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Bio Bait Report


Matt Johnson

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Metro-Eye,
Sorry Bio-Bait is not readily available in your area for retail, yet... the product is very new and just now doing "baby steps"! It being only about nine months old.
I just sent samples to Jim Tate at Scheels Sports Store (College Square Store in Iowa) for him to see. He may recommend it to other Scheels Stores.
It takes some time to get the "retail thing" process started. Richard Smith (owner of Bio-Bait) just got the right 6mm bags and header card done this week for presenting Bio-Bait to retail.
So... it is just starting.
I can not wait, being as I am the national distributor!
As for how you can get Bio-Bait... and fast, you have a couple of options.
You may order online from www.catch-n.com and I most times can ship next day by Priorty US Mail, or you may send a personal check made to:
Catch-N Tackle
1035 Robert Pl. SW
Owatonna, MN 55060.
I most often ship the next day after I get your check. Remember to add shipping and MN tax (no shipping on orders over $25.00).
Either way on internet or mail orders, I make sure that Fishing Minnesota gets a "commission" (this helps out our FM Family site ands lets Rick pay some bills here).
I am working hard on getting Bio-Bait into retail stores. Right now it is only at Blue Water Bait & Sports in Bemidji, MN .
If you will kindly relate our contact information to your local bait shop, I will gladly sell Bio-Bait to them.
I do support local bait shops, they are the backbone of the industry!
Shop owners should have their tackle distributors contact me at Catch-N Tackle or, shops may contact me directly.

I have a long history with Berkly. I have used Berkly Power Baits (grubs & worms) for years & years. I am quite sold on them, they work! I have used Crappie Nibbles with good success too. I have not tryed Gulp.
I am solid sold on Bio-Bait... which I see as never replacing real live bait. Bio-Bait is a great addition to dress with any plastics, however! It is also extremely handy!
Thanks for your support and interest.

Wow... like Dejavu man... didn't I just do this post?
smile.gif
Dave Hoggard
Catch-N Tackle
507.202.0312
Owatonna, MN

------------------
Fishermen are catch-n on
Catch'n Tackle
For Bass, Walleye, Pike, Lakers, Trout, Panfish
Used by FishingMN Family

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I've been trying out different approaches on crappies recently, especially since the cold front came through and the fish are less aggressive. I've been fishing slower and lighter, going as small as 1/200oz jigs to ice fish. I've found a pretty good system using size 10 Ratso's tipped with a single euro larva or Bio Bait Ice Bit. The fish are really finicky but there are a few takers after a few seconds of investigating. Very light bites.

I tried something new that surprised me and it kind of threw a curve ball at the crappies. I tied on a 1/64oz hi-glow flame Safe Jig by Catch-N Tackle tipped with a small piece of the red Larva flavor Bio Bait. This gave off a 100 percent red color appearence and I think that triggered the fish to strike. I'm not saying that I pounded the fish, but I certainly iced a few more then I did with the previous presentation. The Safe Jig has a red hook and eyes that are slightly buldged in appearence. These are basically a typical leadhead ball style jig in appearence but they are made with bismuth which is a lighter material and in 1/64oz they are pretty small for a ball style jig head. One thing I like about the Safe Jig is that you have a light jig but you have great control and sensitivity with these jigs, and they show up really well on your flasher. If you want to see a Safe Jig or read more about them check out this link:

Safe Jigs


Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
First Choice Guide Service

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy

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I live in central IL. I told a buddy of mine about the product and he ordered some today. We have a local fishing derby the 31st. Any chance he could see it before then? There is usually around 500 people fishing. It would be fun to win with an artifical. Kinda like fishing in a bass tournament.

He said he ordered five different flavors.

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Your friend's order went out yesterday by priorty US mail. That should take 2 days... I would think.
When I think about Bio-Bait, I think of it as using live bait. After all, it is made from live bait! I have caught many panfish on just Bio-Bait and a jig, but mostly I use Bio-Bait in tipping my plastics. It adds the little extra of real live bait scent that the plastics are missing.
Matt Johnson has caught on to Bio-Bait's ability to float a jig, making it netural bouyant... which I think is going to be huge!
That means a person can throw a 1/4 ounce jig with a bigger hook, that weighs like a 1/4 ounce in the water.... the concept is staggering as to allow you to use bigger jigs and thus bigger hooks still maintaining the lighter jig feel to the fish. Gotta love that!
Best of luck on the tournament! Hope your buddie sticks a pig!!!
Catch'n
Dave Hoggard

------------------
Fishermen are catch-n on
Catch'n Tackle
For Bass, Walleye, Pike, Lakers, Trout, Panfish
Used by FishingMN Family

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Don't want to ruin the bio bait love fest, but the crappies and sunfish didn't want anything to do with it this afternoon. I tried it on ratso's, demons, and plain hooks to no avail. Caught 7 crappies on glow devils with a minnow head and a small perch colored swimming lure. I was using the shiner meal worm.

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BBP,
Thanks for your honest report.
And, I know the feeling... I used Mealworm Shiner (full sized) at the I.C.E. Series event on Mille Lacs yesterday (for about an hour) and could not buy a fish on it. I did not have any live bait to try... and I did not have much time, as I was "working" the event.
I could see the fish (perch, I am sure) come up and look at my offerings (I tryed large and small baits) and had NO TAKERS!!!
I tryed a jig with only Bio-Bait and tipping it with plastics... and just the plastics alone.
Nothing worked on these "LOOKERS". I was sure wishing I had some minnows!
Some times, they just want the live bait and NOTHING else is gonna do.
I do not think Bio-Bait will ever replace live bait for me, but... there have been plenty of times for me when the fish were all over it.
I will likely FOREVER continue to stop at the bait shop and buy some live minnows... just in case!
My favorite is when the fish will sight feed on plastics! I love it when you can bang em on tails and not have to use live bait or "tip" the plastics at all. That makes for some FAST fishing.

