Angler's Choice Brad Hudson Product Reviews Tackle

Ice Fishing with the Angler’s Choice Kill Shot

by Brad Hudson February 5, 2013

I had the opportunity to try out a great new bait that will be hitting the market in mid February at the Toronto Spring Fishing and Boat Show (Feb 15th-18th, 2013), the KILL SHOT, a hand poured, salt and scent infused drop shot bait.

Anglers Choice, 100% hand-made baits can be used for multi-species including crappie and lake trout.

I was not able to get out on the water for bass as the season had closed.  So I tested out the Kill Shot on two local lakes here in Ontario, Canada while ice fishing for crappie and lake trout.

For crappie, we rigged the 3″ Kill Shot Emerald Shiner on a glow jig head and went to work.

The fishing that day was slow not just for us but for most anglers around as storms moved into the areas with some unsettled temperature and rain.  We moved around to various depth and structure, working weed edges, slight drop-offs and flats. Working the outside weed edges paid off for us as we managed some nice crappie in just a few hours.

On this day the emerald shiner was the big winner as it matched the crappie’s natural food, the emerald shiner. The ribbed body of this bait I am sure gave of vibrations to alert the crappie of its presence and the flat paddle tail on the back enticed the fish to take the bait.

We also tried the 3″ Smoke Purple Pearl and had success on that bait as well but the crappie seamed to prefer the emerald Shiner color as it matches the natural forage fish in this lake.

On another outing we rigged the 4″ Kill Shot in the emerald shiner color for Lake Trout and White Fish rigged with a round head jig. I had several fish on but I was unable to land any to see what there were. I am pretty sure Lake Trout were the predators that day I just couldn’t get the hook set deep enough to keep the fish on.

The Kill Shot bait is very versatile and can be rigged several different ways other than drop shotting. I am looking forward to testing these out once the hard water is gone for spring perch and crappie. Once bass season opens I am sure these will put some nice buckets in my live well!

Rigging different was will give you several presentations to work with depending on the species you’re targeting.

1 – Drop Shot

• Experiment with different colors, different weights and sizes
• Use a no twist dropshot hook to eliminate line twist

2 – Texas Rigged

• Using your standard Texas Rig hook it up and make it weedless
• Add a worm rattle to add to the bait

3 – Flippin Jig

• Don’t be afraid to hook this up on a flipping jig the paddle tale on the back end will move with any present water movement enticing fish to bite

4 – Jig Head

• Try various jig heads depending on the structure your fishing
• Mix different colors or match to your jig head

Get your order in for these Kill Shot baits as I am positive they will fly off the shelves once released. I will be doing a full report once bass season opens in Ontario.