been using a single hook on crankbaits for at least 4 years now and this lure setup actually increases hooking percentage while also decreasing the impact to the fish.

Single hooks on plugs are common in the Northwestern United States as well as Canada and Alaska. In some places treble hooks are illegal. I am convinced that everyone should be using this setup for all major predators, but Pike and Lake Trout especially.

I took off the treble hooks from the J13 Rapalas and the Sebile Magic Swimmers and checked out the hooks. I looked through my stash of TroKar hooks to find a suitable single-hook replacement. I found that the TK10 TroKar in a5/0 size matched my lures. The TK440 will also work. I attach this hook to the rear split ring of the lure letting the hook ride point-up if possible. I use TroKar because when removing six to nine hooks from a lure you better have the sharpest possible hook left.

I quickly noticed that single hooks have a much larger gap than trebles and that the single hook has a much greater range-of-motion around the back of the lure. On paper this seems very helpful but I have to admit the lure looked a little naked.

In three weeks of using this setup I have hooked 30 fish above 27-inches. All of them have safely arrived at my net, were released easily, and swam away with minimal hook damage. I do not expect to remain perfect on this setup but it convinced me that I am on the right track.

Let’s walk through this again. One hook in the fish’s mouth keeps him buttoned up a lot better then 3 working against each other…AWESOME!. Trebles caught in the net… SUCK! Trebles in my hand while trying not unhook a fish…SUCK! Trebles getting stuck in the fish…. SUCK! When we hook a fish and want to release him in the water we can reach down and pop the hook out with out even touching the fish… PRICELESS

This has proven it self to me time and time again. While I have not had the opportunity to try single hooks on my smaller cranks I do encourage you to try them. The benefits outweigh the risks by far. Thanks Bernie Keefe

DENVER, COLORADO – Simply put, TroKar Team member Jason Christie of Park Hill, Ok., owned Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees this week. After leading the event for the first three days, Christie turned on the afterburners on day four, landing the biggest stringer of the day at 19 pounds, 13 ounces en route to a rather comfortable 5-pound, 5-ounce margin of victory. As a result of Christie’s four-day catch of 78 pounds, 1 ounce, the Oklahoma native took home the top prize of $125,000.

To say that Christie is on a roll would be an understatement. In the last four FLW Tour events, he’s won two: Beaver Lake on April 14th and now Grand Lake June on 9th plus placed fourth on Lewis Smith Lake in March. Not to be forgotten is Christie’s come-from-behind win at the BASS Master Elite Series event at Bull Shoals this past April 21st. Jason Christie is the man to watch, and watch out for, in 2013.

The Oklahoma pro said that he targeted bass all week with a combination of three baits while relying on three distinct patterns. His bait selection included a Wooly Bug, a Pad Crasher frog and a creature bait. “I used them all on the first two days but on day three I really laid off the Wooly Bug and just flipped the creature bait. And I did that the last day as well.”
All baits were rigged on a range of TroKar hooks and sizes but the go to bait on the last day was rigged on the TroKar TK130-5/0 Flippin hook. “I can drop the power poles and focus on areas I know contain fish. Even with muddy water I can pick apart the cover and really fish the structure from every angle. I know every fish that bites is a hook up when I use TroKar hooks.” stated Christie. I never missed one fish all week,”

For more information on TroKar, be sure to visit our website at www.lazertrokar.com where you can download screen savers, view tech info about styles & sizes, visit the TroKar pro’s, check out trick TroKar apparel and much more. Connect with TroKar on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Lazer TroKar…just don’t fish…DOMINATE.

Mike Harpell (left) and Ben Robey with their 4 biggest fish.

The Colorado State University Bass Team of Ben Robey and Mike Harpell recently took 3rd place with 19 pounds, 0 ounces at the FLW College Fishing Western Regional Tournament on the California Delta.  Another CSU team of Chris Sabina and Zach Zasada took 20th place.  Chasing post-spawn fish in post-frontal conditions was quite the challenge, but a combination of squarebill crankbaits and soft plastic stick baits proved to get the job done.  Of course, hooks on the crankbaits were replaced with size 2 TK310 EWG trebles, and the soft plastics were fished on either size 2/0 TK97W weedless wacky hooks or size 6/0 TK120 Magworm EWG hooks.  Trokar hooks allowed  for solid hooksets and the retrieval fish from dense cover, a key to fishing well on the Delta.  As a result of the team’s performance at the Delta and previous FLW events, Colorado State will be sending three teams to the FLW College Fishing Western Division Invitational to be held October 12-13 on Clear Lake, California.  Stay tuned for details!

2 bass, 1 squarebill. Trokar hooks getting it done!

We recently had the chance to fish with one of our favorite pros, Bernie Keefe in Granby Co. www.fishingwithbernie.com for some Lakers about 2 weeks after ice off. The fish were still shallow and feeding in about 3-6 feet of water. It’s a great time to fish for Lake Trout because you can work rocky banks and windy points casting big crankbaits like Sebile swimmers or Rapala jointed J13 and get some vicious strikes from fish as big as 20 pounds and up. We fished the evening bite for several days with the plan to get on the water about 4:30 and fish until dark.

