Rapala Touch Screen Tournament Scale

I wanted to spend some time and review a great new product that I picked up this season. The Rapala touch Screen Tournament Scale is one of the newer scales to hit the market and it has some awesome new features.. check it out

Pros: There are a ton of great features on this scale, The touch screen is a huge advancement and makes it super easy to add and remove weights from the Scale. With a couple touches of your finger you can lock in fish weights and add and remove fish

This was designed as a tournament scale and will hold up to 8 fish weights, and comes with 8 tags so you can easily cull fish as you fill your live well. When culling the large screen makes it quick and easy to see what fish is your smallest and remove it. When adding and removing fish the Scale tally's your total weight so you always know where you stand.

It may not sound like much but this scale come with booth a standard hook and a clamp. I much prefer the clamp but it is nice to have that hook on standby. The new handle design is also an upgrade in my books, it gives you a great grip and is easy to hold

Cons: There was not much I could find wrong with this scale, I would like it to go a bit higher then 15lbs, make it useful when fishing other species, but since it was designed for tournaments it does meet my requirements. I dont know about you but in my area you cant have more then 5 fish in the boat, not sure why this scale goes up to 8, but im sure there is a reason


Other Features:
This scale runs on 2 x AA batteries and has a decent life span. it also has enough memory to hold your weights should your batteries die on you when on the water.

A protected sleeve with built in waterproof instruction tag makes sure you know what you are doing in key situations

8 Culling Clips with ref tags. This allows you to easily pull your smallest fish from the live well and replace it with a kicker

If you want to check out a little how to video to see how easy it is to run this scale click below...

Company Review: Power team Lures

You can look in many places on the web to find a review of Power Team Lures products, their line of craw baits is sure to keep people talking and catching fish all season long. But in all my searching I have yet to see a review of Power Team Lures in general.

I have personally placed a few orders with Power Team and thought I would give you guys a run down of my experience so far.

Placing an Order: The power team lures website will not blow you off your feet, but it does include everything you need to gain knowledge of their products and place an order. Products are quick and easy to find, and prices are clear. The site provides videos so you can see the various baits move in the water, and as a nice bonus they offer kits, that provide a mix of various plastic products along with clothing and scent. The kit prices are great and are a cheap way to try an assortment of baits and gets a new customer wearing the Power Team Lures logo.

check out their website at www.powerteamlures.com

Like most Companies today Power Team also utilizes a Facebook page. They are fairly active and respond to questions, concerns or even photos you postPowerteam on Facebook
Product Selection: Powerteam currently offers 6 different styles of product. They include, Scent, Craws, Grubs,Lizards, Worms and Tubes. They offered a variety of different styles of each of these baits, but I would have to say the most aggressive line-up is the craw line. They have some of the most unique baits I have come across to date, and some awesome color selection.

If your like me and love stickers, decals and fishing branded clothing, Power Team offers a few decal options, a T-shirt and a Hoodie.

Product Quality: I have not yet had the chance to use this product on the water, but I have ordered a variety of baits, I have held most of their products in my hand to get a feel for durability. The product looks and feels durable and I would recommend not opening the package in a confined space as the scent is potent..

Product are well packed and sealed. Unlike other pastics you wont be able to open these on the show room floor, the packs are sealed tight and the baits are kept freshPricing and Shipping: The baits start at about $4.50 for some of the smaller one and up to just under $7 for the larger craw baits. They come packaged in 6, 8 or 10 counts depending on the bait you are choosing. This makes some baits come in at just over $1 per piece. Shipping was very reasonable and as a Canadian customer I was happy to report no duty and brokerage surprises when I picked up my order. The order was shipped quickly and I received emails at time of order and at time of shipment

Customer Service: I would rate the customer service at an A, they were friendly and responded to my questions promptly and with straight forward answers. There was a shipping error on my order, I ordered a L shirt but received an XL. I emailed them to see how I could have this issue corrected and received a quick response. I was shipped the correct shirt that same day and was told to keep the XL,. That's good service.

Issues/Concerns: See above, one small shipping error that was addressed without issue. Very happy with the outcome.Recommended: Yes, and to be honest I have already placed a second order and have been watching their site for when the new baits will be added so i can place order #3

Product Review: CC Rod Sock

As an amateur angler gearing up for my first series of tournaments this summer, i have started to buy products not used as much by your typical weekend angler, but probably should be. Rod socks, gloves or sleeves are a great way to keep your rods protected and tangle free when out on the water. I recently placed an order for some rod socks from a new up and company called CC Rod Sock
When I started to do some research on rod socks, slicks, gloves and sleeves. I knew I needed some, but was not sure what I wanted and how much I was willing to spend. There is a wide variety of products available and all of them essentially do the same thing, but the price varies from $5-$10 per sock.

