FINLANDIA-UISTIN
OY LURES
—
FOR THE NEW MILLENNIUM —
PLUGS
SPOONS
SPINNERS
A Review by John Worzencraft
Edited by Nick Caine
PLUS OUR
"WIN A NILS MASTER LURE"
COMPETITON !
INTRODUCTION
by
Managing Editor, Nick Caine
We’re
sure that many of you will have most likely read some of leading lure-angler
John Worzencraft's many other articles elsewhere on the 'Net, his excellent
chapters in Charlie Bettell's book "The
Art of Lure-fishing",
and reviews and articles in monthly angling magazines etc., so we are very
grateful to John for
reviewing the Nils
Master and Bete
ranges of lures for the New Millennium. Not only that, the Company, Finlandia
Uistin Oy, who design and manufacture these lures, have very kindly
offered one of their new jerkbaits as a Competition
prize (see below).
As well as this over-view of the Nils Master & Bete lure ranges, we will be running a follow-up article based on a season's use of these lures by John & his lure-fishing friends, so look-out for that, later-on in the year.
Well, that's enough from me .... let's see what John has to say about the current Nils Master and Bete lures:-
BACKGROUND TO NILS
MASTER & BETE LURES
From
their Finnish factory in Kalkkinen,
not far from Helsinki, brothers Hannu
& Kalevi Kangas have been designing, making, tank-testing,
and fishing with, their range of lures for over 40 years, so you can bet your
boots that they know what they're doing by now, especially as they lure-fish
for food as well as fun!
Their
range of lures is split into plugs under the
Nils Master brand,
and spoons & spinners under the Bete
brand-name. Although
Nils
Master and Bete
will be familiar names to experienced lure-anglers, the Company behind these
two world-renowned brand-names may be less well-known: Finlandia
Ustin Oy., which simply means Finlandia
Lures Ltd.
NILS
MASTER PLUGS
BIGMOUTH
To strengthen their classic and highly-successful range of Nils Master plugs,
in 2001 Finlandia
Ustin launched
a revolutionary, hi-tech lure design, the Big
Mouth. This is
plug 
with
a truly designed-in hydrodynamic action — designer Tani
Muhonen used tank-testing observations, lake & river tests and finally
computer-aided enhancements to perfect this lure.The
result is quite a remarkable lure that can be fished both by the traditional
cast & retrieve techniques and by trolling.
INVINCIBLE
Invincible
by name and invincible by results, this range of plugs from Nils Master has
accounted for both the Finnish Record pike of 41 lb 7 oz (18.8 kg) and the
Swedish Record pike catch of 38 lb 13 oz (17,6 kg), remarkable achievements
by lures and anglers alike, especially against competitive lures from that
other world-famous and much bigger Finnish lure-company!
As
well as the standard Nils
Master Invincibles, the range now includes a deep-diving and
a sinking version, and more recently, to cater for the recent trend, a Jerk-bait
version.
Right
at the other end of the size and weight scale, to cater for the exponents
of the equally effective ultra-light techniques, there's the tiny Finlandia-S.
In
the Nils Master middle-weight range, the twin plugs Stalwart
& Spearhead are still as successful as ever and have been
joined by the Haka Shallow,
Deep-diving
and Sinking plugs and their big sister,
the Jumbo
Table 1 (below) summarises the current ranges of Nils Master plugs, their sizes, their weights and the huge range of patterns & colours available.
|
BETE SPOONS &
SPINNERS
Finlandia Uistin Oy's range of
Bete spoons &
spinners is summarised in Table 2 (below) — check-out the Trolling
Spoon and the Nix
weedless spoon! If you're a keen bass angler, then the Jämtland's
the spoon for you!
Of course, the classic Krokodil and Utö spoons are still holding their own, and are truly a must for every lure-box, and if you're a true spinning and hybrid-lure fanatic, there are now two sizes & weights in the Bete Lotto hybrid-spinner range for you.
On the other hand, if you fish seriously deep and/or fast waters, and need a big heavy spoon, there's the classic, big, beefy Bete Turku spoon, named after the Finnish south-west coastal town (see map above).
As well as the ranges of sizes and weight of the Bete spoons and spinners in Table 2, check-out the huge range of patterns and colours too!
|
IN CONCLUSION
I hope that you
have found this review of the current ranges of Nils Master & Bete lures
useful; for sure, you'll be missing-out if you don't have some of them in
your lure box — you
can't Bete a
Nils Master !
Over the next season, together with half-a-dozen lure-fishing friends, we'll be checking-out the current range of Finlandia Uistin Oy's Nils Master & Bete lures, especially the newer ones that we haven't used before, such as the Big Mouth, Haka, Jerk, Jumbo & Finlandia-S plugs and Jämtland & Nix spoons — why don't you do the same?!
Our
results will be included in a follow-up article later-on in the year. In the
meantime, you have a chance to win your own Nils Master Jerk
plug
(see below) and if you
have any difficulty finding the classic or the new Nils Master & Bete
lures, please e-mail the Editor (Nick) or Deputy Editor (Brian) 
and they will be able to help you. Good Luck & Good Fishing!
John Worzencraft.
Another
of "Quick"
Nick's
COMPETITIONS !
WIN A NILS MASTER JERK-BAIT LURE !
FINLANDIA-UISTIN
OY Nils Master &
Bete Competition
You could win one of these nice new Nils Master jerk-bait
lures, very kindly donated by FINLANDIA UISTIN OY,
by correctly answering the following two questions:-
1. How many brand-name lures are in the current Nils Master and Bete ranges from FINLANDIA-UISTIN OY ?
2. Which wood is used to make the 12, 15, 18 & 25 cm Nils Master Invincible plugs ?
The Closing Date
for this Competition is 16 June 2005. Please submit your Entry (one only per
angler, please!) to me at .
The Winner will be picked at random from all the correct entries. No correspondence
will be entered into re: the Competition and the Editor's decision is final.
Good luck !
Nick Caine
Managing Editor
Please
click here to review the NilsMaster range
Please click
here to review the Bete range
Please
click here to go back to our Home Page