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Losing Bait Prematurely? Button them Up with Bait Buttons!
| Date: |
10/16/11 |
| Tackle type: |
Lures |
| Manufacturer: |
Bait Buttons |
| Reviewer: |
Cal |
Total Score: 7.58 -
GOOD
Introduction:
Here in Northern California, we've had maybe two weeks of Summer weather and that was in Late September. The cooler days of Fall have since descended upon us and that means water temps will begin to drop and the bite will actually heat up. When Fall nears an end, river fishing prospects pick up with the return of Salmon and Steelhead, and at places like Clear Lake, the panfish bite turns on. Last Spring, we came across a product targeted at these and other fisheries where the matter of keeping your delicate or live bait presentations on your hook are an issue. What we've come to find out is you can also use this product in bass fishing to keep some of your precious plastic baits from falling off prematurely. Introducing Bait Buttons, an innovative little product designed to keep your bait buttoned to your hook while in the water.
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Bait Buttons MSRP |
|
Refill Pack |
$4.99 |
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Pre-Loaded Dispenser |
$8.49 |
Impressions: Some of the best inventions are also the most simple. Such is the case with Bait Buttons, a set of small rubber circles roughly an eighth inch in diameter. Their purpose is to help keep your bait buttoned to the hook by creating a barrier between the hook's barb and your bait. Your bait can slide around along the shank of the hook, but when pressed up against the Bait Button device, the Bait Button presses up against the
hook's barb and prevents your roe, minnow, nightcrawler, or other bait from falling off the hook.
Introducing the Bait Buttons bait keeper.
Field Tests:
On about late Fall, early Winter, as water temps really drop at Clear Lake, California, the minnow bite picks up. Some fisherman are targeting bass with the minnows, some the black and white crappie, some simply toss their rigs out into the depths just to see what they will catch.
This is the Bait Buttons dispenser.
We took a break during one of our field testing trips to Clear Lake and stopped by Limit Out Bait & Tackle over at Clear Lake Oaks to load up on some bait and give these Bait Buttons a run for their money. Bob Higgins was there to greet us and set us up with a couple dozen minnows.
See the notch at the top?
WTF, Bait Fishing? : It had been quite some time since any of us had thrown live bait in a freshwater lake so we
weren't quite sure what to expect. What we did do was break out some of our What the Finesse rod candidates figuring light line was probably the best way to go.
Point it downward, shake it about, to ready a Bait Button.
Armed with our two rod stamps on our fishing licenses, we each rigged one rod up with a bobber, and another as a drop shot rig. We were planning to alternate which rig we'd fish with or without the bait buttons and headed out to drop anchor near the end of a dock where we had good success with short strikes earlier in the day.
The buttons themselves are no more than an eighth inch in diameter.
Our strategy was to nose hook the minnows, toss them out, and see what we'd
get, if anything. Maybe those short strikes were crappie, maybe they were bluegill, and maybe they were finicky bass. We hoped to find out before long.
Baited up and almost ready to go...
We started with the non-buttoned rigs and experienced something very interesting. After tossing the minnows out on our drop shot rigs, letting them sink to the bottom, we took in the slack in our lines and waited. Soon, we could feel the minnows at the ends of our line beginning to dance around. Shortly after that, our line would tense up, but as we arched our rods to set the hook, we'd either get nothing or our sinkers would snag! We thought, maybe the minnows were being pulled off by crayfish?
Poke the hook right through the Bait Button in its dispenser ...
We went through this with about four or five minnows, and finally
decided maybe the minnows were shaking off. Perfect, we had a solution, we slid on our bait buttons, and tried again. This time, our minnows would shake around, then stop, shake around, then our line would go tight, and this time, when we swung, we hooked up! Turns out they were bass afterall.
... pull it out and you're ready go fish!
Next Section: So just how effective are the
Buttons? |
