Mike Schoonveld

Since my kids were little, most Friday night dinners at my house have been “Fishy Fridays.” Now I’m a grandpa and the grandkids know if they’re at my house on a Friday evening, they’re going to have fish for supper as well.
Fresh fish is best, but though I fish a lot, I can’t guarantee enough recently-caught fish will be available to provide a meal for my wife, my family, friends or even myself every Friday. So, I head for the deep freeze.

The term posed in the title of this column is specifically about all the fishing lures I own and what I do with them. I’ve probably got a million of them – OK, likely just thousands – but I’m way past several hundred.
If someone pointed to one of the multitude of lures I own and asked why I bought it, I offer one of five pat answers, depending on the lure.

It’s been said that a secret is not a secret if more than one person knows it. That’s why the trolling technique called the “Secret Weapon Rig” is so poorly named.
I learned of it long ago and it’s so widely used in some areas that fishing reports from those ports just call it the “SWR.” It’s not really that much of a secret, but I have another secret to share: It really works. Here’s what it is.