Fishing: Lure designer rolls out a new line

Mention the name Renosky in Western New York fishing circles and anglers immediately think of a tackle box filled with minnow-type baits.

The "Renosky" has been a steady fish getter with trollers on Lake Erie and Lake Ontario for everything from walleyes and bass to trout and salmon.

Joe Renosky, a resident of Indiana, Pa., fishes area waters regularly to try out his lures. Capt. Dan Dietzen, who charters on Lake Ontario and out of Dunkirk Harbor through the warm- water season, connected with Renosky years ago and regularly field tests Joe's latest lines of lures.

"This guy does nothing but think fishing," Dietzen once said of Renosky's approach to lure designing and fish catching. Every time out, Renosky is not only testing and re-tuning his rigs, he's looking at the way lures work and don't work as they move through the water.

His standard line of minnow-type baits and the newer series of ChatterBaits, all hard-bodied baits, have been his patented mainstays for more than a decade in area waters.

"This time I have a whole new line of patents," Renosky said during a Triple S trade show on Grand Island on Jan. 28. "These teaser skirts will catch more fish than ever before," he said on a cold, wintry day. Two months later he has catch-and-release bass numbers far above previous early-spring seasons.

The Teaser Toad has a quick-change button shaft for switching the skirt. A straight-shafted spinner bait places the blade just above the jig head in a way that constantly moves the skirt strings and legs.

"On that model I've made a redesign so that the blade hits the jig head to give it more sound appeal," said Renosky, who continually upgrades his designs.

Most of Renosky's recent innovations appear on his Web site. The newer line of soft baits, including the Teaser Tab Skirts, will soon appear at renosky.com.xleg

Sebile style
Patrick Sebile has traveled the world in search of good fish catches. Sebile has fished in 56 countries, testing and studying lure actions and fish reactions.

His studies led to the development of a wide variety of hard-body lures. Models include mainly jointed and some single-body slim (minnow-type) and alphabet (rounded and oval) shapes that have been successful on everything from big panfish to saltwater giants.

The Sebile Magic Swimmer series has been a mainstay on trips to northern Canada, saltwater shorelines and Great Lakes trolling lanes.

This year, Sebile has added to its hard-bait line with a Magic Swimmer Soft series. Like Renosky, Sebile does not simply mold a soft-body (vinyl/rubber) version of his popular hard- plastic lure bodies.

The new soft Magic Swimmers — good in freshwater or saltwater — hook up with an internal hook setting for weed-less movement through dense cover. They also have a Soft Weight System, which allows for attaching 1-gram, tungsten barrel weights in varying numbers at the front or the back of the hook shaft.

Weights can be adjusted to make the bait swim up, remain zero-buoyant, or dig down in the water. Fish-friendly color finishes include natural shiner, blue-backed herring, hollow greenie, electric rainbow, ghostescent and blue gill.

To check out the Magic Swimmer Soft baits and all Sebile lures, go to sebile.com.

"Slimer' line expands
Grand Island lure inventor-designer John Kam has marketed his Slimers, realistic and super soft jig tail/bodies, to the satisfaction of big-game anglers in search of bass, walleye, pike, and even trout and salmon.

Recently, Kam began a line of smaller Slimer tails that work well on crappie, perch and other popular panfish.

Available at many area stores and bait shops, these 2-inch models could add to bucket catches as warming waters bring panfish into the shallows to feed on minnows, leeches and other slimy supplies.

For details on the Slimers line, call Kam at 773-5553 or go to johnnydarter.net.