Hi again everybody, Scott Opfer along with Joe Ranosky and congratulations on your wise decision in purchasing the Bionic Minnow fishing system.
It really is an incredible system, Joe.
Best I've ever designed, Scott. I don't think there'll ever be anything coming along any better.
Well you would know, you've been doing it 30 years, you've heard from some of the biggest names in fishing, Bill Dan, Shaw Grigsby,
not to mention the other hundreds of people who competed in the Bionic Minnow Challenge,
and the hundreds of strikes of real life footage that we saw during the program.
Like I said, it's the most incredible bait and as far as the tournament, that was the greatest tournament I've ever seen put on one bait alone.
Nothing else but the Bionic.
Absolutely, it is the ultimate test. Now these anglers have the product at home,
and they're wondering what are some of the things that they can do to really get the most out of their Bionic Minnow system.
Alright, first of all I want to teach them how to use these heads properly, okay.
A lot of people have problems with this, what we call our spiral grip head.
Basically what you have to do, now we're going to create a frog here.
You don't want to push the thing on, okay. You want to spiral it on, just like that.
And what that does, Scott, that creates the bait so it won't pull off, okay.
Now the little secret I'm going to tell you, that's the frog on there.
You can literally take, and this is the diving head right here, you can create a frog out of it, you can put a curly tail on it,
you can put the five inch. What you have to do, you have to take a pair of scissors or whatever,
and why we've left these heads on there is in case you want to use the jig head, okay, and it gives it a whole bait properly.
But here I'm taking a little X-Acto knife, and what you do, you cut that off real neat like that, okay.
So you can cut it to any length.
That's correct. Like this is a five inch minnow, I could actually cut that down and make it like a three and a half or four inch minnow.
And that's the same way with this minnow right here.
Basically when I do a lot of trout fishing, I like to cut it back and make it real short when it's in cold weather, okay.
The water conditions are cold, so you make a smaller bait.
If it's warming up and you've got good warm water conditions, you make bigger baits.
That's why we give the versatility of the minnow. I put two sizes of minnows in there where you can almost basically go up to almost a six inch minnow.
And this one will take you down almost to a two inch minnow where you still have the fins and everything on it.
And you have the frog, and then we put the curly tail in there.
This is the most prolific bait they have, is the curly tail, okay, so we have that too.
So you have the different sizes, they can cut them to any size that they want.
That's correct.
And they can add any of their own soft plastic baits.
You can put anything on these heads. In other words, I'll show you a little trick here.
Here's a tube bait. You want a top water tube bait? You just take and corkscrew that thing right on there, okay.
That really puts a new dimension to it, gets it, doesn't it?
Oh, unbelievable. But you know the neat thing about it, this is top water.
What about when you Carolina rig this, gets it down there, you can literally get that cleaned down on the bottom, you know what I mean?
And do the same thing with the gets it. That you do with a jig head, and you have the versatility of the weedless cover hook on there, the heavy cover hook.
Right.
How many times have you ever jigged with a treble hook? Never.
Never. Can't do it. Too much cover, you always get hung up.
Now you can do it with this.
Yeah, one of the things about the popper head that I found really to be amazing is when you approach people and you say this is a deadly Carolina rig,
they didn't really get it, but once they had a chance to fish it, and maybe you should show our folks at home how to Carolina rig it,
because as a Carolina rig, it really is a deadly bait.
Alright, right now I have it about a foot off the bottom, okay, and it floats up properly like it.
You can go to any distance you want on this thing, you know, from one foot to two foot.
If you figure you're in weeds and the fish are right above the weed line, with your treble hook you can go right through them weeds
and have that thing ride right above the thing and your weight's down inside the weeds going along.
That's the neat thing about this.
Now I'm going to show you a really neat trick.
Let's just take this off. You're talking about Carolina rigging, I'm talking about jigging out.
You know, basically when you fish crayfish, they're down on the bottom, is that correct?
Right.
So what you do, let's put your favorite crawdad on this, on the head.
And what I like to do, and we can show you footage on this thing, and we have...
Tons of it.
Tons of it. Just take that weight and put it almost to there, okay?
So it doesn't slide, and now you have that thing properly fished up like that, the crawdad just like that.
The versatility is guys, it's endless what you can do with this product.
The Foam Heads is the ticket. You can take any soft plastic bait, create your own baits,
or use everything we have in our system that you just bought.
Here's our diver head, okay? Basically it's made to dive down to about five feet, okay?
And you must attach at least one bait weight, or one bionic weight on there, okay?
You attach one bionic weight on this thing, that makes it dive properly and ride properly.
I'll tell you a little secret, if you don't want to put a bionic weight on there,
you can make it a crippled dying action.
Something that you don't realize, in other words it's going to do all these little different things
where it looks like it's crippled.
That's where we get the radical action from.
That's it, that's correct. Okay, you have one weight on there for proper presentation.
No weights if you want that radical action, okay?
Now if you want it to suspend, you add two or three on there.
