It was the third weekend in May and there was still ice on the main body of Hanson Lake. Hanson Lake, located in central Saskatchewan, Canada, is subject to occasional late springs, slow thawing and bitterly cold weather. Tough fishing conditions for the opening weekend of walleye fishing.

That did not matter to my buddies and I as this was our 7th Annual "Trip with the Boys" and we were going to fish wherever we found water. We headed to the largest bay with the most southern exposure and, luckily, the water there was 5 degrees warmer than the rest of the lake.

With the extremely late spring and frigid water, I was convinced this was going to be a small jig and leech, "brain-surgery bite" requiring light lines, premium jigging sticks, a magician's touch and patience.

We picked our way along the shoreline in the warming bay. The four of us caught numerous smaller pike on the leeches as well as on small jigs and plastics. Then, trying to catch a big pike, one of the guys decided to put on a 5" suspending jerkbait. Within 10 minutes, he had our first walleye of the trip; a solid 18" beauty. I intensely focused on my jig and leech as, obviously, we were finally into the walleyes. Fifteen minutes later and 2 more, bigger, walleyes to his credit, my buddy started chirping. I decided it was time to shut him up. However, to avoid even more verbal abuse, there was no way I was putting on a 5" jerkbait. Instead, I rifled through my gear bag and found, tucked away in the bottom of my jig box, a 5" Big Hammer™ swimbait in the "Bleeding Mackerel" color pattern rigged on a ˝ oz. Hammer Head™. I tied it onto my baitcasting outfit, spooled with 10 lb., florescent green, Fireline and let it fly.

I began a steady retrieve as soon as the Big Hammer hit the water. In the 8' water, the fish were either suspended or feeding towards the surface, I concluded, since my buddies plug could not have been getting down any more than 4' or so. Keep it up and bring it in fast, I thought, mimicking his jerkbait retrieve.

I peered intently down my hi-vis line for the first glimpse of my jig and any following fish. From above, the silvery sides of the Bleeding Mackerel flashed impressively as the bait came into view. I stalled my retrieve and watched the bait hustle towards the bottom. Then, I found out why the bait is called the Big Hammer™. A 27.5" walleye, very big for this far North, came out of nowhere, lunged forward and engulfed the whole thing! What a rush! This was almost like "figure-8"ing a big pike or musky boatside! We slipped the landing cradle under the fish, snapped a couple pictures and released the lean, mean, beautifully colored, post-spawn female back, to be caught again next year.

"You're dead meat now!" I warned my buddy. He and the other two "plug chuckers" may argue the details; however, truth be told, the Big Hammer™ laid waste to the jerkbaits. I spent the next three days fishing nothing but the Big Hammer™ and caught more big fish, over 21", in three days, than I had in 4 years fishing Hanson during our opening long-weekend trip. I was continually amazed as fish after fish, gobbled the entire bait deep into their mouths.

In my younger years, growing up a river rat, the 4" Mister Twister Sassy Shad was a staple in my late fall, night-stalking walleye gear. In fact, this bait is credited for my largest walleye to date, a gorgeous, 11 pound trophy.

It is strange how, when we age and gain more experience, we often "move on" to places and tactics that others teach us or we read about as being the newest and best things going. For me, guiding, competitive fishing and fewer, yet more intense, adventures to far away places and more exotic fish species caused my thinking to become more and more diverse and specialized. With that Hanson Lake trip I had a reawakening. Spending the last 25 years refining and upgrading my fishing rods and equipment, tweaking finesse presentations, immersing myself in marine electronics, boating and the latest navigational breakthroughs, eventually brought me back… full-circle… to a long-time, greatly neglected friend… the swimbait.

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