Instant Demand Expands Range
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Northland® Fishing Tackle adds colors and sizes to summer’s hottest hit, the Minnesota Mullet
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BEMIDJI, Minn. (July 31, 2024) – Hair jigs have been a bass secret for years, with some companies even offering their own commercial versions of what top-finishers secretly tie on when it’s time for a kicker fish.
The problem? Most largemouth-intended bass hair jigs are too stiff, with more feathers than fluff. Northland took the opposite approach, creating a jig that has all the best attributes of a tiny marabou jig for rod-whipping giant bronzebacks (which Northland also makes) and combined it with a classic bucktail hair jig design.
Yes, the new Northland Minnesota Mullet has loft – and lots of it, for fishing everything from shallow water, over summer weed tops, to open water where largemouths go crazy eating young-of-the-year and even larger panfish. The Minnesota Mullet is a big, flowing, hovering, water pushing machine. The big hair features a synthetic fiber material that creates a breathing, lifelike appearance in the water while also providing flotation to the jig. This will allow you to hover the bait over flats, weed beds, and suspended fish while pulsing the hair, and its tantalizing back feathers tease big bass and other predator fish to absolutely annihilate the bait.
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And shortly after the release of the Minnesota Mullet, Northland comes with four new patterns and sizes. “Calls came quick to add black and sexy shad,” said Northland Marketing Manager, Charlie Peterson. Sexy shad is simply a bass staple, its blue-based rainbow hues blended with white. Black is increasingly popular, too, its natural silhouette intriguing to bass. Moreover, black is a frequent choice for anglers fishing in murky water and during lowlight periods, even nighttime hours.
Purple has become one of the hottest hues in bass fishing, spawning Northland’s new Minnesota Mullet in Purple Shad. Finally, Northland added Smelt to the collection. The naturalistic pattern mimics numbers of different baitfish species.
New sizes include 3/8- and 5/8-ounce Minnesota Mullets. “The new 3/8-ounce size will be hugely effective in shallow water, depths under 5-feet,” said Peterson. “Likewise, the heavier 5/8-ounce size makes the Minnesota Mullet effective down to 20-feet or more.”
Northland lure designer, Sam Larsen, offers: “Most of the best fish-catching baits are simple in design. We took that direction with the Minnesota Mullet, which is made of three materials on a premium Northland Elite Series Mimic Jighead with 60-degree upward hook-bend and heavy wire for solid hooksets. We utilized a unique, synthetic fiber with a lot of loft, buoyancy, and flow; a couple chicken feathers off the back that undulate like a trailer; and just the right amount of tinsel. Then you have the thread tied farther back on the jig hook shank so it’s really streamlined.”
“Especially in the upper Midwest, tournament bass anglers are going to town fishing big hair jigs for bigger bass. We knew we could create a better jig to use in the same manner in-the-know anglers have been doing for the past several years. There’s really nothing like it, especially given that we added an entire extra step to the jig production process by applying vertical lines to the material to give it an even greater forage-matching appeal. These baits look like the real thing that big bass eat,” continues Larsen.
“There is no other bass hair jig that hangs, pauses, breathes, and sheds water so easily, while remaining easy to fish. It gives the right suspending action while having a lot of material to push water—notify big bass of its presence—and really stimulate their lateral lines.”
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ABOUT THE NORTHLAND MINNESOTA MULLET
Born in the state of hockey, the Minnesota Mullet is a big, flowing, hovering, water pushing machine. This big hair jig features a synthetic fiber material that creates a breathing, lifelike appearance in the water while also providing flotation to the jig. This will allow you to hover the bait over flats, weed beds and suspended fish while pulsing the hair, and its tantalizing back feather that teases big bass and other predator fish to absolutely swallow it!
Currently available in ½- and ¾ ounce with other weights to follow soon. Right now, there are four forage-mimicking colors include Perch, Crappie, White, and Green Bluegill, with a bunch of additional patterns coming down the pipeline. MSRP: $14.99.
“In my opinion, the Northland Minnesota Mullet is a lot more than a midsummer, open water bait,” says winning bass pro, Noah Schultz. “I’ve been fishing ‘em since ice-out throughout the Midwest—everywhere from a foot of water out, through old reeds and cattails, and obviously, out deeper through weed flats and weed edges now. And, of course, it will come into play in open water when those fish move out. Right now, I’m fishing them around bluegill beds during the spawn, and then I’ll be fishing them over coontail and through cattails.”
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“The way I fish them primarily I call ‘floating’ – I just straight-retrieve the Minnesota Mullet over the weed tips and if I feel a weed tick, rip it a little bit,” adds Schultz.
As far as rock and deeper water, he’ll let the jig drop to the bottom and then swim along the bottom, occasionally twitching it to get hairs moving.
“Its success comes from its subtlety and how the Minnesota Mullet breathes, floats, and hovers in the water unlike a lot of bass hair jigs. Then you add the Elite Series Mimic Jig, and it stays level in the water column and the pointed nose gets through the grass like a rubber swim jig.”
Schultz has caught lots of tournament bass on it recently – including some top 2 and 3 finishes. “It’s a good kicker bait. The MN Mullet generates some big fish bites when you need ‘em most.”
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ABOUT Northland® Fishing Tackle
In 1975, a young Northwoods fishing guide named John Peterson started pouring jigs and tying tackle for his clients in a small remote cabin in northern Minnesota. The lures were innovative, made with high quality components, and most importantly, were catching fish when no other baits were working! Word spread like wildfire, the phone started ringing… and the Northland Fishing Tackle® brand was in hot demand! For 40 years now, John and the Northland® team have been designing, testing and perfecting an exclusive line of products that catch fish like no other brand on the market today. Manufactured in the heart of Minnesota’s finest fishing waters, Northland® is one of the country’s leading producers of premium quality jigs, live bait rigs, spinnerbaits and spoons for crappies, bluegills, perch, walleyes, bass, trout, northern pike and muskies.
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