It wasn’t a pretty sight.
I stripped off my clothes and jumped in the mid-May water of a trout lake.
I had no other choice but to do it. I screamed as soon as I hit the water. It was cold. Swear out loud cold.
I swam across a small section of a bay about 30-metres off-shore. I reached a pile of sunken timber.
For what seemed like an hour, but what was really about a minute, I fumbled around the slimy logs until I found the reason I was in the lake - a fishing lure.
I grabbed the shinny object with my hand and smiled. In fact, I even laughed.
I made my way back to shore and my canoe and dry clothes. I lay in the bottom of the canoe for a minute to dry off and let the sun warm me up. I shivered hard.
I dropped the object beside me and got dressed.
It might seem silly to do this. It’s was probably dumb as hell.
The one thing I do know is you never, ever leave an EGB spoon behind.
No matter how bad it might be stuck.
This is the reason I know the EGB blinkers are my No. 1 lure in my tackle box, especially for trout in the spring. It is my go-to lure and it has rewarded me.
When an EGB spoon gets snagged, it is an all-out mission to retrieve at all costs before abandoning it.
Yes, they cost a hefty price. Most run between $8 to $10 for size 2 and 3 spoons. They are one lure definitely worth spending money on and also spending energy on to un-snag.
I’ve climbed 30-feet up trees to get an EGB blinker. I’ve snagged a blinker in late April ice-out and come back a month later to swim down and get it. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do to get my blinker back from a bush or rock.
And it isn’t just me. Any of my fishing buddies who also use them will go to enormous lengths to make sure the spoon ends up back in the tackle box. It’s always humorous in a canoe with a buddy when someone snags an EGB spoon because both people go super nuts to get the lure back.
On a recent canoe trip to a few small trout lakes, my friend Ryan and I hit a few snags and they were nasty.
The conditions were windy with big gusts. We were fishing a lake with plenty of old birch and pine trees fallen over in the water or hanging over at various heights.
One snagged caused us both to get out of the canoe and wrestle down a huge branch to put the lure back in our possession. It was a scene.
I’ve used all kinds of lures and techniques for ice-out trout, but the EGB blinkers have always worked for me and my fishing/canoe partners. They have accounted for plenty of speckled trout.
They are easy to use. Cast and retrieve at a steady pace or troll at a steady pace. I found there is no need to tip one of these presentations (with a worm or minnow) because it affects its movement.
The EGB spoons are also highly effective on bass and pike and lake trout and throughout both the open water and hard water seasons.
Give them a try, but just be prepared to go bonkers to save your blinker if you ever get it snagged in a bad spot.
Bonkers for blinkers