The must have lure
As a fishing guide, I am often asked what my "go-to" or favorite lure is. Without a doubt, me being a troller style fisherman, the Salmo Hornet is by far the most valuable lure in my tackle box. The humpbacked crankbait is built with precision and quality to assure wicked hook sets.
A wide variety of sizes and depths of awesome colors, you are certain to find a great set up and put the hammer down on fish. My favorite size Hornet to use is the #3 and #4.
The number 3 Hornets have a single treble hook in the rear of the bait and the 4's have double trebles like most traditional crank baits.
What I love about the smaller Hornets is when you can long line them out the back of the boat on 7' medium light spinning gear, and troll at 2mph or less you will find yourself catching multiple species of fish.
Most guide trips, when my clients don't have expectations of certain species, I get the Hornets out and go have fun. Each fish is a surprise.
This week, I am currently in Ontario Canada on a Walleye trip with some Veterans. We have been fishing a lake that is uncharted and we have little to no electronics. Simple resort boats will have to do.
At first, I was in a bit of a panic, but after digging through the tackle box I found my Salmo's and quickly got to work. Trolling is great because you can cover ground. I started in shallow and trolled around, moving around deeper and deeper until I found success, 8-10 fow.
That was my target depth once I started finding fish. Pulling the Hornets at 2.4 mph with 75' of line out the back of the boat was the moneymaker. A pattern was figured out and the fish were hitting the livewell. Again, new lake with no Intel I still managed to find fish with this lure, and I caught multiple species as well. Pike, Walleye Small mouth bass and perch were all caught on the same crankbait.
Each size crankbait will dive to different depths. Depending online diameter, and how much line to let out. I have my #4's figured out to run 6 feet deep which was perfect for what I was doing. If I needed them to run a little deeper, I would size up or add a small split shot in front of the crank to get it to dive deeper if needed.
A productive, powerful little lure that is always at the top of my list.