The first evening was a nice calm night and we starting hitting the key spots on the lake. We had a few strikes and caught a couple fish that were feeding heavily. Now Lake Trout are know for there ability to eat a lot and be ferocious predators, and on the first night we saw it first hand. The biggest fish we landed went about 15-20 pounds or so and had about a 15″ sucker still in it’s mouth. Pretty greedy to have a mouth full and still looking to swallow a 6″ crankbait whole.

We were casting the baits against the bank and burning them back quickly with an occasional pause or twitch. The only issue was we were missing a lot of hits. The baits were brand new and all had two big treble hooks on them. The strikes were solid too, doubling the rod over and even taking line but about half the fish would come off after just a few seconds. After fishing we were talking it over with Bernie and we wanted to try switching the baits over to TroKars and do a little on the water testing the next night.We removed the trebles and added one single TroKar to the back of the bait, removing the belly hook all together. We left one of the baits rigged with trebles so we could fish them side by side to see if the points on the TroKars and the wide gap of a single hook would make a difference.

We hit the water about the same time the next night, armed with our Baits now rigged with the new TK10 4/0 and starting fishing the same way as the night before. The weather was a little rougher and we had some rain but no bites for the first couple hours.As our daylight faded the storm blew over and the bite turned on and we started catching fish right up in the shallows as we had the night before. The big difference this time was our hook up ratio was greatly improved, but only on the crankbaits with the TroKar hooks. We went four for four on the lures with the TroKar hooks. We never missed a fish with the new set up, a huge improvement from the night before. And the one bait still sporting 2 trebles, sharp and right out of the box went 0-2. We missed both fish that took the Rapala bait with VMC trebles.

Now sure, we brag about TroKar hooks being the sharpest out there but seeing the difference a Really sharp hook makes in a side by side comparison is impressive. We might have only landed one or two fish but instead we landed everyone that hit and ended the night with a double.

If you are booking a trip with Bernie any time soon plan on fishing crankbaits upgraded to single TroKar hooks and catching some big Lakers
And if you see bulk boxes of trebles on EBay from some of those other hook companies with the caption “never used, right off new lures” don’t blame us. The guys who make a living catching fish know a good thing when they see it.

Kozlowski made a prefishing trip one week in advance of the tournament and found the fish to be in the prespawn/spawn, with water temperatures around 66 degrees. He figured out the bigger fish were staging behind breaks (laydowns, boulders, etc.) in water with current. His predictions after prefishing was that they could catch at least 15 pounds fishing these breaks.

Tournament day kicked off with a cold morning of about 40 degrees. Nathen and Lance started off the day fishing their pattern, and they were catching lots of fish, but the size was not there. Between 9 and 10 am, they started finding the key fish needed to win. With a few different lures on deck, including Cabela’s Flat Tire swimbaits rigged up with Lazer Trokar Magnum Weighted Swimbait hooks, black and blue Jewel Bait Company jigs, and various topwaters, the duo consistently caught big fish all day.

With 17 lbs 8 oz. Nathen and Lance were unsure of where they would line up with the competition. This impressive mixed bag turned out to be enough to win by just over a half pound. With this win, they are now qualified to fish the Central Invitational on the Detroit River on July 27^th.

Congratulations and good luck Nathen and Lance!

Team member Jon Wardell with a nice Colorado pond bass

It’s been a chilly start to the Colorado bass fishing season, but it looks like things are finally warming up and the action is getting hot.  I recently had the opportunity to represent the Colorado State University Bass Fishing Team on Fishful Thinker, hosted by Chad LaChance.  We had a blast catching early season bass using finesse techniques on Boyd Lake, and as always the TK150 and TK180 hooks were a key player in catching fish.  The show will air in late summer on Altitude, so if you’re in the Mountain West check it out!

The team continues to fish the FLW Western Region collegiate tournaments, and already secured one spot to the regional tournament with Alex Stuart and Austin Young’s tenth place finish on Lake Oroville, CA.  Our next tournament is on the California Delta, recently ranked the 9th best bass ‘lake’ in Bassmaster Magazine.  The Delta is an awesome place to fish, and preparation for it has taken up most of our time.  An area that is as big as The Delta forces an angler to concentrate on small arms or sloughs, but for anyone that has been there, the whole thing looks great to fish.  We’ve got our TK130 flipping hooks ready to go, and are ready to qualify two teams to the regional tournament.  We can’t wait to fish it, and it’s going to be a great place to fish my last college qualifying tournament.  Be sure to check back in for some awesome Delta photos, but for now check out Jon’s Fort Collins pond fish!

Ben Robey, President, CSU Bass Fishing Team

LAGRANGE, Ga. — Skeet Reese is on fire — again.

The Auburn, Calif., superstar of bass fishing was victorious Sunday in the Bassmaster Elite Series’ West Point Lake Battle after starting the final round in seventh place, almost 2 1/2 pounds behind leader Tommy Biffle.