Again, thanks much for the good report.
Catch'n
Dave Hoggard

------------------
Fishermen are catch-n on
Catch'n Tackle
For Bass, Walleye, Pike, Lakers, Trout, Panfish
Used by FishingMN Family

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I would like to try the leech bio bait. Has anyone had success with it in the winter? Ive cleaned a few eyes and a northern that had been eating leeches in December.

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I went out on a small crappie/bluegilll lake this afternoon and tried out the BioBait shiner and the Leach, and it was to say "a good time." The gills loved it, small as they were, we had a good time.
It will never replace live bait alone on all days (It will on a good amount though) but it will enhance it for sure.

I think Matt is on the right track with the bouyancy theory for it, if there is less resistance and better to equal taste what is not to love about it.

I would like some grey pieces made of smelt or cisco for pike or Lake Trout. A little piece of corn flavor tipped small hook for brookies? Oh the flavors are unlimited.

------------------
en kala
(I fish)

[This message has been edited by frozenminnow (edited 01-25-2004).]

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Yep, you have to still have live bait with you when you hit the ice. Live bait will often times outproduce all other presentations but you need to have your options just in case. I use live bait just about everytime I ice fish, but when live bait is slow or not working, I'll make the switch to Bio Bait and that has helped me ice a few more fish. Finding what the fish want is the key here, and whether it be a piece of plastic or a 5 inch minnow, you need to use what the fish are biting on, and sometimes that can take a lot of different presentations before you figure out what the fish want. I've had days where I've done well with Bio Bait right from the start catching fish consistently, and then there are those days where I can't get many fish to hit on Bio Bait, but thats fishing for you.

When I hit the ice I bring along some maggots, minnows, Bio Bait, and plastics. I've had times where one day you catch all the fish on maggots, and then the only thing that produces the next day is minnows, and this was on the same lake. The mood of the fish can change rather quick with the change in weather conditions, pressure, time of day, the list goes on and on.

Bio Bait has produced the best for me when I need that extra edge to catch some fish. When the fish are hesistant and finicky I like to put on a piece of Bio Bait so that the jig is almost weightless, causing it to fall really slow to the bottom making an easy target for a negative fish and it won't take much effort for a lazy, inactive fish to eat.

There has been a few days this winter where I just wanted to get out and get a couple hours of fishing in and all I took with was Bio Bait. I caught fish some days and other days the fishing was a little slow.

My top Bio Bait flavors this winter so far are the Ice Bits Larva, the Ice Bits Mealworm/Shiner, and the regular Mealworm/Shiner. If I had to take one flavor on the ice with me when targeting panfish it would be the Ice Bits Mealworm/Shiner. If I was targeting walleye/perch it would be the regular Mealworm/Shiner.

When tipping spoons I like to use the regular Bio Bait instead of the Ice Bits. The regular is bigger and you can use larger pieces to fine tune the action of the spoon. Using the Ice Bits is geared more towards spoons for panfish and perch in 1/16oz or 1/8oz spoons.

Here's a picture of a few presentations I like with Bio Bait that have worked for me this winter.

f9d0030a.jpg

I like to wrap a piece of Bio Bait around the treble hook like a donut and then one piece will cover the whole hook. This not only allows the Bio Bait to stay on longer but it adds great action and goes hand in hand with the spoon. This is shown in the picture above with the gold Angel Eye on the left. Bio Bait tipped on a light weight spoon like the Angel Eye really adds to the flutter and can cause impulse strikes from nuetral fish. The 1/16oz red glow Glow Devil in the middle is tipped with a few Bio Bait Ice Bits. The small red jig on the top right corner is a 1/64oz Catch-N Tackle Safe Jig in hi-glow flame with a piece of regular Bio Bait covering the whole hook and this causes it to free-fall through the water. The Custom Jigs n Spins Ratso on the lower right is tipped with a single Bio Bait Ice Bit, this has been a great presentation for crappies and gills this winter. The more Bio Bait you add the lighter your presentation will be. If I want to keep my weight and action but add scent and flavor I'll just tip my jig with one or two Ice Bits.

These are a just a few ways of tipping Bio Bait that are working for me right now.


Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
First Choice Guide Service

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy

[This message has been edited by Matt Johnson (edited 01-26-2004).]

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Hit the ice this morning in search of gills on a local lake. I fished off a hole up on a flat in about 23 feet of water. Mud bottom and the gills were close to the bottom, with a few that would show up a couple feet off the bottom on the LX-3. Size 10 Fatboy tipped with Bio-Bait Ice Bits Mealworm/Shiner. Spent about two hours out there and caught about 30 gills. Biggest was about 9 inches, the rest were 7-8. The gills were aggressive and competing for food. Made detecting strikes easy smile.gif With the cold front coming through this weekend fishing should be good tonight and for parts of tomorrow.

Here are a few pics from this morning, I was alone so bare with me on the camera work wink.gif...

47b4dc32b3127cceb82c54990c260000005610

47b4dc32b3127cceb82c54e90c560000004610

47b4dc32b3127cceb82c54a30c1c0000001610

Good Fishin,
Matt Johnson

------------------
First Choice Guide Service

[email protected]
Iceleaders
Catch-N Tackle and Bio Bait
MarCum
Stone Legacy

[This message has been edited by Matt Johnson (edited 02-13-2004).]

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