Nog's Needle - The Good News

[IronNoggin]

HiYa Folks,

I was going to hold off on this just a brief spell, but the swamping of emails and pm's after Albernifisher's post yesterday now have me thinking otherwise... LOL!

I'll start off with a quote from Dogbreath on the now well dated original thread, posted June 2012!

We all want them Buddy but developing a new product means more details than you can imagine.

Rest assured we'll hear when they're headed for the stores.

Truer Words Were NEVER Spoken!

It has been one hell of a Learning Curve on this end alright! I actually thought one could simply come up with an idea, and have that materialize basically overnight. I was FAR from correct in that belief!

That said, the time is VERY Close for their impending release. The last of the details are finally in place, and we expect to Go Public within but a couple of weeks! Exciting Times FOR SURE!!

I haven't been slacking off on the R & D end in the many months since I originally posted about these little Killers. Although only a handful of Folks have had the chance to play with them (and their results have been Great to date btw!) the same cannot be said of the Storm Dancer My partner and I aboard that particular War Wagon have REALLY Put Them Through Their Paces, and they have more than made our main Go To List in the commercial troll application.

Although the wait has been long, one benefit of that has been the constant experimenting an tweaking we were able to do through that period. We are now to the point that we simply cannot refine them any more. They DO what they are designed to: Catch Fish, and Catch Them WELL!

Here's a little sample of that to entertain your eyes while I get on with the rest of this thread...

LOL! I could add more, but methinks you get the gist...

Continued...

 

[Tightlines22]

Long time fisher and follower of SFBC. Enjoyed reading your last few years of development. Looking forward like many others on here to buying a few of your spoons!

 

[IronNoggin]

First & Foremost: This is a BC Designed, Tested and Produced Product. The testing and development has taken years to get to this point, and the decision was made to keep their production right here where they originated. Bit of a struggle that, and although I could have realized something of a "profit margin" by taking them offshore, profit margins were never the intent. I simply wanted a Good Needlefish Imitation that Caught Fish Consistently - something I felt was lacking in our fishery, and something I am now Proud to say WE HAVE!

I developed these spoons to be ROBUST! They are a fair bit heavier than most other trolling spoons out there. Weighing it at a full 28 grams (a full ounce!) when fully dressed, it took a LOT of experimenting to get the Action Just Right. There was (and is) a reason for this: When targeting Large Springs, the spoon MUST be able to withstand the Ravages of many MANY Savage Strikes and Hook-Ups. As a commercial troller I fully expect each one to last through at least 100+ such encounters, or the tackle simply isn't worth bothering with. And as a Sporty, I REALLY appreciate them holding their shape through fish after fish after fish. These DO! To the point that many we ran from the Big Boat literally had the paint beat right off them, yet never distorted, and continued to catch! Happy Moments for sure!

We decided to go with an original finish of nickle / silver plating. Sure, chrome would have been less expensive, BUT the reflective qualities of the materials we chose out-perform almost any other at depth. There can be little doubt that fish feeding down deep are going to see them with this finish!

And while spit rings seemed to be the easy way to go, they simply do not cut it in the commercial application as they let go far too often. Welded rings on the other hand, while time consuming and more expensive, offer MUCH greater holding strength. So, all of the spoons we're offering will be dressed accordingly.

The little flipper tail on the butt offers both another "enticement" and helps with the action. Makes them even more appealing to The Prey Of The Day!

Finally, the hooks had to be Proven, Robust, and Extremely Resistant to rust. Time honored Mustad Stainless Hooks have been the mainstay of the troll fleet for years, and are well know for both their quality and strength. And so they were the Winner for adorning the new Needefish.

Our initial offerings will be the nickle / silver plated version, as well as a 24 carat Gold Plated one (Gold has an even better index of reflection at depth). These will of course be Full Dressed with welded rings, eyes, tails and hooks.

A little look at the nickle / silver version. Set against a backdrop of the Winner of the 2011 Pacific Salmon Conservation Stamp Art Competition! "A Moment Of Action" by Ontario Artist Curtis Atwate:

NOTE: For these initial pictures I am posting, the spoons are dressed with split rings. The reasons are two-fold: All that I have that have welded rings are on the troller, and I decided to run this post up a day or two in front of the next shipment from the factory. ALL those we will be offering will sport Welded Rings.

