Have you ever gone to your local tackle shop looking for that old faithful lure that works almost every time you go fishing? Well I was in my local tackle store recently and went looking for some of my go to lures, what I refer to here is the Blue Fox Vibrax Minnow Spinner. When I buy tackle I usually by five or six of my favorite lures, so if I lose one or two on the trip; I still have four left to use on my trip. I’ve never seen a tackle shop on the side of the river where you can pull over and buy more tackle, even though this would be a very good idea. Anyhow I head down the isle to buy my product and see that they are all sold out. I then proceed to the front counter for some information assistance and the salesman informs me that Blue Fox has discontinued this product as “world wide sales are low”. At this time I am about to lose control and head straight down to wherever and get some answers. It baffles me to no end why a tackle manufacturer would discontinue a product that has a proven track record.

These lures do not only produce a large quantity of Trout and many more species, it produces quality Trout; and by quality I mean huge trophy fish. There were many days here on the Bow River where I would haul in ten to fifteen trout over twenty inches in length. My biggest fish this year was a twenty-eight inch monster Brown hooked on the minnow spinner. So I always wonder what they can come up with next that’s going to outperform this deadly fishing lure. I guess we will have to wait and see.

I love Tackle Company’s like Panther Martin for example; they have a proven winner in there spinner bait’s and have not changed them in countless years. The only thing that does change periodically is the color patterns, the basic concept remains unchanged. It gets very frustrating as a fisherman when manufactures go away from something that gets results year after year.

Look at Mepps for example, they also stay with what has sold and achieved results year after year. I would like to write to Blue Fox and let them know how I feel about this very subject, but I have yet to find a mailing address or web site address to do so. If anyone out there knows about their mailing address, please with a capital P, leave a reply on this post and I will contact Blue fox and see if I can get some answers.

It’s that time of year again here when us fishermen must put away our boats and store most of our fishing gear for the winter. I almost want to cry as I know I will not get to float again until May or early June. That’s not to say that you cannot go down to the shore and do some fishing there, some times this is a good way to catch the big trout that live in the Bow in the winter months. I find that as a result of the lack of fishing pressure in the winter, when you go down on a warm day and fish, one seems to do very well on the Bow River.

The water is obviously much colder during this time of year which makes the fish more sluggish, but that does not mean you cannot catch large Brown or Rainbow trout here on the Bow. Some of my biggest fish I’ve ever caught have come at this time of the year, so if you’re willing to bundle up and brave the colder weather you can do very well here on the Bow River.

The river is usually occupied with Rainbow trout until late November to early December, and then the bigger Brown’s start to make their way back down from their spawning trip upstream. Then in January onward, one can catch both the large Rainbow and big Brown’s that occupy this wonderful trout stream. Some of my friends call me “the extreme fisherman” because I fish in all kinds of weather and at all times of the year.

I would call my good friend Tom and ask him to go fishing and he would laugh his head off and say, “Are you crazy, it’s zero degrees outside”. I’m not crazy, I just love fishing very much and I’m very passionate about this wonderful sport. I will not go out when the weather is too cold, but if there is a warm day in the winter months, it’s the first thing I want to go and do. I’ll keep you posted as to what’s going on in the winter months here on the Bow River.