MAKING WAVES /// NEWShttp://www.southportboats.comThe Ride Makes All the Difference.
Experience the Ride of Your Life.PHOTOS: COURTESY PANTHER MARTINTHE
BIG FIN
Have you ever wanted
to design a fishing
lure? As a child, I often
carved small plugs,
fished with homemade
Creepy Crawlers,
and even fashioned
artificials out of
bubble-gum shapes
and allowed them to
harden around a hook.
Still, I ached to one
day have a lure sold as
part of a professional
lineup. Fifty some
years later, I finally
got the chance when
Panther Martin Pres-
ident Cecil Hoge told
me, “Let’s see what
you’ve got.”
My first idea was a
new take on spinner-
baits, but Hoge wasn’t
overly impressed. My
second pitch, however,
was a hit. I suggested
elongating the thin
body of an old Panther
Martin soft-plastic
minnow called the
Vivif to look more
like a sand eel than a
bunker. Next, I added a
large dorsal fin, hoping
the lure would still
retain some appeal
around full-bodied
baitfish. The fin was
positioned far enough
back to cover the barb
of the hook, making
the lure weedless.
Highlighting the fin to
act as a strike target
was the final touch. It
proved to be a reallygood idea because it
helped predator spe-
cies smack the lure at
dead center. With this
arrangement, most
fish get hooked in the
top or corner of the
mouth. Since we use
a strong, single hook,
releasing fish is easy.
We tested the lure
from spring through
late fall last year, and itworked well for striped
bass, false albacore,
snook, redfish and
seatrout. Released
this spring in 1- and
2-ounce sizes, in both
paddle-tail and eel-tail
versions, the new lures
are called Panther
Martin Big Fin 3 in 1
Weedless Swimbaits.
Each lure pack comes
with one body/jig headoutfitted for fishing,
plus two replacement
tails with built-in hook
channels for easy rig-
ging, and costs between
$8.99 and $10.99 at
panthermartin.com.
While there, check
out another new lure
designed by “Outdoor
Tom” Schlichter —
the Fluke Train.
—Tom Schlichter