New gear and familiar Gananoque water
For this trip, we headed back to one of our favorite Ontario lakes with a mix of familiar equipment and three things we particularly wanted to put through a real fishing test: SteelShad vibrating blade baits, High Roller handmade wooden lures, and a Canyon Reels CR10 Pro Lockdown baitcaster.
We brought Carrot Stix and KastKing rods that had already spent time in our boats. Our aim was the same as always: catch largemouth and smallmouth bass and see how the tackle handled actual conditions, not just how it looked in a catalog.
The vibrating blade bait kept getting hit
From the beginning, the SteelShad was one of the most talked-about lures aboard our boats. The original trip report records consistent action across the five-day outing, including some of our biggest bass and incidental northern pike encounters on this water.
We thought the lure's distinctive vibration and wobble played a part in drawing strikes. That's our on-the-water impression, not a laboratory finding. We also knew fish location and presentation mattered. Still, after repeated hits from fish in different parts of the lake, it was hard to put the bait down.
Pay attention to the lure's vibration—and the fish's response.
When a bait is producing strikes in several areas, stay observant. We kept fishing the SteelShad because the fish were responding to it, while adjusting our approach for the day's conditions.
Handmade wooden plugs brought their own action
Another tackle-box newcomer was a selection of High Roller handmade wooden lures. We appreciated their workmanship, but a fishing lure has to do more than look good. Our original notes recorded largemouth and smallmouth strikes on these lures, with northern pike also showing interest.
That gave us another productive presentation alongside the vibrating blade bait. The trip reminded us that a carefully worked wooden plug can earn a spot in a modern bass-fishing tackle box.
The CR10 Pro Lockdown got a workout
We brought a then-new Canyon Reels CR10 Pro Lockdown baitcasting reel to see how it performed under pressure. During the trip it handled repeated casting, larger fish, wind and periods of heavy rain. In our original assessment, the drag felt smooth and the reel kept working reliably throughout the outing.
The historical report listed a 6.3:1 gear ratio, magnetic braking, and a die-cast aluminum body, among other features. These are specifications quoted from the original evaluation; they should not be treated as a statement about any reel currently on sale.
More important to us than the specification sheet was how the reel behaved with a bass on the line and rain coming down. It passed that practical test for us on this trip.
Trusted setups supported the lure tests
Our Carrot Stix and KastKing spinning and baitcasting rods came along for another round of work. The archived tackle list included 8-pound monofilament, 12-pound braid, and 10-pound fluorocarbon leader among the line configurations.
These were the combinations described in our historical notes, not a recommendation that one setup fits every lure. The point was to judge the tackle as a working system—rod, reel, line and lure—under conditions that included persistent rain and wind.
A memorable trip and gear that proved itself
We finished the outing with plenty of bass memories and genuine observations about equipment we had put through a test. The SteelShad's strong vibration, the strikes on the High Roller wooden baits, and the Canyon reel's performance were the three highlights of this report.
The original trip also recorded incidental northern pike catches. As always on theBASSguys, our focus here is freshwater bass fishing. We share those unexpected catches as part of the real story without making them the main subject.
Some product models and offers mentioned on the historic site may no longer be available. We have deliberately left out the old promotional discount and prices rather than imply they're still valid. What stays valuable is what happened on the water.