Depending how fast you want it to go down to the bottom.
One, two, that's why we put so many weights on there.
But the other neat thing about these bionic weights, you literally can put them on all your baits,
all your crank baits. If you want it to turn into a suspending bait, you want it to dive deeper,
take these bionic weights and put them on your other baits too.
This is a no-nonsense kit. Everything I've put in here is good use.
Well, and again, we talked about the versatility.
There is so much versatility in this kit, over a hundred pieces in it.
But when you look at the combinations, from the weighting to the colors to the different size hooks,
all of the different combinations, there really are an infinite number of possibilities.
Speaking about colors, I want to tell you a little bit about this.
I picked the four best colors you could possibly get in soft plastics, okay?
This is our silver color. And basically, you use silver on bright, clear days, okay?
You use gold on cloudy days. I put gold in there.
You use the chartreuse and dingy, murky water, okay?
So the fish can see it a little better. And then I put the rainbow trout pattern.
The reason I put it in there, the rainbow trout pattern caught the largest bass
in the last 65 years of my rainbow trout jig.
Well, if I'm not mistaken, it was 21 pounds, 12 ounces.
That's correct.
That's the biggest fish. I mean, that's a 65-year-old record that I don't think will ever be broken.
That's correct.
The heavy cover weedless treble hook is a key element of the Bionic Minnow system.
But it will make any bait in your tackle box weedless.
Here's legendary fisherman Bill Dance.
Hello everybody, I'm Bill Dance.
You know, I've been fishing all my life, and I know when a truly great product comes along.
Like this new heavy cover weedless treble hook by Eagle Claw.
It's absolutely brilliant.
Finally, we can fish thick stuff like dense brush, stumps, tree tops,
all types of submergent or emergent vegetation without getting hung up.
Now any bait in your tackle box can be weedless.
Use it, and I'll guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Welcome back to the Bionic Minnow instructional video presentation.
Let's take a minute now to show the folks at home the heavy cover weedless treble hook.
This product really is amazing because now you can fish in deep cover lily pads anywhere.
And really do it with any bait, not just your Bionic Minnow.
That's correct. In other words, what you've got, you've got size 6 in there that basically fits all of our Bionic heads.
But we gave you three other sizes to experiment with your spoons, your spinners, your crank baits, poppers, whatever.
And you know, we gave you in this kit a pair of split ring pliers,
and you've got extra split rings that have basically taken change and put on these new heavy cover hooks on all your bait.
That's why we gave you, we want you to test this thing.
I know you're going to come back and buy more of these heavy cover hooks.
Right, and so now really the best baits are even better.
I mean, because you can fish them in any conditions.
You know what I really like? Spoons are probably my most second favorite bait to use other than soft plastics.
And they probably more duplicate a wounded, dying fish than anything, okay, as far as...
Just visualize taking one of these heavy cover hooks and putting it on a spoon now and going vertically jigging it down into heavy cover.
Incredible.
Want to be neat?
Absolutely.
I mean, you've got to go where the big fish live.
That's right.
I mean, we've heard Bill Dance say it how many times,
if you're not going to go where the big fish live, you're not going to get any big fish.
That's correct.
This is a revolution, this heavy cover hook.
I mean, and that's why we gave you the extra sizes to experiment with all your other stuff.
You've got a good pair of split ring pliers to change and go over all your baits with it.
Yeah, I mean, to really emphasize how good of a product this is,
it's the first of its kind since the 1800s that Eagle Claw has really ever approved.
I mean, this is a product that you helped design that is the first to ever exceed their performance standards.
So, I mean, that really says something about the hook.
So, you had a chance to see the different elements of the Bionic Minnow System,
but now, Joe, you've got a few pointers for everybody that will help them get better action out of the bait.
That's correct.
I've been experimenting with knots on the bionic heads, particularly on the diver head.
You don't want to use a snap swivel on it.
You want to use a slip knot on it.
It works the best and gives it the best action.
You want to keep away from snap swivels.
Use the slip knot, okay?
On the popper head, you want the knot coming off the top when you're using it for Carolina rigging,
and you want it to come off the bottom when you're using it for topwater fishing.
Okay, is there a reason for that?
Yeah, it gives it a better action.
In other words, when it's coming off the top, it's pulling it down, and it gives that minnow action.
When it's coming off the bottom, it lets the popper do the walk the dog type thing on the topwater.
I see.
Joe, we talked a little bit earlier about cutting the bait down to the desired length.
You've got another tip for the fishermen.
Yeah, when you're using the Bionic Kid and you take it off and switch bodies, you know, you booger the end up a lot.
And I'm going to show you how to save and preserve this thing.
All you do have to do is take a lighter and heat the end of it, and then you can reuse it.
That helps preserve the end, makes it a little more durable.
That's right. Right.
Basically, you can cut it off, but to preserve it, if you want to keep that length, just take the lighter and heat it.
So you've got the best bait in the business now, it'll last you even longer.
Yeah, I shouldn't be really showing this tip because I'd rather them buy more bait.
