banjo minnow

[Boatless]

Has anyone ever bought and tried this thing from the infomercial?

[skunked]

No, but my wife bought me the helicopter lure kit for my birthday several years ago..... It is still unopened. Oh, and I do have the Chuck Woolery bass fishing DVD!

[Stan Wright]

Love tha action of the Banjo Minnow... works great on peacock bass. When I first got mine I took it to K-Bay and on the first cast... caught a papio.

[OO7:BASSINASSASSIN]

When I saw the infomerical, I thought the lure had a lot of potential. I have yet to catch anything on it in the lake. Maybe I haven't figured out how to use it correctly. I read on another forum, that it works well in South America.

[Ken]

The kicking, swimming motion of the banjo minnow attracts a lot of fish...but from talking to friend who fell in to the trap...they said the hook up ratio is garbage (hook too far ahead).

When you are fishing it topwater or subsurface like it was designed to fish, many times the predators will grab the prey first, then dive back down and reposition the prey for swallowing. The disavantage of the banjo minnow is that when the fish hits, it hits it broad-sided. But since the hook is so far ahead, the fish will miss the hook (unless your fish is large enough so that its mouth totally engulfs the lure + hook). When you go for the hookset, you basically rips the plastic minnow out of its little screw attachment...and no fish on the hook.

Good concept...just not very effective in hooking fish.

You may argue that dropshotting has the hook up front too...but you are fishing dropshots much slower...and you are allowing the fish to stalk the prey and position to engulf the prey. Topwater is basically hit and run and swallow later.

Now...this is based on freshwater fish...because my friends haven't try them saltwater...and basically gave up on them (collecting dust or plain threw them away).

Stan caught a papio though...but saltwater fish do not mess around. When they want it, they go full out and engulf their prey if possible.