But when Reese weighed 15-4 Sunday, he squashed the other 11 finalists’ hopes of winning the four-day Battle out of LaGrange, Ga. Closest to catching Reese with a 46-6 total was Aaron Martens of Leeds, Ala., who finished second with 44-6, exactly 2 pounds back.

Reese won $100,000 and his 14th Bassmaster Classic qualification. He also racked up points in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race, rising eight steps in the standings into third place.

“We play for the win — and the money’s always nice. But I fish for one title — Angler of the Year. For me, it doesn’t get any better than that,” said Reese, who has won the AOY crown once in 2007.

The West Point event win, the seventh of his Bassmaster career, was his first since he won two Elite competitions in 2010. He was in contention for the AOY title throughout 2010, but Kevin VanDam took it.

Then Reese’s streak stopped — until Sunday, that is, when as quickly as a kitchen match bursts into flame when scratched against a rock, Reese again was on fire.

He was not confident about success on West Point Lake, even up to the last minutes of the final weigh-in, drenched by a driving rain. He watched from the official Toyota Hot Seat as the other finalists weighed their bass.

“If they’re sitting out there,” Reese gestured to the crowd unsheltered from the rain, “I can sit out here.”

Soaking wet, Reese savored every minute of the win, at one point jumping up and down on the stage.

Reese talked later about his expectations going into the West Point event.

“I thought if I could win, I’d win on a swimbait,” said the California angler who often turns to that lure. “I couldn’t get a bite on a swimbait. I didn’t think I’d be picking up a spinning rod, but I adapted to conditions.”

In fifth place with 13-0 the first day, he said, “I was excited. But on Day 2 it was back to reality. I had 9 pounds — just a normal limit. Yesterday, I had 8 1/2 pounds, and I didn’t think it would put me in the 12-cut.”

It did. Saturday night he studied the Top 12 weights. He decided he had a chance.

“I saw how tight the Top 12 were,” he said. “I realized it was one of those tournaments wide open for any of the 12. I thought 15 to 16 pounds today would wind up winning it. Fortunately, I was the one who caught 15 pounds.”

Reese targeted bedding bass all four days, even trying for one large female several times before she seemingly disappeared.

Sunday he caught his first two fish of the morning on a Lucky Craft LV100 lipless crankbait, fishing shallow flats in the backs of ditches. Then he picked up a dropshot rig with a 4-inch smoke-purple Berkley Havoc Bottom Hopper. That yielded two more keepers.

“Then I went quite a while without a bite,” he said. “I tried for spotted bass, and it just wasn’t happening.”

Reese checked on that big female again — no dice — so he fished banks. He boated a few more that weighed between 2 and 2 1/2 pounds. His total of 15-4 was the largest bag of the day, hands-down.

“I was just fortunate I had all decent fish today,” Reese said.

Martens walked away with second place for the 11th time in his Bassmaster career.

He lamented the loss Sunday of a 5-pounder about 12 feet from his boat. That was the bass that could have given him a win, he said. It broke off when the line wrapped around a tree.

“You have to have a flawless event to win one of these, and Skeet did,” Martens said.

Finishing third was Pete Ponds with 44-1. Ponds started in 24th place on Day 1, then hopped into 10th, and then into second. His 11-1 of Sunday wasn’t enough to overtake Reese, who got the better of Ponds by 2-5.

Fourth was Elite rookie Hank Cherry of Maiden, N.C., with 41-2, including the day’s largest, a 5-15. Fifth was Todd Faircloth at 39-1. Faircloth rose from 40th place on the first day to become one of the 12 finalists.

Day 3 leader Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, Okla., fell to 10th place after weighing one bass that went 1-5.

The Battle’s results did not bump Edwin Evers of Talala, Okla., off the top of the standings in the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race, but the mix under him changed. Seven-time Angler of the Year winner Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., moved up one tick from third place to be Evers’ closest challenger. A margin of just six points separates the two leaders.

The other three pros now within the first five positions in the AOY race are Reese, 14 points behind Evers; second-year Elite pro Chris Zaldain of San Jose, Calif., 26 points in back of the leader; and Casey Ashley of Donalds, S.C., also 26 points behind Evers.

Pros earn points according to their finishes at each of eight regular-season events. At the end of the season, the pro with the most points will win the $100,000 AOY award.

Credit – B.A.S.S.

Marty Riddle Pro Staff Manager for Eagle Claw Fishing Tackle, Sam Heckman – local bass legend and Robby Richardson www.sportfishcolorado.com owner/fishing guide went out for a couple of days of Mackinaw fishing in Gunnison, CO on Blue Mesa Reservoir. The lake was 60′ low which made it easier to find the big ones…actually hooking one was a different story. Although the bite was tough (only 4 fish were landed in two days) this one was caught using TroKar trebles and 5/0 jig hooks. After a good fight, the pictures and GoPro footage captured this 24.3 lb and this 21 lb. Lake Trout on film and the high fives were heard throughout the canyon.

For some great action, contact Robby Richardson and get on Blue Mesa. Whether you’re trying to catch a double digit Mackinaw, a boat full of Kokanee salmon or any other trout, you’re bound to learn a bunch and have a great day with a fantastic guide.