Check out this endorsement from Gary Howard

NSBA NATIONAL CHAMPION!

Let me start by saying as the 2006 National Striped Bass Association National Champion,  I just wanted to take a moment and say thank you. From the first time I contacted you, you were more than willing to take time out of your day to answer questions and provide guidance about your products. You assisted me with the selection of what you thought would work well for the waters I generally fish, and made the ordering process easy and painless. You even altered a bait to a color I wanted that you didn’t have in stock. I received my order as promised and it arrived rather quickly. Upon receiving the order, I was impressed with quality and craftsmanship. Your rigs are unlike any other I have ever seen. They are definitely made to catch fish, and big fish at that. After inspecting the rigs I could not wait to try them out. 

     As always the first chance I had to use them, the weather was at its best; pouring rain, winds blowing 10-15 mph gusting to 25 mph and a more than comfortable 36 degrees. Because the weather was bad, I decided to go somewhere close to the house. I live close to Lake Norman, NC and as you know it is a challenging lake at best. Shortly after leaving the ramp, I located a school of fish and decided to try the rigs. I put out the first rig and before I could get the second rig out, FISH ON. In 2 hours, on a difficult lake with less than ideal conditions, and with a lake that most tournaments are won with a 5½ lb. fish, I caught 9 fish over 5 lbs, with two breaking 6 lbs. I would have trouble beating that feat with live bait in ideal conditions, and I am impressed to say the least. COW-CATCHER UMBRELLA RIGS ARE AWESOME.

  As I used the rigs, I came to notice a few features of which I think are of particular importance. First they pull a lot deeper than any rig I have pulled before. I pulled my old rigs on 50# mono at 130 ft at 2.8mph and they would barely hit the bottom in 18ft. With these rigs I was reaching 24 ft deep under the same conditions. I consider this to be positive for three reasons. One is you don’t need downriggers to fish these rigs down to 30 ft deep. The second is that since you don’t have to use downriggers, and you don’t have to run them as far from the boat to get them down, you have more control over the baits because they are closer to the boat. When the baits are closer to the boat, that’s less distance to reel the fish in and/or less distance to reels in other rigs when one gets hung up and must retrieved. All of this means more time fishing and less time working the rigs. One other thing I noticed was that your baits don’t exert as much pressure on the rods as other rigs I have used, which means less wear and tear on your equipment and of course yourself too. Lastly, even with a double (two fish on one rig), you really don’t need a dip net to get the fish in the boat. The rig is more than strong enough to just simply lift the rig to put the fish in the boat. A huge plus when you are by yourself and trolling along at almost 3 mph.

  I am also impressed with your Umbrella Rig Retriever. Since your Rigs are much stronger than the other rigs, I was able to actually work them loose without using the retriever most of the time. But as you know, sometimes the retriever is going to be required. Because it weighs so much, I definitely found this to be the best retriever I have ever used. It sinks super fast, so fast you don’t even have to be exactly vertical over the rig. Secondly, I didn’t even have to jig the retriever up and down as I do with my older one, to get it to hook the rig. The retriever hooked the rig the first time every time. Lastly, I know your ad says it is strong enough to pull a motor up off the bottom. Well, I guess I needed to test that claim out.  Don’t sweat, because it worked. I actually, believe this or not (wish I had a camera), pulled a trolling motor up off the bottom. All fun aside, your retriever is by far the best retriever I have seen or used.

  Thank you for producing such great products. In these days it is hard to find someone as passionate about what they do as you are. You definitely have a product that is built for quality and not quantity, and for that I applaud you. I would definitely recommend Cow-Catcher products to anyone as an alternative to live bait and absolutely believe COW-CATCHER UMBRELLA RIGS ARE SUPERIOR to any other Umbrella Rig on the market today.