4-30-08

More big LB on the AC!

AC Plug Pro Staffer Gabe Sanchez put together a great day recently including 2 big AC plug fish. He hung this nice 10 pound fish on the new 9" Original and also stuck an 8 pounder on the Mag Shad. This is a GREAT time of year to be out throwing the big baits guys...

3-24-08

New production wooden minnows are kicking butt !

Wakebait season is here! Don Pearson, a new AC Plug pro staffer, just sent us pics of a FAT 11 pounder that inhaled the new AC Plug 9" minnow. "I love the new baits" said Don. He also landed a 6 pounder the same day. If you love to fish the big stuff up top...start throwing that 9" Minnow!

2-12-07

Pig Striper Landed on 10" AC Casitas!

Allan has been fishing hard with the new 10" Casitas in hopes that he would stick a pig striper on it. Well, good things come to those who wait. Check out the largest striper landed on the river in several years! Way to go Allan!

12-22-07

Another great year for AC Plugs is in the books!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from the crew at AC Plugs. 2007 was an exciting year to say the least. 2008 will be even more crazy...keep checking back for some exciting announcements! We leave you with some cool pics from this year of some nice AC caught fish. Keep pounding it with ACs and you will be rewarded with the largest fish of your life!

We will leave you with this email from a happy customer sent to AC pro-staffer Mark Wiza:

I recently started reading some of your articles about large lures for lake trout, and having an open mindset, I decided I would try them out on my home lake (Fishlake, UT). I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I purchased a 9 inch original AC plug in dark rainbow color recently so that was my first choice. On my third cast of the day, (fishing from a pontoon) my rod dipped and about 20 minutes later, I landed a 23lb 8 oz lake trout. Shortly thereafter, I returned to the water and on my first cast out, the rod dipped again and about 15 minutes later, I landed a 15lb 3 oz. mackinaw. I have not since repeated a double digit weigh fish, but I have pulled more big fish using AC plugs this summer alone than I have my entire 21 years of existence. I recommend them to people at bass tournaments and people asking questions about how I catch big fish when no one else is catching anything. I just wanted to thank you for your great articles and your inspiring strategy in this beautiful sport we call mack fishing. I would recommend your literature or Allen Cole's handmade masterpieces to anyone, except to the competition. Thank you!

Sincerely, Chris W.

9-7-07

AC Plug Hand-Made 2 for 1 sale!

This is your chance to stock up for the upcoming trout and bass seasons. Allan is offering a 2 for 1 special on hand made orders over $100. Put your order in like normal...and Allan will double everything! This will only last for limited time...so get your orders in now!

8-11-07

Largest Lake Trout in the world for 2007 landed on AC Plug!

Marlin Coulombe has been chasing monster lakers at Great Bear lake for many years. This year he got into some toads including a 55 and a 69 pounder. The 69 pounder is the largest in the world, (that we know of) for 2007 and only pounds off of the all tackle world record.

7-31-07

ICAST show a big success ... The AC Plug® Swimbait Company got a booth at ICAST for the first time ever. Allan has been to the show with various other manufacturers over the years, but this was the first time he had his own booth.

"It was a lot of fun", Allan said after the show was over. The response to the Casitas and the new line of production wooden lures was great. The new "Minnow", "Original", "MagShad", "Skinny" and "StickBait" will ship around the middle to end of November. Here is a sneak peak!

6-15-07

Allan is Back!

You know Allan is feeling close to 100% when he is back to his big fish catching ways! He pulled this MONSTER brownie out of the Twins in California a couple of days ago. This is the largest brown landed in the state so far in 2007. This is Allan's 29th over 10 pounds since he started fishing for them. Nice to see you back to your old form Allan!

3-23-07

Allan Cole had a heart attack on the way home from the Fred Hall show... As many of you have already heard, Allan suffered a minor heart attack on the way home from the Long Beach Fred Hall Show. He was rushed to the hospital where the doctor told him he would need immediate open-heart surgery. Six of his major arteries were 90% blocked. The doctor told Allan he should have already died...but Allan had other plans.