One of your best kept secrets. Right.
Versatility is nice. As you can see right here, it's got this spiral screw on the back of it right here,
where you can basically screw any kind of soft plastic that you want on the back of this bait here, whatever your favorite is.
It could be a curl tail or a get-it-type tail or anything that you want to put on there, a fin tail, shad tail, whatever you want.
But that's what's neat about this head is that the beautiful finish on it,
plus it'll sit just absolutely horizontal with the way you've got the hooks weighted down.
And it's just a real neat system.
We've had a lot of fun here the last couple of days catching smallmouth on the top.
Let's just show them what we've done here, Scott.
You took this Carolina rig, and we actually took that floating plug,
and we're bouncing along the bottom, and that smallmouth picked it right up, and it has the frogs on it.
That's the frog legs there.
We changed it. We had a swish tail on there, and we just switched it over to the frog tail.
That's pretty unique, isn't it? It is.
Very versatile.
You can actually just let this thing sit on the bottom and just twitch it.
The current itself is just doing all the action.
Right. Now there you go. You've got the frog tail. You've got a swish tail.
You can put a fish on the back end of that thing.
And this is actually a topwater, but down there you're getting the same action with the thing.
What it does, it suspends right off the bottom like it actually is what it'll look like, is like that.
Mm-hmm.
Okay. Good job.
Dan, let's explain to the people what we're doing here a little bit.
Okay. I'll hold that.
We've had a real bad blow on Lake Urien. It's come down into Lake Ontario through the Niagara,
and we've got a lot of mud down here. Yep.
So basically, most of the time in Clearwater, the black silver works really well.
Works excellent.
Okay, but what I've done, I went to a store, and I just bought myself a marking pen.
Mm-hmm.
And you told me red was really working up here. That's right. That's exactly right.
So all we did was take this pen, and that's how we caught that big king now.
And we painted it. Just colored the upper part.
Right. Left some of the crystalline to show through.
This is silver on the bottom. It shows through, and it's still in the tractor, huh?
Right. It comes right through like that.
Do both sides.
Move that over, and it dries real quick.
You know, you can do a lot of different colors.
Like if chartreuse was working, you can get a chartreuse pen.
Orange, whatever works for that day.
Right.
That's what's really neat about this, it's versatile.
Then what you do, once you're done there, you take the head.
Let me have that.
You just get the head. Screw it in.
Screw it right back on again, and we're ready to go for another king.
That's right.
That one tore the tail off on it.
What do you care when you're catching 25 plus kings?
That's right. It doesn't matter.
Right. There we go. We're ready to go for another one.
All I know is it worked. It worked good.
Let's get it down and get another one, Joe.
Let's go get another one.
Look at that bionic minnow. Right into the...
Okay, keep coming now. Keep coming.
Don't stop. Wind. Up and down. Wind.
Wide lift. Lift.
Little more. Little more.
Give me a foot. Give me a foot.
One foot. In the net. Nice fish.
What we've done,
we're running a jet diver.
Got it back about 125 feet.
We have an ounce and a half weight on it.
And then the bionics run back
approximately
six foot behind the jet.
And it's diving down
about 30 feet.
And what we've done, we've put a silver tail on this head
in particular right here.
It worked really well. Dan, what do you think of the bionic?
Really working good. Super. Super.
There's another one on the bionic. That was about a five pound walleye.
The action on that, it looks actually
better than the real minnow. Oh, it does.
I mean, with all the glitters inside there, that's a hologram
type glitter. It works really good.
And that yellow head today,
that chartreuse head, works real good
in the bright sun. Right.
Okay, let's go get another one. We're fishing
anywhere from 17 to 25 feet.
Is that correct drift fishing? Yep.
What I'm doing, I just got myself a
bullet weight in the front here with a little swivel.
And running that thing about
two foot behind. That'll work.
And I mean, the thing, the minnow just, it'll come up
perfect like that when you stop and then
it swims real quick.
We have a little bionic weight on there, Tom.
And what that does, it balances it, okay?
We don't have nothing hollow on this thing. This is a solid head.
We have to put that weight on there
to make it balance and it makes it just do that,
you know, just like a shad breaking on the top of the water.
You got both whirls here.
You got the top water bait that spits and you also got it in soft plastic
that the fish won't let go when they hit it.
Just took the minnow off. Now we're going to put a frog body on there.
Let's see if these northern pike will chew that up now that
they hit the minnow really good.
All I'm going to do is
take our spiral grip head
and just put it right on there
like that and now we have
our supernatural frog.
What I did, I didn't even chew the whole body off.
In other words, I left that
I'm going to make a big frog out of this
because we're going to try to get some big northerns on this now.
Let's get after them, Billy.
If you have pictures or you want to share your success stories
with us, we'd love to hear them.
Anything on the bionic minnow,
any videos, home videos, pictures,
be sure to send them to us.
Thanks for being with us, everybody. Have a great time with your bionic minnow fishing system
and we'll see you next time. Good fishing.