I have to start off by saying this isn’t spam in recommending a Canadian product and I should point out I don’t have a financial position in it other than I made a decision to stock them in my store in Langley. Now that’s clear, here’s some info on bait created in Port Alberni by Gord McCabe.
The bait, called Baitrix and seen on their site at www.baitrix.com is a soft plastic replica of anchovies and herring in various configurations (natural and luminous). To say they’re lifelike is an understatement. The point is you treat them as natural bait using a teaser head. Plus you can do some slicing and make a cut-plug of it.
I talked with Gord and he said he looked all over for a soft anchovy/herring bait but couldn’t find one so decided to make one. Hardest thing, he said, was getting the composition and reflectivity of the bait right; he wanted the roll to be right: too soft and it would be too tight, too hard and it would helicopter. That part, getting the composition right, took some time yet Gord got the bait into production a few years ago and tested it with the commercial people and, last year, started marketing it here on the west coast.
Gord’s an old fart, like me (we’re both past retirement age), and he’s been fishing for about most of his life. This project is now taking up a lot of time so if you call him at 1-800-960-0960 and you get the answering machine it’s because he’s either tuckered out or off at fishing show somewhere. I met Gord at the Abbotsford RV/Fishing bash earlier this year and, man, was there a crowd around his small booth.
My thought was to bung a package of them into my tackle box and use them if I ran out. However, my thinking is I’ll start with them. I have a lot of salted herring in the freezer and I will take a bucket of them out yet I think I’ll compare natural and artificial particularly in how both hold up after time trolling. I think the artificial will hold out longer. Gord pointed out to me that the catch to replacement of bait is much higher with the artificial.
Going to splash the boat in the next several days (got a nasty bug in February that slowed everything down) and I plan fishing east Galliano. Wish me luck.
MichaelR
The bait, called Baitrix and seen on their site at www.baitrix.com is a soft plastic replica of anchovies and herring in various configurations (natural and luminous). To say they’re lifelike is an understatement. The point is you treat them as natural bait using a teaser head. Plus you can do some slicing and make a cut-plug of it.
I talked with Gord and he said he looked all over for a soft anchovy/herring bait but couldn’t find one so decided to make one. Hardest thing, he said, was getting the composition and reflectivity of the bait right; he wanted the roll to be right: too soft and it would be too tight, too hard and it would helicopter. That part, getting the composition right, took some time yet Gord got the bait into production a few years ago and tested it with the commercial people and, last year, started marketing it here on the west coast.
Gord’s an old fart, like me (we’re both past retirement age), and he’s been fishing for about most of his life. This project is now taking up a lot of time so if you call him at 1-800-960-0960 and you get the answering machine it’s because he’s either tuckered out or off at fishing show somewhere. I met Gord at the Abbotsford RV/Fishing bash earlier this year and, man, was there a crowd around his small booth.
My thought was to bung a package of them into my tackle box and use them if I ran out. However, my thinking is I’ll start with them. I have a lot of salted herring in the freezer and I will take a bucket of them out yet I think I’ll compare natural and artificial particularly in how both hold up after time trolling. I think the artificial will hold out longer. Gord pointed out to me that the catch to replacement of bait is much higher with the artificial.
Going to splash the boat in the next several days (got a nasty bug in February that slowed everything down) and I plan fishing east Galliano. Wish me luck.
MichaelR
