Helin Flatfish

[Crestliner2008]

Has anyone had any sucess with these recently? I've uncovered an old tackle box in the attic with a few of these; from about 2", up to a couple of giants around 4" (T4's)! Growing up, I was always impressed with their slow, tantalizing action. I remember catching some big pickeral back then. Haven't used one in about 30 years though, which is why I'm asking.

[bigtimfish]

Pardon my lack of knowledge, but what is a Helin Flatfish? And how is it fished?

[roadwarrior]

Pardon my lack of knowledge, but what is a Helin Flatfish? And how is it fished?

http://www.yakimabait.com/online-catalog

Looks a lot like a Lazy Ike:

http://www.lazyike.com/

I haven't fished the Lazy Ike in decades,

but when I was a kid, we trolled the lures.

I caught my first walleye at Table Rock Lake

in the early 60's on a Lazy Ike.

8-)

[Dwight Hottle]

Great bait. Underutilized today. They catch all species. I have caught pike, steelhead, smallies, largemouth, crappie & lake trout on them. I think they were the original banana bait. Kwik fish, canadian wiggler, lazy ike, beano, etc are all in the same family.

[J Francho]

Great steelhead bait!

[Paul Roberts]

Great S-L-O-W lure, with intense action. Smallies and trout loved 'em. Probably still do.

Biggest problem, esp for LM, is they are one of the least weedless lures out there. Every little weed piece sticks to em like a magnet and kills 'em dead. IF you can find bass in weed and wood-free water, they would be worth a go. This year I threw a couple into my winter LM box, along with some Bull-Shot (they are very shallow runners), but...haven't tied one on yet.

Yup, steelies love 'em.

[RoLo]

You and I have nearly identical recollections.

Growing up, I too was impressed by their slow, tantalizing wobble (Lazy Ike came later).

I was also impressed by the ability of those tiny treble hooks to hang onto a thrashing fish.

My dad & I caught mostly chain pickerel, yellow perch and rock bass on flatfish. I especially liked one dubbed "SPS" (spinning surface).

It's also been about 30 years since I last retrieved a Helin Flatfish.

Roger

[CRFisher]

I took 20 years off from bass fishing so when I got back in last year a flatfish was one of the first lures I bought.  I had plenty of luck on it.  A slow retrieve is a understatement, slower than slow is best.  I've also fished it with some split shot to help keep it down.   Based on it's lack of "cache", I didn't throw it as much this year and regret it.  I had better luck with it than most other shallow cranks.   It's reputation is a trout/salmon lure but bass will hit it as readily as any Rapala or shallow crank. 

[Paul Roberts]

I took 20 years off from bass fishing so when I got back in last year a flatfish was one of the first lures I bought. I had plenty of luck on it. A slow retrieve is a understatement, slower than slow is best. I've also fished it with some split shot to help keep it down. Based on it's lack of "cache", I didn't throw it as much this year and regret it. I had better luck with it than most other shallow cranks. It's reputation is a trout/salmon lure but bass will hit it as readily as any Rapala or shallow crank.

Nice post CRF. Sounds like the banana baits are due some newfound "cachet".

[Tucson]

Funny timing on this post.  I replaced those hangers with just a treble hook at each screw-eye.  They do have a great slooooow wobble but those quad trebles are just too much.  I'll see how it works out.