After 8 hours of surgery, Allan emerged with a new lease on life. He declared "the bait wars are over"...meaning he is not going to be warring with the other guys who build similar style baits...kind of a peace offering. When his head cleared he decided to change the name of his business to the "AC Plug® Swimbait Company". There are a few other swimbait companies...but how fitting is it that the "Godfather" of swimbaits should have that in his company name.

He is recovering well from his operation and is optimistic about getting back to building lures and catching big fish. Obviously, all orders, including the Casitas orders will be a little delayed. We appreciate your understanding about this matter and will get caught up on everything as soon as possible.

2-1-07

The new AC Plug® Casitas is kicking butt!

Highlights on the new lure testing: Allan hooked a monster striper on his 3rd cast ever with the latest prototype (he was so shocked that he hooked the fish so quickly, he forgot to set the hook!). Allan's son Eric caught a quality Lake Mead striper in the first hours of using the lure. Allan landed 11, 10, 8, 6, 5 pound bass in his first 1.5 days of fishing the new lure. I am sure there will be many more big fish stories coming!

1-10-07

Thinking back on '06 it is hard to believe all of the incredible fish caught on ACs. Perhaps the most amazing was the 18 lb. 6 oz. largemouth bass caught early in the season by Steve Keene. This was the largest bass landed in the nation from a public lake (as far as we know). It is also the largest bass ever landed on an AC Plug in over 15 years. But more amazing than that was the fact that Allan caught his second largest bass of his life, a 16 pound 1 ounce beast, the same day, out of the same boat! As far as we know, this is the first time in the history of bass fishing that two bass over 16 pounds have been landed out of the same boat, on the same day.

Well, how do you top that? How about going out and catching the largest brown trout in California? That is exactly what Steve Keene did. He landed a huge 16 lb. 9 oz. brown trout out of upper twin lakes.

Also, perhaps the largest, documented river caught brown in California for 2006 was landed on the East Walker on an AC.

Another great story is that of AC Plug user Ryan, who landed this beautiful 12 pound 5 ounce brown trout . He did some research, rented a boat and landed a fish that dreams are made of. What a year!

12-8-06

It is about time for an AC Plug photo contest winner! Mike P. caught this quality 18.5 pound striper on "the river". The fish is fresh, the picture has a nice backdrop...it's the winner! There have been a lot of larger fish, but the contest is based on the clarity and quality of the picture. If you have pictures of any AC plug caught fish, make sure to enter them in the contest for a chance to win any AC plug of your choice!

11-11-06

Wiza does it again... Working a six inch AC Plug "Skinny" on a weighted topline, Mark Wiza hooked and landed this BEAST of a mack on SIX pound test. Dang...he says it took him 25 minutes to land the twenty pound fish...what a fight! He ended up keeping this one...and found two large baitfish in the gullet. I guess we know why it ate the AC =)

10-17-06

This is a neat story. AC Plug user Jim Sutherland decided to fish a derby up in Canada. He ended up taking first place in the bull trout division, largest overall fish (with the bull), and 3rd place in the rainbow trout division. A 7" AC Plug "Real Trout" caught the bull and a 6" kokanee colored AC Plug "Skinny" took the bow. Also, Jim hooked a friend up with some ACs a few weeks ago. He fished a big tournament up north and took home $4000 with a first place win...again on an AC!

9-12-06

Pike, Pike and more Pike... One of our forum members has been spanking the pike over the last few months on AC originals. He has several between 10 and 20 pounds including these quality 13 and 17 pounders. Pike feed exclusively on other fish...so if you target pike...toss an AC out there and hang on!

8-19-06

There are lots of quality stripers coming out of the Colorado river in the last month or so. Nothing really HUGE, but lots of 10-25 pounders. AC Minnows, Real Trout and Hatchery Trout are top pics for stripers.

7-20-06

Ok...fish like this don't come around very often. We had heard rumors that a 9 pound 8 ounce brown had come out of the East Walker river on an AC...but hadn't seen pics until now. This is a beautiful specimen... truly a fish of a lifetime!

7-9-06

Topwater Pigs! The AC minnow is a perfect lure for slow rolling along the surface as proven by these pics of some quality largemouth taken by pro staffer Bobby Barrack and a client. Next time conditions allow, give a slow rolled AC Minnow a try...you might be in for a HUGE surprise!

