Wally13 wrote on Jan 26^th, 2015 at 2:11am:


Mike have you tried using the slo death hooks with a crawler harness?

Here is what worked well for me last year on Erie.......a "smile blade" (small and light) in conjunction with a slo death hook. I would be curious to see how such a set up would work in canoe country.

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I would be inclined to forego a gulp and instead use a 6" culprit plastic worm (maybe even cut an inch off)......that sounds about right.

I used the Macks behind the in-line weight mentioned earlier on a 4' lead........Macks has fairly light leaders for a commercially made crawler harness.

What might be interesting is to thread an egg sinker on, then the action disc, a few beads, a smile blade and a 2/0 slo death hook with a 6" culprit.

........of course a ball bearing swivel (preferably 2) some 4' up the line will save you a huge nightmare in the way of a twisted spool of line

MT..read a review of the Action Disc. I will have to try for smallies, walleyes and lakers.

Only one real negative came up and that was that only thinner mono's will pass through the small hole. Fireline and braids have "fuzzed ends" and would not work. They suggested using a sewing needle pin to core it out to accommodate these lines.

Also, I am a big fan of "slow death" hooks. Mustad #2, Trokar and Matzuo "Death Roll" hooks. I have primarily used them with live nightcrawlers for Ontario boat trips. I have not used Slow Death Hooks that often in Quetico with Gulp worms or similar but my experience with them  last summer on Saganagons was just "so so" vs. spinner harnesses and jigs.

Pricey? Indeed but notice the ball bearing swivel........these are the finesse fishermens dream set up. Cabelas also has a comparable type weight but slightly cruder and without the ball bearing.......probably better for heavier line.

Those inline weights are cool.  I currently use the Off Shore Tackle weights, which I use mostly inline.  But the Bass Pro ones come in pretty colours and look more like a real fish.  Maybe a few of the 2 oz.  I would like to give those Slow Death hooks a go.

Hook size? I dunno, much depends on what your trying to do. Light line means small hooks......heavier line, bigger weights and faster trolling means bigger hooks.

For canoe fishing with a plastic worm I'm picturing something along the lines of a 1/0 or 2/0 and fishing with a fat grub or twister grub I'm thinking 2/0 or 3/0.

The slo death hook with a live crawler was tops last year on Erie with small spoons running a close second.

As per bottom bouncers they certainly have their place but its not usually my first option even with crawler harnesses. I am a big fan of these
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They come in a variety of weights and are quite effective. I am a huge proponent of imitating "one thing chasing something else". I believe that the bigger predators (be they fish or denizens of the forest) take advantage of prey that is preoccupied with making their own living. There might even be some dislike of smaller inferior critters having a good time on mr bigs turf. Such thinking is quite common and accepted in salt water circles.

That is a very interesting hook.  The action that that offset bend provides is remarkable.  It looks like it would be the cat's ass for deep trolling for Walleye for sure but just about anything.  I might have to pick up a few of those and try them out.
MT, I imagine using these hooks with a 1½ to 2 oz.  bottom bouncer and maybe a 3 to 4 foot leader.  Looking around it appears that something like a Gulp 3" fry would work well with this hook.  What size hook would you recommend?

Ok.....I will answer my own question, easy enough. The hook is called slo death. I would be interested to see it behind an action disc and experiment with various lengths.
Check it out.....
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Good thinking Jax......

I pulled a large dipsy behind the big Expedition boat with braid and a rod holder........after about 2 hours it was kickin my tail but I did put a flutter spoon down in 90 ft. What really got my attention though was when I snagged bottom the leverage provided from the rod was strong enough to capsize the unwary.......fortunately I had my drag set correctly but it was still an eye opener especially with a fairly large boat (18').

But back to the disc in front of a jet diver.......I am visualizing a fairly continuous pace trolling and therefore maybe losing some of the erratic action which makes these things look so good? I dunno........maybe quick starts and stops might provoke a strike.

You know what might be cool is to couple the jet diver with the action disc and a typical walleye snelled spinner type set up using on of those offset hooks and a plastic bait. Now that would have action on top of action.

(What's the name of those offset walleye hooks they are using now.......they have that twirling rolling motion? ) I used them on Lake Erie last spring to good effect.

ha!!! i was looking at these things a while back. the idea seems like its there. erratic is the key!

i was thinking that if you put these things on behind a jet diver or something of the like you could have a nice presentation.

anything behind a jet diver really seems like a neat idea. a flutter spoon, a scatter rap, a rattle trap, a big white tube jig behind an action disc

Don't feel bad, I could fill several tackle boxes with lures I have bought, used once, and thereafter rarely.  I am convinced that most fishing lures are designed to catch us anglers rather than fish.  Best, Sarge.