These were the ones originally scheduled to be the Early Bird Prizes for the 2014 SFBC Derby as pictured in that related thread:

Funny thing was once we saw the Gold Plated version, and the first painted Test Runs from the factory, we decided to switch them out for a couple of those instead. By the look on Gary's face last night, methinks we made the Right Decision!!

Continued...

 

[Seafever]

Right...... I read the post too fast and thought he was referring to another lure he had under wraps.....

 

[IronNoggin]

LOL! THIS is The Storm Dancer - a 40 foot Yellow Cedar Troller aka The War Wagon!

With my Good Buddy Ernie Ross standing alongside the dock in Zabellos...

Greatest "Testing Platform" known to man!

Now back to the spoons...

 

[IronNoggin]

Meant to Dress the ones Albernifisher got last night, but he was too excited to get them in the water Today, and therefore grabbed them before I could get them home to do so! Good Luck out there Buddy! I Hope you SLAY!!!

Over the years I fiddled around with various finishes. The original was simply a brass blank given a shot of Tremclad silver, and painted with permanent markers. Even back then I just Knew we were onto Something!

That's the results we obtained the second year of testing. Even though the springs literally Tore the eyes and paint right off them, they continued to catch! So it was that I recognized a little more effort in that regard was required...

We sampled and took pictures of literally hundreds of needefish over that and the following season. What I came up with back then as a quick answer was to apply automotive spray paint over the then nickle plated blanks. They worked:

Caught more than enough to keep me Happy, so upwards and onwards...

On towards today next...

 

[HoochieMama]

Nice work, Nog. Eager to place my first order.

 

[IronNoggin]

After realizing great success, I once again decided it was time to get on with creating a "final" finish I could be happy with. After some experimenting, I settled on air-brush applied automotive paints, and came up with this earlier this spring:

I give Full Appreciation, Recognition & Credit to B.C. artist, Mark Hobson who created the masterpiece I employed as the background. Titled "Surface Tension" it was the Winner of the 2010 - 2011 Pacific Salmon Conservation Stamp art competition!
For Obvious Reasons!

Could not ask for a better back-drop!!

And it was about then I realized there is NO Possible Way I could personally take on the task of reproducing that in any sort of volume. Especially so if I wanted to do ANYTHING ELSE But!

So, initial inquiries were sent to several local (and well known) manufacturers to try the task of finishing on. I am pleased with their initial responses, and found the one pictured below to be amongst the better ones thus far:

Getting Damn Close! With but a little tweaking, methinks we'll have it!!

A couple more pix for you:

My version of the paint finish under the nickle / chrome spoon:

And the same with the factory "Test Finish" between:

All have the same Deadly snake-like swimming action with the odd roll tossed in for good measure. In testing, these swim Exactly like a wounded needlefish, and it seems Springs, Coho, Halibut and damn near anything else that swims thinks they are CANDY!!!

Just a little more to come...

 

[finaddict]

Gettin a bit of a chubby just seein the pics, Nog. I will be first on the order list whe they are ready!!!!

They look fricken slick

 

[IronNoggin]

And so it is after six or seven years in the making, we are finally poised to Unleash these Killers on various unsuspecting Denizens Of The Deep!!

Within but a couple of short weeks, these will be making their Splash Coast-Wide!
Commitments to retailers will ensure these become available relatively quickly following that.

BUT: My First Commitment has always been to my fellow Fishing Fanatics, and very much remains so today!
To that end, we are setting up a dedicated website where you will be able to view the various versions we will be offering, and order them directly online with expedient shipping! All of you here WILL be seeing that very VERY soon!

At one point I did have a "List", however that became downright Overwhelming! For me to sit down and send mail-outs to each would take the rest of this summer, and pretty much ALL of the Hunting Season. With Sincere Apologies, I submit I simply can not accomplish that in anything remotely resembling a reasonable time frame! And so, I respectfully request that such inquiries be directed to the website which can, and will deal with your requests in a much Faster manner.

Pricing will be Realistic and Quite Competitive for this Quality of Product. And of course those will be listed on the upcoming website.

Once again, initial offerings will be the Nickle / Silver and 24 Karat Gold Platings.
Painted versions will be following along soon.

For those interested in varying sizes, Rest Assured, these are well into development, and will be following along once they meet our exacting qualifications for doing so.

