While fishing a Osprey overhead
was schooling us, catching many more fish than we could muster
Retrieve:
The Dink sinks at a slow to moderate rate and can be retrieved both slowly and
at a fast pace. The tail on this lure makes use of Osprey’s double boot design
but the tail on the Dink wobbles side to side in a much more understated quick
fashion and if you’re expecting the same kick found on the Talon or many of the
other longer tailed swimbaits this simply isn’t the case with this bait. Like
many of Osprey’s previous baits though the lure has the profile of a trout it is
designed to imitate a wide range of forage. After tossing five different baits
we noted that all five ran perfectly true right out of the package.
A look at the open mouth design
During the afternoon at our
tests at Lake Sonoma we noticed a large bird circling overhead, and when we got
closer we could see that it was indeed an actual osprey. While fishing in the
vicinity we witnessed the osprey bring back two unidentifiable fish back to her
nest perched at the top of one of the lake’s many submerged redwoods. Needless
to say the osprey was having more success and proving to be a much more skilled
angler than we were.
The underbelly and protruding fins
By the end of the day we got
a number of bass on the Dink but nothing over 3lbs, with the average being even
smaller. We were surprised by the number of smaller bass that took the lure,
many of which were no more than twice the lure’s size. The Dink is armed with
one hook and is weighted in the center so the lure swims evenly, a second
stinger can be added on the bottom but we didn’t find it necessary as it
increased hang ups on structure and because the Dink is such a short swimbait we
really had little problems with short strikes or fish peeling off the hook. Each
and every time I looked at the multiple colors and glanced at the Chartreuse
Shad I kept thinking of how fun it would be presenting the lure to stripers, as
it closely matched many of my favorite striper ripbaits both in pattern and
length. I finally got the chance a few weeks later on a trip to the Delta.
The Dink uses a double boot tail
design
Cal and I were fishing for
bass all day and when fishing in the cuts was slow decided to head out to the
deep water channel to see if the striper trollers were having any luck. When we
cruised by there were plenty of boats working the deep channel and they reported
some success trolling and dunking bait, and there were multiple reports of
seeing schoolies breaking the surface. It was time to put the Dink chartreuse
shad to the test.
Many patterns are available, the
Shad is a good multi-purpose pattern
