Reader uses BDN novelty key chain to land a bass

A few years ago, in preparation for the Eastern Maine Sportsmen’s Show and other events we’d be staffing, a member of our promotions staff found a cool novelty item that we’d give to folks when they visited our booth.

David Baker of Glenburn recently caught a bass on a novelty BDN key chain that he fitted with hooks. (Photo courtesy of David Baker)

David Baker of Glenburn recently caught a bass on a novelty BDN key chain that he fitted with hooks. (Photo courtesy of David Baker)

Officially, they were key chains with the BDN logo emblazoned on them. But these key chains were designed to look like bass lures, and more than one avid angler told me that they planned on adding hooks and trying to catch a fish on our BDN bass keychain lure.

“Send us a picture if you’re successful,” I told them all.

And for the past several years, I’ve been waiting … and waiting … and waiting.

No photos arrived in my in-box.

I assumed that all efforts to catch fish with our key chains had failed.

Eventually, we ran out of BDN key chains, and never re-stocked our supply. But last week, I saw a post on Facebook that made me chuckle.

It seems that David Baker of Glenburn still had his key chain. And he’d finally decided to try to catch a fish with it.

You’ve read about Baker in these pages before. He and his sons are avid deer hunters, and Baker often checks in to let me know how their seasons have gone.

Here’s what Baker had to say about the fishing trip he’d recently enjoyed.

“After knocking over my tackle box into the bottom of my boat recently, I was forced to clean it out and reorganize it,” Baker wrote. “It was then I came across a novelty key chain/rattlin’ top water popper given to me when visiting the Bangor Daily News booth at the Eastern Maine Sportsmen’s Show in the UMaine field house about four years ago.

“At the time, I joked with my youngest son, Aaron, who seems to have been gifted with the ability to catch a fish in a mud puddle, that I was going to put some basic treble hooks on it and fish with it on our next trip,” he wrote.

“Fast forward to this past Sunday morning. We left the dock a little after 6:30 a.m. and headed toward our favorite spot for top water action on Pushaw Lake,” he wrote. “The sun was still warming the cool, crisp air and the water was as smooth as glass. While my boys rigged up with their lures of choice, I laughed and said, ‘Today’s the day my BDN key chain is going to catch a fish!'”

Now, I know for a fact that several others have said similar things over the years, including a buddy who carried his own key chain/lure all the way to Quebec and figured he’d hook a pike on it. To my knowledge, nobody had ever been successful.

Baker was.

“After 30 minutes and only one strike, I was starting to feel the pressure. Aaron had already landed a bass and two pickerel while Josh was reeling in another bass of his own,” Baker wrote. “It was time to dress up this basic top water popper with a bucktail-dressed treble hook to add some flash. Within a couple casts I hooked up on a small bass but after a brief acrobatic dance across the surface, he spit the hook.

“It didn’t take many more casts to hook up again, only this time I was able to bring the bass into the boat,” he wrote. “Having achieved my goal that started as a joke, I snapped a couple pictures and released this largemouth to live another day. While we don’t take the time to weigh and measure most of our fish, this one was about 16 inches and under two pounds.”

That’s not too big as far as largemouth bass are concerned. But that didn’t matter to Baker. “It certainly wasn’t the biggest fish in the boat this summer, but catching it on a key chain made it a memorable one,” he wrote. I’d agree with that assessment.

Thanks to Baker for passing along the story.

And while we’re talking about odd fishing lures, I’ll ask you this: What’s the weirdest lure or bait you’ve used to land a fish?

Stories and photos are welcome.

John Holyoke

About John Holyoke

John Holyoke has been enjoying himself in Maine's great outdoors since he was a kid. Today, he's the Outdoors editor for the BDN, a job that allows him to meet up with Maine outdoors enthusiasts in their natural habitat. The stories he gathers provide fodder for his columns, and this blog.