For those of you that have been following my blog or Tournament Angler Journal series over the years, you probably get the idea that I'm pretty skeptical about a lot of new products that hit the market. I wasn't always this way, in fact I used to be the first one in line to buy the latest and greatest invention. After being let down more times than not I eventually became a lot more leery of gimmicky type products that were introduced.
Scent's and attractants are by no means a new invention. I remember as a kid hearing my granddad's talk about spraying WD40 on their bait or even spitting tobacco juice on a wad of night crawlers before they made a cast. I've used them off and on over the years especially in cold water situations, around the spawn or anytime the bite can be really light or the fish just may not want to commit 100% to my offering. As I gained more experience, the better I became at detecting light strikes and eventually totally got away from using any sort of attractant or scent and really didn't notice any adverse effects from doing so.
Jeremy started Big E Attractants in the summer of 2010 and gave me a bottle of his new Strike Force craw scent that he was about to put on the market. He told me that I should really take the time to give it a try. I explained to him my feelings on scent and that I wasn't a big believer but I assured him I would give it a try and let him know what I thought.
I threw it in my boat and on my next trip I shot a squirt or two on my jig that morning. The first thing I learned on my initial field test of Strike Force was that it definitely wasn't lacking in the smell department. It didn't smell terrible if you like the smell of fish and garlic but one squirt is all it took to let me know it was doing its job.
The next thing I noticed about Strike Force was that at the end of the day I could still smell it on my jig. Most other scents I've ever used would wash off after a few casts and I would have to add another coat, so that was definitely a check in the win column for Strike Force.
At the end of the day I had caught plenty of fish on my scented jig, but I still wasn't sold that it would out produce an unscented jig. After all, it was Kentucky Lake in June so you're going to catch plenty of fish on your jig no matter what it smells like.
I put the bottle in the cup holder of my boat and it rode around there the rest of the summer and I really never gave it a second thought. As time went by I did think to myself about how well the bottle had held up. I've had problems with other scents busting, leaking or the nozzle breaks on the aerosol can, but that little bottle of Strike Force had been kicked, bounced, stepped on, smashed, basically everything except what it was intended for and hadn't leaked a drop. I later found out that was because it has a small rubber washer between the cap and the bottle that keeps it completely leak proof which was another nice little feature, if of course you were a believer in scent's, which I still wasn't.
I talked to Jeremy later that summer and he asked me what I thought about his new recipe and I told him how he definitely had the smell part down, I was impressed with how well it stayed on the bait and how durable the bottle was but I still wasn't sold on it making a difference in catching fish. He assured me that it worked and that I just needed to keep using it, which of course I didn't.
Later that Fall I rolled into Guntersville, AL for the Bassmaster Weekend Series Championship. I had a pretty strong swim jig pattern going and after the third day I was in 3rd place, 5lbs out of the lead. I knew I needed a big bag the final day to have a shot at 1st place, the $200,000 check and the Bassmaster Classic berth that came along with it. My swim jig pattern was dying and my three biggest fish of the week had come off of a river ledge on a football jig so I decided to camp out on that ledge for eight hours the last day.
It was early November and a major cold front had rolled through Guntersville the night before. I knew from past experience that Guntersville bass were very finicky during the first few major fronts of the Fall so I wasn't sure what to expect when we launched that morning. I headed straight to my ledge and the first fifteen minutes of the day were fifteen minutes of my life I would love to forget. I had seven bites on my jig and never hooked a single fish. I couldn't help but see that 200 grand slipping right through my fingers. I happened to look down and there sit my little bottle of Strike Force in the cup holder of my boat all banged up from a season of bouncing around on KY Lake. I couldn't think of a better time to see what that stuff was all about than right then and there. What I'm about to say may sound like a sales pitch but I assure you it is absolutely, 100% the truth of what went down that cold November morning. I shot a squirt of Strike Force on my jig and caught eight keepers on my next eight casts! I couldn't believe that was all it took! I never missed another fish the rest of the day off of that ledge with my Strike Force soaked jig and though I weighed in the heaviest limit of the day, when the scales closed I came up 2lbs shy of what would've been a life changing win and finished in 2nd place.
That seems like forever ago now and while it has gotten easier with time, to this day I still think back on that week quite often and wonder what might have been if I would've been using Strike Force the entire day, or the entire tournament or the entire year for that matter.
I'll never have anyway of proving that Strike Force was the difference maker that day, but it definitely made a believer out of me and you will never see me make a cast in a tournament without it.
A 3oz. bottle will last you a season and can be purchased for $7.99 from TackleExperts.com. Whether you're a skeptic like I was or a die-hard believer in scent's and attractants, I highly suggest you give Strike Force a try, I wish I would've just a little bit sooner!
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| PHOTO SUBMITTED TO ABA MAGAZINE ON THE KEYS TO MY SUCCESS IN 2010 BWS CHAMPIONSHIP |
