The Yack Report: Bagley Lure Testing

I got out for a few hours today… for some product testing. I bought 2 of these lures tonight to try on the Walleye and Smallmouth Bass in the river. I work part time at Sarge’s Bait and Tackle the goal is to fill the shop with stuff that catches fish… Well these seemed to work great! The Bagley Bang-o-lure is very well made with heavy duty Hooks, split rings and connecting hardware. The finish is thick and durable… and resistant to teeth marks and chipping on the rocks. The plug works best on a slow retrieve… it develops a slow wide wobble and rises on the pause… This is an excellent lure! We’ve got’em at the shop.

I started fishing around 6:30 pm. With no action by 7:30 I was thinking it wasn’t gonna happen tonight. I applied orange garlic dye to the belly of the lure prior to fishing it. I reapply the scent once an hour. Shortly after, I got an arm wrenching strike and saw a fish sky rocket out of the shallow water. I was pretty sure I had a monster Smallmouth as I got the fish closer it “Tail walked” across the surface of the swift current. At this moment I realized it was a convict Bass… a Striper about 22” or so. That was the first of 2 Stripers about that size.

Just a few casts later a fat 20” Walleye attacked the lure…then another Walleye 17” fell victim to the lure. I reapplied the scent for that one last cast. As the lure hit the water and I cranked it down into the heavy current, a firm “Tick” was all that signaled the bite of this Walleye. I set the hook with a vengeance! Strong head shakes indicated a good fish was on the line and after a few minutes I slid a fine 25” Walleye on to the gravel shore. This fish was quickly photographed and released. I only keep Walleyes between 17” and 22”. Smaller than that haven’t fully matured for spawning and the bigger ones are needed as breeders to replenish the stocks. Blessed to have another fine evening on the river! Wish you could have been there!

A 20″ Walleye with Teeth. Yes they have teeth! The orange stripe on the bottom of the lure is Garlic Dye by Spike-it. If you are not using some kind of scent you are missing a significant strike trigger.

I like big Walleye Too! This one was 24″ to 26″ I wanted to get her back in the water quickly so the picture sucks but you get the idea… right? I caught this fish on the last cast of all the other 20 last casts of the evening. It was dark, my camera on my phone is lousy and the Guard was yelling at me that it was time to go! He’s new… the old guards new me well and would let me stretch a couple extra minutes out of each night of fishing. The area I was fishing closes 1 hour after sunset… the guards will have you removed in a timely fashion… Don’t ask how I know this.