So when my research was said and done, I chose to go with CC Rod Socks. Two key factors in my decision were.. (1) The owner is an Ontario Angler, and I love to support my fellow fisherman, and (2) the price was right, At $6 a sleeve it was cheaper then the ROD GLOVE which is readily available in my area for $9 a glove.

Here is a review of my Experience....Placing an Order: Quick and easy, the website is laid out well and it was easy to find what I needed and place my order. For me, when ordering online the option to use PayPal is almost a must so I was glad to see it was available. The checkout process quick and I received updates then the order was placed, received and shipped.

Website: http://www.ccrodsocks.com/Product Selection: With 4 color options (Black, Red, Yellow and Blue) there is enough selection without going overboard. There are two sock sizes available either 6ft-7ft or 7ft-8th lengths. There is also both a Spinning rod sock and a baitcaster sock. This is important as the large bottom eye on the spinning rod needs to be covered. I found that some companies that only provide one size sock/glove/slick make them to tight and you have to take more time to pull them down over the eye.

Product Quality: As mentioned before, rod socks are a pretty standard product and the quality from one to the next is fairly similar, that being said the CC rod socks are a quality product, each is made to order and have they two key features that are important to any quality rod sock, sleeve, glove or slick.

(1) The tips are tapered and are dipped in rubber. This gives you great tip protection and unlike other that have the tips wrapped, this dipped rubber will never come un-tied. Some socks on the market have flat or square tips, I never understood this. A tapered tip ensure the rod tip fits snug (no sliding arounf and is protected

The base of each sock has been rolled up and in for an easy on and off. This is pretty standard for this style product, as it keeps the ends in tact and helps prevent fraying. I have had a sleeve in the past that started to come apart at the base. It made it very hard to get the rod in and out of the sleeve

Pricing & Shipping: As mentioned above the price was one of the reasons I purchased the CC Rod Sock. Coming in at $6 per baitcasting sock and $7 per Spinning sock, my order of 7 socks saved me $20 over the same order with a competitive brand.

Standard shipping rates are provided for Canadian Orders. At just under $10 I can confirm they are not gauging on the shipping. The price from Canada Post on my shipment was just under $9 and that does not include the owners time or shipping material

Customer Service: I would rate the customer service a A, communication was great, i knew where my package was at all times and it was produced and shipped quickly. Any and all questions were answered within 24hrs.

Issues/Concerns: I had no issues or concerns with my order. I will mention that there is no real product packaging available for these sleeves, they were well protected by a plastic case and boxed well for shipping, but there is not "professional" packaging. Hey, for $20 in savings I can over look the lack of packaging

Recommended: Yes

There's an App for that!...Or is there?

The smart phone has taken over the world, and that includes the fishing industry. The popular catch phrase every-time you come across a problem you cant solve without the use of your trusty Iphone.. "there's an App for that!", does not ring as true in the fishing industry as it does everywhere else. Dont' get me wrong there are some great App's to help fisherman out, the WFN Fishing Log is one and of course the Navionics also produced a top quality app, but where is the rest of the Industry? No other big name in the industry has produced an app.. not including games.. So here is my list of Dream Apps that I would love to see made available....


The Lure Selector App
Wouldn't it be cool it companies like Rapala or Live Target made an app, that helped you select a lure when on the water. You enter the depth of water and species targeted, it then spits out the lure best suited for both.

The Perfect Rod App
How about an App that helps an angler buy there perfect rod for them. You enter your hieght, the species you want to target with the rod, as well as a few techniques you like to use. The App would narrow down the rod best suited for you! This could be done by a single manufacture or some combined, this would help the average angler choose the right gear

Knot Options App
If there is one App that has flooded the market, it is the "how to" knot tying apps. But how about an App that tells you what kind of knot works best for each presentation, and then shows you how to do it. When to use a palomar, or a rapala knot, some guys know this stuff, and other dont.

Color -C-lector App
I know, I know, this is loved by some and hated by many. But as an App I think it would be pretty cool. Add in the wetaher condition, the water clarity, and so on, then the App tells you the best color choices for the day.

Lake Locator App
There are a ton of Apps geared to finding you the closest fast food restaurant or bank machine. But how about an app that you tells you where the closest lakes are. It uses your location to find lakes, as well as key needs, local bait shops, gas stations, marina's, public launches and so on.


