Fishing

This all-new material is perfect for finesse presentations with ultra-realistic texture and natural matte colors to fool the hardest to catch fish. The soft yet durable material provides for life-like action and easier hook-ups producing multiple fish on each bait. Check out the video below or order Berkley Powerbait MaxScent online now. Hey, I'm Aaron with Berkley. We're with North 40 at ICAST 2017. I'm going to talk to you about a brand new product from Berkley, called Powerbait MaxScent. Powerbait MaxScent is all about a revolutionary new material that releases a super charged scent into the water when it hits the water. That scent field is going to help you, the angler, catch 45% more fish over original Powerbait. That's an amazing feat in and of itself. It can do that whether use of that material and by the use of some new actio... Read more

Here’s a press release from Idaho Department of Fish and Game announcing an opportunity for anglers to “salvage” kokanee salmon that are being flushed out of Dworshak Reservoir and into the North Fork Clearwater River near Orofino. According to Joe Dupont, regional fisheries manager for Idaho’s Clearwater region, flows from the dam are expected to increase again next week, meaning more of these very tasty fish are going to be available. The “salvage” season begins immediately. Due to this unique flush of kokanee anglers can keep as many of these salmon as they ant. Anglers can take them by rod and reel, with dip nets, or with their hands if they choose. Note: steelhead and other gamefish can not be targeted with dip nets. The salvage season runs through May 31, 2018. Dupont said that the kokanee can be abundant at times, mean... Read more

The Savage Gear 4D Pro Series Line Thru Trout is molded from a 3D scan of an actual trout and covered with a 4D photo-print pattern for ultra-realism... and ultra-savage takes on the water. Check out the video below or grab your Savage Gear 4D Trout bait here.   Hi, I'm Mike Bennet, product manager at Savage Gear USA. I want to introduce you to the new Savage Gear, 4D line-through trout. This is based on our very popular line-through trout that's been on the market now for a few years. We've done some improvements for this pro version. We went to a photo print using ink photo chrome printing. It's not painted, it's an actual ink-dyed bait. We've added a salmon scent to our PU coating. Now when you crack open one of our baits, there's no chemical smell. It's got a very heavy, salmonoid smell. Another great improvement for this serie... Read more

By Sam Wike At the 2017 Elite Series event on Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas Jason Christie appeared to be throwing a Teckel frog. This is one of the many new prop body baits to hit the market last year.  In a bassmaster.com article, after the event, Christie is quoted saying, “I fished grass beds over spawning areas that funneled back into the main lake.”  The BASS article goes on to say that Christie’s two “main” choices were the “Booyah Poppin Pad Crasher Frog and the Booyah Pad Crasher.”  However, neither of those two Booyah baits have a prop body on them and it is clear from the video footage that Christie was throwing some type of plopper prop bait. The fishing tackle industry has been raining plopper prop body topwater baits since YouTube videos of the Teckel Sprinker frogs went viral in June of 2017.  At I-Cas... Read more

One of the coolest lures we saw on the floor this year at iCast 2017 was the StutterStep from Bill Lewis Outdoors. Originally designed for tigerfish in Zimbabwe, the StutterStep is all about demanding attention. The latest emanation below will get you talking. Click below to watch the video and check out our Bill Lewis' lures here.   Hey, guys, Mark Daniels Jr. Bassmaster Elite Series Pro. We're here at ICast 2017 and I'm with North 40 getting ready to talk to you guys about one of our new baits, the StutterStep. Last year we introduced to you guys the 5.0 StutterStep, which is a 5-inch bait, lots of action in that bait, but this year, brand new, is the 4.0. I'm gonna talk to you guys; the way I like to fish this bait is some of the cool actions. What's really cool about the StutterStep in general is you can cast this bait out and... Read more

By Gary Lewis In years with big fish runs, meaning when abundance is up, it’s hard to pick a bad day to fish. And then there are seasons like this one, when the summer-run steelhead just trickle in and they’re difficult to find during fall, winter and spring. The word, angler-to-angler, is mostly to stay home, tend to the garden, keep that lawn mowed, cut the firewood. Too few fish to make your efforts really worth it this year. Lest we forget, anglers lie to each other. That’s why I drove to Lewiston, Idaho in early January, joining my friend Kris Bales and Adam Hocking of Steel Dreams Guide Service. We would run the Clearwater or Snake rivers, depending on the weather, trying to disprove those who said our efforts wouldn’t be rewarded. When the temperature dropped and the Grande Ronde River began to spit chunks of ice, Hocking s... Read more

