For those who like things visual, fishing a top water lure of any type can produce action that is as exciting as it gets!
Top water lures work on a multitude of fish, both salt and freshwater. There are optimal conditions, like calm, relatively clear water but you would be surprised how often they can be effective. Brent Kruger, the “Fishin’ Magician” has guided for years on Lake of the Woods, and loves to introduce young people to the sport of fishing. Kruger says top water is one of the best ways to get young anglers to buy into the sport. Number one, he says, they almost never get snagged, plus it is an action lure. By this he means they can cast out the bait and reel it back in and wait for something to happen! With that in mind he found one top water lure that seemed to work better than any other one he ever fished.
It all happened back a number of years ago when he was guiding a guest from Massachusetts. Harvey Musselman had a lure called the Skid Stik. The design had been handed down from his dad Larry and he and Steve, an old high school buddy decided to reinvent this bait using modern technology.
Steve’s experience was in product development, prototype machining, AutoCad, and plastic injection molding. Steve had provided project management for some of the largest plastic molding companies in Southern California during the 1980’s and 90’s. With Steve’s help the design jumped off the drawing board and into the water. Numerous prototypes were built, optimized and tested. Even with rudimentary painting and a handmade look Chris and Steve experienced exceptional catches with the lures using light tackle and a kayak. Steve became a believer. They noticed that Stripers and Blues would literally blow up the lure in the water, producing strikes seemingly much more aggressive than strikes produced from other top-water lures.
Their positive fishing results with the prototype lures convinced Chris and Steve to scale up the operation to offer the fishing public highly effective fishing lures at reasonable prices for both freshwater and saltwater fishing. That’s where the Fishin’ Magican came in. He worked with Steve and Harvey on making the lure even more effective, changing the weighting a bit and getting better hooks added.
The new Skid Stik is manufactured using state of the art plastic resins and molding processes with strict quality control including, tank testing, leak testing and pulling force testing. Each lure is consistently and optimally weighted with steel balls for precision balancing, maximum castability and top water performance. The weights also serve as a fish attracting rattle. Realistic paint schemes, lifelike eyes, and quality hook hardware make the Skid Stik a bargain in these times of lure prices that draw a tear from one’s eye when that (pricey) lure is lost to that fish, rock, or tree.
You can check out the different baits at www.fishinmagicianlures.com