5-20-06

As Allan likes to say.... Steve is LUUUUCKYYYY! I am sure Steve would say there was skill involved when he nailed the largest brown on the west coast for 2006! He nailed the fish at Upper Twin in California...casting an AC Skinny from shore. Talk about some serious mojo...this is the same guy who landed the 18 pound, six ounce largemouth bass on an AC two months ago!!! Wow!!

5-11-06

New Zealand trout love ACs too! AC Plug user John sent us these pics of some nice trout he caught on his first day using ACs in New Zealand. He fished for rainbow trout at a lake and landed 5 fish over 4 pounds including a 6.5 pounder. On the way back to his lodging, he stopped by a little river he found and landed a nice 5 pound brown!

4-11-06

Big striper caught... Check out this pic of Allan's 48 pound monster! This fish grabbed an 11 inch AC Plug "Minnow" and pulled hard! It is the largest caught out of the entire Colorado River this year and may be the largest since Ryan Webb's 50 a year and a half ago.

3-10-06

LARGEST BASS IN THE NATION CAUGHT ON AN AC!! Don't know how to really start this one. Ok, let me try... Allan and Steve had a "lifetime" day, spanking a bunch of monster bass and setting some new AC Plug records. Here are some notables: Steve landed the biggest bass ever caught on an AC and his personal best at 18 pounds 6 ounces. Allan landed his second largest bass ever at 16 pounds 1 ounce. As far as we know Steve's fish is the largest bass caught in the US for 2006. We are hard pressed to remember anyone reporting two bass over 16 pounds caught out of the same boat on the same day.

p.s. I almost forgot to mention that Allan also got 5, 10 and 12.8 pounders! All of the bass were released unharmed.

2-13-06

You may have read about that epic laker bite that some of the AC guys got into....with 9 quality macks to 25 pounds in ONE HOUR of fishing! Well, here is the video clip with some of the action...

2-2-06

Check out this Alabama monster. Forty Pound Striper Club member Steve Logue nailed this fatty on a 12" original casting from a boat. The beast weighed in at 41 pounds. Look at the belly on this fish!

1-11-06

It's Mack Tonight! Some quality lake trout have been landed on ACs recently. Eric Cole got a monster 30 pounder from flaming gorge and Mike Arhets got into a 25 and a 22. Check out the mack trophy gallery to see the latest pics.

12-23-05

These fish were caught a couple of weeks ago...but a recent article was written about the catch so we thought we would put it up. The 47 and 42 pounders were caught within an hour of each other out of the same boat. Pretty remarkable to have two fish of this size caught like that. The giants grabbed AC Plug "Real Trout" lures...a fatal mistake. Check out the read here...

12-12-05

Browns going OFF! Allan got a call that the big ones were on the chew and decided to put one last trip in for the year. The BIG boys were on the prowl. Allan caught an 11.8 pound hen and a 10 pound buck within hours of each other on the same day! The next day he lost another huge fish at the boat. Eric Cole got an 8.5 pounder and another friend nailed a 13...WOW. All of the fish were PLUGGED with fingerling rainbows as they went on a last minute feeding binge before ice over. An 8" AC minnow and 6" skinny were the ticket this trip. This is number 28 and 29 over ten pounds for Allan...congratulations!

12-4-05

Check out this beautiful shot of a huge Tahoe brown caught on an AC. This is our latest photo contest winner. The fish went 13 lb. 3 oz. and hit a purple rainbow AC minnow. Congratulations to Mike who sent in the picture.

10-6-05

New article up! Check out this website's latest article by Allan's son, Eric Cole. Check out the pic below of the chewed AC original. You will have to read the article to figure out what did that to his lure =)

8-28-05

Just got this pic of a quality 26 pound mack in from Oregon. Nothing says it better than a testimonial:

I can honestly say it was the best two day trip I have ever had for macks. We caught 18 macks in two days and only three were under 15 lbs. The 8" skinny and 9" kokanee is what they wanted for dinner, all the fish were weighed and released after smiling for the camera. I have been fishing your lures for years now......keep up the great lure making.

