Lucarelli Wins Stren Series Lake Champlain Using
                   
          
  Hooks

When asked during the BassFan interview, after winning the Stren Northern Open tournament on Lake Champlain, about winning gear I told them I used a 2/0 Ohio Pro Sure-Grip worm hook. Well that little secret is out now.  

I was fishing weeds in 15 to 18 feet; a problem kept occurring, my lizard on my Carolina Rig was pulling down after snapping it off the weeds. The fish would hit the lizard after I would snap it through the weeds. With a standard style off-set worm hook the lizard was pulling away from the eye and balling up. After tying on an Ohio Pro Sure-Grip worm hook that problem was solved and resulted in a new dilemma. The new dilemma was trying to net 4 pound smallmouth that had no interest in being netted. Without the Sure-Grip hook I don’t believe I would have had the success I had.

What the nice folks at Ohio Pro Lures don’t know is recently my son Joe and I won a Tournament of Champions event on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire resulting in our winning a Ranger boat. As Joe was working the docks with his Yamamoto Flappin’ Hog I followed up by skipping a Yamamoto Senko under the docks. We both had on Sure-Grip Superline EWG 3/0 hooks. The Senko and Flappin’ Hog never slipped down once.

  Thanks – Steve and Joe Lucarelli

"I found the area through research on the Internet and from aerial views of the water. I

knew Dardanelle would fish small with everyone on top of each other banging rub rails. I

wanted something different, someplace I could fish without the pressure of a dozen other

boats around me."

After an arduous crawl through a rock-laden culvert — and a painful decision to leave his

big Skeeter boat behind — Menendez had the slough all to himself. On Thursday he caught

his bass winding a junebug-colored, 6-inch Strike King Rage Tail Lizard armed with a 4/0

Gamakatsu Worm Hook and weighted with a 1/4-ounce weight through the backwaters.

"I was flipping it to wood cover, and I made a bad cast. I started winding it back towards

the boat when a big one inhaled it. I repeated that crankbait style retrieve around wood

cover in no more than 3 feet of water the rest of the day and ended up with a bag that

weighed 17 pounds, 12 ounces.

"Friday I started out doing the same thing but couldn't get bit. I think it was because the

water was up about 10 inches. That moved the bass tighter to the cover and messed up my

pattern.

"Eventually I switched to a 4 1/2-inch Strike King Coffee Tube and a 5/0 Sure-Grip Shiner Hook made by Ohio Pro Lure Company. I put a big, heavy rattle in the tube,

 but used the  same 1/4-ounce sinker."I flipped it against the shallow wood and worked it slow for a really good bag that weighed

21-8. I was targeting the females that had moved up to go on the beds."