| Here's an interesting trout lure. It's the Fingerling Hi-Catch made by Luhr Jensen of Hood River, Vancouver, Canada .
The Fingerling Crankbait is made from tough injected moulded plastic. Overall length is 100 mm, of which 25 mm is a broad clear plastic bib. Weight is 5/16 oz. The paint work on the Fingerling is very realistic. It includes: eyes, fins, spots and gill covers!
This lure is ideal for trolling, though it can certainly be cast with light lines (4 - 6 pound). Perhaps unusually it doesn't have a rattle.
You would have to look around for the Fingerling Crankbait lure. In New Zealand it is only sold in specialist tackle shops.
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Landlocked quinnat salmon from Lake Coleridge taken on the rainbow pattern Fingerling Crankbait. |
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The plastic bib is quite thin on the Fingerling Crankbait. |
Perhaps the one weakness of the Fingerling I have found is that the bibs are prone to breaking if the lure is roughly handled. I have never had one break on a fish but have found them broken in my tackle box. The bibs are not through wired so if a bib were to snap with a fish on both the lure and fish would be lost.
The thin plastic bibs will only break if the lure is carelessly handled. Banged against other lures in a tackle box will do it. Store each Fingerling separately. The best way to store them in your tackle box is by hanging from the rear hook.
The Fingerling looks very realistic and fish-like for a hard bodied lure. It comes in a good range of colours. I especially like the rainbow trout colour scheme and this would be my personal preference.
I have found the Fingerling Crankbait to be an excellent fish taker when lake trolling for trout and landlocked quinnat salmon at Lake Coleridge. It has also been successful for me on Lake Brunner. Highly rated.
Overall Length: 100mm. Body 75mm. Bib: 25mm.
Weight: 9g (5/16oz).
Medium wobble with a best trolling speed of 2.5 kph.
Divers to around 3.5 metres with 20 metres of line out at 2.5kph.
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