Phil

8-25-05

New AC Plugs Released! Allan has just added two new lures to the AC Plugs arsenal. Meet the AC Plug "Bass Attack" and the AC Plug "Triple Real Trout".

The Triple Real Trout is a modification to the existing Real Trout. Allan added a third joint to accent the already existing deadly action. It will work well for any species that feeds on trout or other small trout-like fish.

The new Bass Attack is a unique lure that takes a chugger type face and adds it to a large AC Plug body. This lure really tears up the surface and will be deadly on stripers and largemouth...especially at night.

7-26-05

Update 8-17-05: Jim stuck it out with the larger ACs and it has paid off BIG time with this monster 20 pound Gerrard rainbow trout. The old adage is true, larger lures = larger fish. You may not catch as many fish...but over time you will get the big boys.

Angler Jim Sutherland has been targeting trophy rainbows up in British Columbia with ACs lately. He noticed that the large rainbows have been keying on kokanee so he purchase some AC Kokanees to try. Check out the nice 11 pound, buck rainbow he landed last weekend. Beautiful!

7-9-05

Finally! Allan has been chasing the big stripers all year and had yet to get a true monster...until now. He busted this FAT 42 pounder yesterday at Willow Beach. The beast slammed an AC Hatchery trout and took out some serious line before Allan got him to the boat.

6-8-05

ACs nail saltwater species too! Just got this pic in of a quality yellowtail that mistook an AC Plug "Mag Shad" for his lunch. I mentioned the fish to Allan and he told me a neat story about a FAT 70 pound, (yes I said seventy!) yellowtail that was landed on an AC in New Zealand a few years back. Other saltwater species that have been caught on ACs include: thresher shark, calico bass, barracuda, bluefin tuna, roosterfish, white seabass and others. COOL!

*added 7/2 After seeing his picture up on the site, Brian was inspired to put his mag shad on a party boat recently and busted the fat 30 pounder below. It ended up being the jackpot fish!

5-6-05

Brown Trout Bonanza! It has been a good early season for monster browns. Here are the top four AC caught fish so far this season. They include a 16-4, 14-8, and 9-0. Dang those are nice fish!

5-12-05

Pro Staffer Bobby Barrack has been spanking some nice stripers on ACs recently. He specializes in trophy fish and fishes the California Delta. Check out the picture below of a FATTY striper that he put one of his clients onto. Bobby has also been getting some big largemouth on slow rolled ACs. Anyone interested in a guided trip can email Bobby for details.

5-6-05

Smallmouth love ACs too! Legendary angler Danny Stearman caught this porkbellied smally while chasing browns recently...nice fatty!

4-24-05

Forum member "Trout Hunter" sent in these sweet pics of an 18 pound mackinaw and a 6 pound brownie he caught recently. He caught these fatties up in Oregon where things are heating up after the recent trout opener.

4-9-05

A recent morning trip for Pro Staffer Mark Wiza produced a 10 pound lake trout and a fat 27" rainbow that literally inhaled an AC original. Love these pics! With the official trout opener approaching, now would be a good time to pick up some of our new trout kits. Allan hand picked each lure that goes into the kits...you know they are going to catch fish!

3-25-05

AC Monster Bass Blitz!! In a three day period, Allan Cole, Steve Keene and a friend landed over 100 pounds of largemouth bass! This total included a 13, 11.5, 11.25, 10.3, 10, 9.75, 8.5, 8, 6, 6, 5.5 and a 5.25. The AC has been targeting bass for over 14 years...and still can produce catches like this...amazing!

3-14-05

Congratulations to our first winner in our bi-monthly photo contest, Anthony Botello. He sent in this awesome picture of a monster rainbow caught in California. Look closely at that dorsal fin...this aint no hatchery fish! We will have another winner in 2 months or so...don't forget to enter!

2-15-05

Allan was casting around Lake Mohave recently and smacked this fat 24.11 pound striper. He then started flat lining a 9 inch AC "real trout" and hammered a 19.12 pounder. NICE!