Shaw Grigsby introduces the "best new bass bait" on the floor at I-Cast... and it's not the biggest bait that he's excited about--it's the smallest edition to the Rage Swimmer line of lures from Strike King. This bass lure comes in three sizes, but the one Shaw seemed most excited about was the smallest size which imitates schooling bait fish that bass find irresistible. Watch the video below and check it out. Hi, I'm Shaw Grigsby... 2017 I-Cast new products. Man, you just got to love ... I'm like a kid at Christmas when I come here because you got all kinds of new stuff. You're going, "Oh man, I can't wait to fish that." Hey, right here Rage Swimmer, one of the best baits I've used all year long and for a little bit longer than that. Unbelievable big bass swim bait, just reel it. You can rig it a number of different ways. I've caught b... Read more

This past weekend, I assembled a crew from North 40 Outfitters to support the Valier Area Development Corporation’s 2018 Ice Fishing Derby on Lake Frances. The VADC is an devoted to making Valier a better place to live and visit. When living and visiting revolves around a fishing destination, I’m all about it. Sydnee Thomason, from our fishing department, joined me. Thomason is a local Montana ice-fishing veteran and spends time on the ice every week during the hard-water season. We also had two guys from our corporate office, and we were joined by Robert Hambley, an ice guru from Shelby. A Fly Fisherman Tries Ice Fishing My ice-fishing experiences are limited and scattered over decades. A few holes in Wisconsin, a few holes in Alaska, and until recently none in Montana. I’m one of those crazy people who dons Gore-Tex waders and st... Read more

We had a blast ice-fishing on Lake Frances in Valier, Montana, during the 2018 Ice Derby last Saturday. We’ve got lots of video and pictures to sift through. Look for another blog later this week with more details and some technical info. For now, check out some of our visual highlights from the derby, which drew 368 competitors. Derby Results Pike 1st Chris Verbus 11.14# $1,380 2nd Garret Moritz 11.0 # $828 3rd Ryan Fenner 10.82# $552 Kids Pike Riley Bock 8.96# $50   Perch 1st Pat Wheeler 1.38# $1,380 2nd Josh Waldner 1.32# $828 3rd Jason Brenden 1.22# $552 Kids Perch Colby South .94# $50 Read more

Ice fishing at Lake Frances can be productive for pike (shown here) and yellow perch. Photo courtesy Valier Area Development Corp. A fearless crew from North 40 will venture onto the ice this Saturday, January 13, for the Valier Area Development Corp’s 2018 Ice Fishing Derby at Lake Frances It looks like a cold front is coming in this week and the projected highs for Saturday are in the single digits. We expect good ice conditions. The derby runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. with a $15 per person registration fee. Registration on Saturday begins at 6 a.m. at the Fireman’s Pavilion and the One Stop Cenex in Valier. Pike and perch are the targets with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place cash payouts for the biggest fish. Last year the pike and perch winners each netted $1,035.  Setting Up for Ice-Fishing Success With single digit temperatures, we will op... Read more

If I were stuck on a desert island and my life depended on one lure I would want a Kastmaster spoon in my survival kit. Few lures approach the Kastmaster's ability to target a wide array of species. And this spoon’s versatility is unmatched—it can be cast and retrieved, jigged or trolled. Fished in any fashion, the Kastmaster is simple, timeless, and deadly effective.  Sussing Fish Out The Kastmaster is the perfect searching lure. For their size, these spoons pack considerable weight. Their slim profile combined with mass makes for long casts that easily cut through wind. This allows you to quickly cover a lot of water without moving. Because of that weight you can also quickly sink the lure to a desired depth and vary retrieval speeds, which allows you to cover the entire water column. Doing so, you’ll likely... Read more

You may find it difficult to get outside on these short and often cold winter days. But you can add a little incentive to that equation if you consider the possibility of ice fishing and a mid-winter fresh fish fry. Fortunately, ice fishing is a relatively inexpensive sport to get into, it’s easy to master, and most of us in the Evergreen State live close to good ice-fishing options, whether that’s pulling yellow perch, trout, whitefish, walleye or kokanee salmon out of the “hard-water.” In recent years cold winter weather has provided an abundance of opportunity, which makes it a great time to join us at North 40’s free ice-fishing seminar, where you can learn all the tricks to taking fish from the hard-water. And, you can take advantage of great deals on the last day of North 40’s ice fishing gear sale. In this seminar I�... Read more