Just a brief note to those who have tested these for me over the years. You were Chosen for a Reason! Submit the pictures you've taken in this regard for inclusion in the website, and I have a little something in mind Guaranteed to Make You SMILE!

CHEERS!

Nog

 

[jeffywestcoast]

Yes Sir... Them look tasty ! cant wait to get my hands on a couple!

 

[capt hook]

HiYa Folks,

I was going to hold off on this just a brief spell, but the swamping of emails and pm's after Albernifisher's post yesterday now have me thinking otherwise... LOL!

I'll start off with a quote from Dogbreath on the now well dated original thread, posted June 2012!



Truer Words Were NEVER Spoken!

It has been one hell of a Learning Curve on this end alright! I actually thought one could simply come up with an idea, and have that materialize basically overnight. I was FAR from correct in that belief!

That said, the time is VERY Close for their impending release. The last of the details are finally in place, and we expect to Go Public within but a couple of weeks! Exciting Times FOR SURE!!

I haven't been slacking off on the R & D end in the many months since I originally posted about these little Killers. Although only a handful of Folks have had the chance to play with them (and their results have been Great to date btw!) the same cannot be said of the Storm Dancer My partner and I aboard that particular War Wagon have REALLY Put Them Through Their Paces, and they have more than made our main Go To List in the commercial troll application.

Although the wait has been long, one benefit of that has been the constant experimenting an tweaking we were able to do through that period. We are now to the point that we simply cannot refine them any more. They DO what they are designed to: Catch Fish, and Catch Them WELL!

Here's a little sample of that to entertain your eyes while I get on with the rest of this thread...

LOL! I could add more, but methinks you get the gist...

Continued...

obviously pics taken aboard a commerical troller.
am sure he was not using exclusively the same spoon on every piece of gear as your trying to convince us of?
nice looking spoon , but your advertising tactics are questionable.

 

[mkcj]

It's been great reading this and the other thread and seeing the awesome progress you have made. Congratulations on a great looking product and I look forward to using it this summer.

 

[IronNoggin]

obviously pics taken aboard a commerical troller.
am sure he was not using exclusively the same spoon on every piece of gear as your trying to convince us of?
nice looking spoon , but your advertising tactics are questionable.

Yup! Commercial... Obviously!
And btw the "he" you refer to would be... ME!
Never ever hid the fact that I am a commercial troller, as well as a guide (most years) as well as a bit of a Fishing Fanatic! LOL!

FYI - When Hunting the Beach the past two years, I've been running a single flasher below two of these spoons. Reason being the spoons were out-performing the hootchies.

Am I saying every single fish came to them? Nope, and didn't mean to come across as such. But we've had many days where these spoons were responsible for up to and over 65% of the catch.

As for your last comment... Whatever...

Cheers,
Nog

 

[hambone]

LOL.... Can't please everyone.

 

[Fish Assassin]

Makes me stand by my comment on the hijack thread today.....

 

[SpringVelocity]

Yup! Commercial... Obviously!
And btw the "he" you refer to would be... ME!
Never ever hid the fact that I am a commercial troller, as well as a guide (most years) as well as a bit of a Fishing Fanatic! LOL!

FYI - When Hunting the Beach the past two years, I've been running a single flasher below two of these spoons. Reason being the spoons were out-performing the hootchies.

Am I saying every single fish came to them? Nope, and didn't mean to come across as such. But we've had many days where these spoons were responsible for up to and over 65% of the catch.

As for your last comment... Whatever...

Cheers,
Nog

That was a classy response BTW your way to nice.... Your right you can't please everyone. Looking forward to getting a few these off you.... They look awesome and thanks for sharing pics.

 

[Discus]

Awesome story Nog's needle and beautiful pictures ! Thank you for sharing. I am very excited. I am interested in buying couples of the Nog's Needle spoons!

Thanks
Discus.

 

[IronNoggin]

This just in... So new we haven't had time to add the eyes or hook, but thought I'd share regardless...

For the Fish that Like All That Glitters! 24 Karat Gold!!

Cheers!
Nog

 

[spring fever]

Nog-love the spoon but I have a few questions. You are a commercial troller and these were tested on a troller-does that mean they have to be fished at commercial troll speeds? I note that they weigh almost a 1 oz and are heavier than most spoons of comparable size -What's your take on troll speed for sporty's with this spoon-also bare or behind a flasher and if so what leader length-5 ft?