True story - when a bit of “Pro” bramble saved the day

Okay, so it’s a slight exaggeration to say that a little bit of bramble saved the day because John and I always carry a bunch of different lures when we are doing our co-guiding thing over in Kerry - plus our clients have more often than not got their own lures as well - but you know when you are doing some fishing that is somewhat different to how you might fish back home and a certain lure is catching you fish and you naturally want to keep fishing with it? This was the situation I faced over in Kerry last November with a thoroughly nice lad who happens to be called Henry as well……………

We took our lads for some pollack fishing and I am pretty sure Henry hadn’t done this sort of shore fishing before, but he took to it well and in no time at all he was hooked up to a few crash-diving pollack. One of my things with pollack fishing is that if it’s fishing but then goes quiet I like to change lure colours because I personally think that the fish can switch off a colour they have been seeing again and again. A colour change often produces fish again, so I gave Henry a 12.5cm/28g Savage Gear Savage Minnow Weedless in the blue colour, and in no time at all he was into pollack again. So what does this specific colour and type of lure do for Henry? It gives him added confidence.

From day one of working on the new Savage Minnow and revamped Sandeel V2 lures with Savage Gear I was pushing hard to have a secondary lure body to jig head connection system that didn’t revolve around glue. For sure you can still very effectively superglue the body to the back of the jig head, but I’ve had enough of sticking my fingers together when the fish are on and I get overexcited, plus I then have to remember to keep a little bottle of superglue in my fishing rucksack which then dries up if I don’t use it regularly. Glue is still a great way to connect body to head, but from the off we wanted to offer a second option.

I keep all my samples here because it interests me to look back at how we got to where we end up getting to when a product hits the market, plus we often end up playing with a few different things which might or might not prove useful further down the line. So we played around with a few different ways of attaching the bodies of the Savage Minnow and Sandeel V2 lures to their respective jig heads and it was Mads who first put the idea to me of literally using a cocktail stick to do it. I will admit to a degree of scepticism until I got the samples and properly put them through their paces, and because something like this needs a snappy marketing name, Savage Gear decided on calling this the “Pro Peg System”. It’s so simple but it works so well, I never carry or indeed use superglue anymore when I am fishing with these lures, I haven’t had to cut my forefinger away from my thumb for ages now, and of course it does kinda make things easier if you carry a cocktail stick or two in your lure box for those times when a fish might rip the lure body off the jig head but it’s still hanging on and can be used again. We do supply a couple of cocktail sticks in the lure packets (sorry, Pro Pegs!), but guess what? Henry had forgotten to put any in his lure box, and I mean Henry writing this blog post - me.

So I’ve got a lad who has been catching pollack on the blue colour Savage Minnow Weedless but I haven’t got anymore of that particular colour in my lure box, we are about to move to another pollack mark for a different state of tide, and Henry (not me) quite naturally would like to keep fishing with the same lure. The problem is that his last pollack has ripped the body away from the jig head and his guide has to somewhat sheepishly admit that he can’t actually make the lure fishable again because he hasn’t got a bit of cocktail stick with him and he doesn’t carry superglue anymore. Fancy a different colour Henry? Not really Henry!

But all is not lost. We make the trek to the next pollack mark and I come up with an idea which when I suggested it to Henry (not me!) I don’t think he really thought much of it. When in Rome though. I disappeared along a hedgerow, grabbed my pliers, and I cut a small section of a narrow bramble which I then used instead of a cocktail stick/Pro Peg to secure the (blue) Savage Minnow Weedless lure body to the jig head. From memory I think Henry then went on to land three or four more good pollack from this second location and on this Pro Bramble secured Savage Minnow lure, including the fish below which I shot on my iPhone. I may be utterly useless at DIY, but I’ll take that logical thinking as a bit of a win! You all have a good weekend………….

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