Pike From Russia

Here's a photo of my friend Vitalii with a very nice pike he caught recently in his homeland of Russia.

This pike was a little over 45" and weighed almost 26-1/2 pounds. Vitalii took this fish on a 9" shad body.

Thanks Vitalii for sharing the photo of this great pike.

Bondy Fish

Here's some photos that were sent to me by my friend Nick.

These photos are of two nice muskies he caught this past weekend.

The fish measured 38" and 42". 

Nick caught these on an original Bondy baits that I had custom painted for him in the threadfin shad color.

Here's a photo of the bait that Nick used to get these two fish.

It is the shad flavored one in the foreground of this photo.

Congrat's Nick on two nice fish and thanks for sharing the photos with us.

Looking forward to more photos from you this fall.

Shad Bodies...9"ers and a few 6"ers

Something Different

I had a fellow send me these three Mr. Wiggleys for painting. 

 Being that these are pretty new to the market, it is the first time I've had the opportunity to paint this particular bait......haven't gotten around to painting the ones I have ...yet.

These Wiggleys started life as a perch, a white (they call it white but it is actually silver flake) and a herring.

The perch one ended up as the yellow belly catfish.

The white one was converted to what I call glitter shad.

The herring is now orange tiger.

These turned out pretty decent I think ...... just may have to do a little painting on my Wiggleys.

Most Recent Bondy's

Here's another round of Bondy's in both the original and the wobbler models in all the popular colors

These are soon to be listed on MTO's website.

Click Here To Visit Musky Tackle Online's Home Page

Click Here For MTO's Custom Original Bondy Page

Click Here For MTO's Custom Bondy Wobbler Page

If your one of those folks whose not been able to get some of these custom Bondy's before they sell out,  then keep checking their website.

These should be listed on there in a few days.

Also

These are soon to have another cool custom option available.

 This option will allow you to further customize these baits to better fit your water conditions.

That's all I can say about this new option you'll just have to check MTO's page for more details.

Might be a little while before this new option available.

Here's a few photos of this newest batch of Bondy's

Dr. Carp

Walleye

Perch

Perch

Silver Shad

Sucker

Blue Cisco

Firetiger

Glitter Shad

Shad Bodies

I hadn't posted anything for a while because I've been out of town but today I was back in the paint room.

The above shads are the result.

Twin Spin Experiments

I have been playing around with several different designs of twin spins.

Testing different configurations of blade sizes, type and connections.

The head sizes are 1-1/2 ounce, 2 ounces & 2-1/2 ounces.

6/0 Mustad hooks, 7/0 trailer hook, .062 main wire & .051 blade arms.

After limited testing I was surprised to find that the double/double 7's didn't really pull as hard as I figured. Even with the four blades there wasn't much difference between it and the one with just 2 #7 blades.

The free swinging arms worked really well though, they allowed blades to spin as the bait sank.

The single blades that were attached with swivels also worked well on the fall. Another cool feature is that they could also be tuned so that the blades would strike each other and make the bait sorta chatter.

My biggest surprise was the willow blades. These were the loudest of all the designs. When pulled next to the boat you could hear a loud raspy sound of the clevis, much louder than the others.

After about 10 minutes of casting the hair skirted willow I had a small 30" class fish strike it.

One thing I did notice is that the blade arms make for a very efficient weed guard for the hooks. I bumped and banged these through several lay down trees and brush piles without hanging them.

Time will tell if these designs are worth keeping in the arsenal or if they'll end up hanging on the shop wall as part of the decor.

Either way it nice to make and test something a little different for a change.   

Left is double-double 7's on free swinging arms.  Right is fluted 8's on swivels

Hammered willow blades, fixed shaft, clevis mounted.

 

#7 Colorado on left -  #8 Colorado on right ... both on swivels

Random Mix - Sizes - Styles & Colors

12" Curl Tail Shad

15" Shad

9" Shad

6" Shad