Angeles Waterfall Rainbows

Went hiking in the San Gabriels, Angeles National Forest. Came across a fantastic waterfall with a deep pool at its base. The rest of the creek wasn't great for fishing, but this pool produced two tough, chunky rainbows, around the 12-14'' range. First was caught on a soft plastic worm/jighead, the second on a Yo-Zuri Snap Bean imitation lure. Both released to be caught another day.

Micro Crankbait Fun

Loads of fishing photos on my desktop and not enough posts on Hunting the River King? Let's fix that. Here are three fish from a previous trip in the last few months in California, two bluegills and one small largemouth bass. All caught on 2lb mono with a Strike King Bitsy Pond Minnow in my favorite Firetiger color. More to come!

Dynamic Lures HD Trout Jerkbait Review

Dynamic Lures Fishing in Action

Dynamic Lures is a new company on the proverbial fishing lure block. They offer an impressive range of affordable jerkbaits and swimbaits. Based in Colorado, their products have been heavily advertised online and recently picked up by several large fishing tackle retailers, namely Bass Pro Shops, Sportsman's Wharehouse, and Cabelas. I was particularly interested in their HD Trout series of hardbait lures. After getting in touch with the company, I have several of these fine jerkbaits to show you along with them in action on video.

Design

These HD Trout jerkbaits are 2.25'' long and weigh in at 0.10 oz. I was most impressed with the unique patterns these lures come in. With 12 different patterns, ranging from Glimmer Trout to Fire Craw, you can be sure they have something for every water type. One of my favorite patterns they offer is the Ghost Perch, a semi-translucent brown baitfish pattern. Bass readily hit this and the Trout patterns that I threw while fishing.

Action
HD Trout jerkbaits feature a tantalizing wobble in the water on medium retrieve. I was still able to coax decent action out of them on slow retrieves, and a fast "burner" retrieve also worked to draw strikes. However, most of my hits came on a medium retrieve, often near weedlines with the HD Trout. These lures look great in the water, with a slow-sinking fall when not reeling.

Durability
Of the four jerkbaits from Dynamic Lures, one did lose an eye after a particularly bumpy retrieve near rocks. However, on the whole, I found these lures to be fairly durable. The finish held up great, even after repeated catches and some rough snags. None of the hooks bent out or left me with any problems. Retrieves continued to be consistently good even after multiple hookups (no re-alignment was needed during my use). Lures ran great out of the box too!

Price
Dynamic Lures HD Trout jerkbaits are priced fairly reasonably. They sell for $4.95 each online, although the Gold Natural pattern is listed as $2.95 at the time of this review. I think most people will be comparing these to Rapala's and the $4.95 price of t he Dynanmic Lures definitely gives them an edge on the market. I haven't spotted the prices on them at Bass Pro Shops or Cabelas, it'll be interesting to see what they sell for at those stores.

Great packaging too!

Summary
I'm really happy with the Dynamic Lures range of HD Trout jerkbaits. It's tough to come out with a solid line of new lures in the cutthroat fishing lure industry, but I think these guys have a winner on their hands with this set of jerkbaits. While the company has received rave reviews on their lures for trout fishing (a must in Colorada), I found the HD Trout to work great on bass at my urban creek and pond locations. They are the perfect size to throw on the light tackle that I use. Plus, the great lure patterns and decent prices will keep me throwing the HD Trout jerkbaits in my hunt for urban largemouth for sure!

Other Lures from Dynamic Lures

Also, I'd like to note that Dynamic Lures carries several other interesting lures. The Dynamo series is a set of unique big swimbaits for big fish. Coming in 7'' and 2oz, the slow sinking Dynamo  LP looked great when I threw it at Lake Perris. I haven't' been able to fish it extensively, but I'll definitely be posting more shots of it when I do. It's a jointed hardbait swimbait with a nice array of patterns available. One of the really neat unique features of it is the sweet "embedded" hook on the front treble, helping prevent tangles on casting

Also from Dynamic is the Travado DP, a 4'' deep-diving jerkbait. Lots of great colors available for this hardbait too (seeign a pattern here?) I'm hoping to throw this when fishing the salt at the local jetties this summer, look for more reports on this soon!

Fairmount Park Crappie Fishing

Fairmount Park is a very tough place to catch fish at consistently. The water is usually quite murky and the anglers fishing with every lure known to man hit the water each day. Fortunately, most anglers are doing the "bait 'n wait" for catfish and carp, but there is a sizable population of lure anglers targetting other warmwater species here. The worst part is the number of anglers that keep everything they catch at Fairmount, ignoring the obviously foul water in hopes of some muddy water fish-fry. I strictly practice Catch-Photo-Release (CPR) at this local city park, be it for bass, carp or sunfish. Fairmount is no longer stocked by the State and it's a pretty limited fishery overall.

The sunfish population at Fairmount can offer a nice break from the challenge of catching largemouth. Still, it can be difficult to locate them as well, given the high fishing pressure and large amount of water. Fortunately, my last fishing trip to Fairmount worked out pretty well. I fished a variety of lures, including a Bass Pro Shops micro jerkbait, a Jet Tackle jerkbait, and micro jigs/plastic worm combos. I ran into a small school of tiny crappie, averaging 6-8 inches, with some bluegill and green sunfish mixed in. These guys were a blast to catch, although the school quickly dissipated to other regions of the lake at the onset of dusk. If you do go to Fairmount, please fish responsibly and practice catch and release.