Apps like these would be valuable to the everyday angler and the professional angler alike. Lets see some of the big guns in the fishing industry step up to the plate and start making some usefull on the water apps...so one day soon we really can say "there's an app for that"

Mega Strike - Strike Back Spinnerbait

f you asked me about MegaStrike prior to this season, I would have said that they are a "scent company". But this year I think they are out to change their already good reputation by adding a line of plastics as well as a new spinner bait concept called the "StrikeBack"

The StrikeBack spinnerbait has a hinged body that MegaStrike claims will improve your hook-ups, by allowing the hook to move freely no mater which direction the fish strikes. I admit I really like the look and feel of this bait. In the past I have purchased the Booyah spinnerbait with the flexible wire, it did help my hook-up ratio and I think the StrikeBack will do the same. The hinge moved wells, and takes no pressure at all to swing it. MegaStrike provided them in the standard weights and colors and after a closer look that have a nice finish. The other issue MegaStrike believes this hinge will fix is the constant adjusting of the spinnerbait wire, the hinge takes some of the extra pressure that is normally applied to the wire when fighting a fish

These baits are priced at the middle to high end of the Spinnerbait market. At first glance I feel that are worth the money and I look forward to throwing one this season.

Check out the below video for more info

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-zfciivZOw

Fishing for Quality, Quantity or just some Peace and Quiet?

Crappie season is in full swing and with the nice weather finally here, I packed up my gear yesterday morning and after work I headed straight for my favourite crappie hole. This was my first open water trip of the season and I couldnt wait to hit the water.

It is only a 20 minuite drive from my work to this fishing hole. I was almost salivating as I rounded the last corner, but my excitment quickly tunred to dissapointment when i saw 10 trucks parked along the side of the road. I slowed down to look at the small patch of land that I usually have all to myselft and I saw more then 10 anglers standing shoulder to shoulder taking up all 20 feet of fishable shoreline. The overhead hydro wire was filled with even more tangled line, bobbers and worms as this group of men competed cast for cast to find the Crappies that were on the move.

Some guys would have stopped, got out and joined this mob, but i didnt stop my car, I simply drove on by. I knew another small hole just minutes down the road and I was praying this one was a little quieter.

When I got to hole #2 I had it all to myself. Not a sole was in siight. This hole is not the hot spot that the previous location was known to be, but if you work at it, there are fish to be had. I put in just over an hour of fishing, It was nice and peacefull, there was no bucket load of crappie to take home and no monster to mount on my wall, because today I opted for peace and quiet over quality and quanity

Frog Review V3: hard Bodies

Today, I will wrap up my Frog review with the 3rd and final category.. Hard Bodied frogs... I bet a lot of you are asking "what is a hard bodied frog", and to be honest only one of the below lures is actually a frog, the rest of them are slop baits that are fished like hollow and soft body frogs.. check them out and let me know what you think..

1) Heddon Moss Boss

Pros: The moss boss is my favorite slop spoon or hard bodied frog as I will be calling it here. They are almost indestructible, they cast like a bullet and the hook-up ratio is very high. The slide with ease across the slop and the pads, and can be burned over open water. It you stop reeling they will slowly fall with a great flutter action.

Cons: Well they do at times land hook down and can cause a mess when you try to pull it back through the slop upside down. With no weedguard they can catch on vegetation, and as you get comfortable fishing them the less issues you will have

2) Northland Jaw-Breaker

Pros: The Jaw-breaker spoon has a slender profile, but with the all metal body weighs in heavier then the Moss Boss. It casts like a dream and sits well on the slop. This spoon has a "Y" shaped weed guard to help keep the hook clean, it is better then no weedguard, but like the moss boss it you land hook down you are out of luck. Great colors and great tails the jaw breaker moved well on the slop and in the water. The thinner body helps the fish eat it and can increase hook-ups

Cons: Not really a con, but i prefer the movement of the moss boss in the water, i find it falls better in open water and it easier to keep up when you slow or stop your retrieve.

3) Dahlberg Diver Frog

Ok, I'm going to preface this by saying I'm not really to sure about this frog. This is new to the market and I have yet to have it on the water. I guess this frog could be considered a soft body since it has soft plastic legs, but it also has a solid plastic body with a diving lip on the top of the frog. I can see some cons right off the bat, the legs are super thin and flimsy, they will get chewed up fast. You are provided with a spare pair and I'm pretty sure you will need them. I am interested in seeing this frog move in the water, the bill is a cool idea and the legs are reported to kick and curl back up.. Time will tell, but i have a feeling this frog may end up in the junk bin with the Banjo minnow

4) Live Target - Frog (walking)

This is another new introduction into the frog market, and this one comes with some serious hype. I bought in, and bought a pair to test drive this summer. The walker frog is well constructed in typical live target fashion. It has a great shape and some great color options. The sizes seem to be the perfect fit, the smaller sized frog is not to small, and the larger one is big enough without being jumbo. It is one frog I can wait to throw this season