1-25-05

AC Plugs is proud to announce the addition of Bobby Barrack to our Pro Staff lineup. Bobby is an expert on the California Delta, specializing in trophy largemouth and stripers. He brings many years of trophy hunting to the table and is excited about the prospect of big AC Plugs for monster fall stripers.

1-20-05

Long time AC Plug® users Steve Keene and Bruce Haggen took a road trip to the gorge recently and busted some quality lake trout. All fish were released including several over 20 pounds. Check out these unique shots...

1-15-05

Forum member "T.F." sent us this video of his personal best brown. He put on an AC Skinny and hooked up 20 minutes later... Any other AC Plug users who want videos put up can mail them to Allan and we will edit and upload them for you =)

12-30-04

AC Plug® Pro Staffer Rick Arnold is now offering guided trips targeting trophy bull trout in Oregon. Lake Billy Chinook is the only place in the continental US where you can catch bull trout over 5 pounds with any consistency. You can target these fish most of the year so be sure to visit his website to book a trip if you are interested in chasing this elusive char.

12-13-04

Pro Staffer Mark Wiza just contacted us with the news of this HUGE 25 pound Lake Tahoe Mack he caught last week. He was top-lining a 7inch AC Plug "Minnow" in shallow water when the brute exploded on it. Update: check out the story of this fish in Mark's article over at the sniffer.

12-11-04

Finally...a largemouth bass worthy of the front page! Yoshida traveled all the way from Japan to sunny So Cal to nail this beautiful 10 pounder. The fatty charged an AC Plug "Real Trout".

12-6-04

AC Plug® Pro Staffer Ryan Webb recently landed this 50 pound striper. This is the largest striper landed at Cottonwood Cove in almost 4 years! He busted the fish using a 9inch AC Plug "Minnow". He also hooked and lost another monster the same trip.

*Video highlights added 12/26/04

11-22-04

Finally got this pic up...Allan went to Silverwood a couple of weeks ago...and guess what? He landed the largest fish of the entire season for the lake on his only trip there this year...sheez. The fish was 39 pounds and hammered an 11 inch AC Hatchery Trout.

11-7-04

Allan just got back from a two day trip targeting big trout. He landed over 50 fish topped by two browns over 5 pounds, 6 and 10 pound macks and some nice rainbows to 3 pounds. All but a few dinner fish were released to fight another day. Video highlights will be coming soon!

*Update!! Click here for video highlights...

10-29-04

Just got this nice picture of a huge 50 inch musky caught and released by AC Plug user Jim Turpin out of Wisconsin... What a fish!

10-6-04

AC Plug forum member Jdubbya has been getting some nice browns of late. Below are pictures of two of the larger fish he has landed in the last few weeks. As the water cools in the fall, the bigger browns begin to stir. Nice job for a young, up and coming trophy angler!

9-15-04

Check out this short video of a few of Allan's latest striper catches. The clip is topped off by a fat 33 pounder that he got last week...sweet!

7-21-04

Kids can catch 'em too! Just got this picture in of 8 year Colin who caught and released this awesome 5 pound brown trout. Congratulations Colin! He landed the fish using a 7" A.C. Plug® "Mag Shad".

7-16-04

...and the winner is.... forum member "winterkillnv"! Our Lamiglas contest ended yesterday and the random drawing was held. Winterkillnv won the Lamiglas XC-807 "Big Bait Special" Swimbait Rod that we were giving away for this particular contest. This is a perfect rod for throwing the big baits and also works well for trolling the larger plugs for browns. Congrats! Look for another contest to be held for a high-end baitcasting reel in the next few weeks =]

6-18-04

Allan has been hooking a few of the larger grade stripers in the last couple of weeks. The fish came on an 11" hatchery trout and a 9" minnow. Click on the picture to view a short video of some of the highlights..

5-24-04

Mark Wiza, a writer with the Fish Sniffer, was toplining the other day on one of his favorite lakes....and BAM...he hooked a 20 pound laker on an A.C. Plug® "Hatchery Trout ". You can read more of the story here. That is the largest CA mack on an AC so far this year.

5-17-04

Forum member "hookjawfreak" got his first sizable brown on an AC Plug®. It weighed in at 8.5 pounds and was hooked on a 5 inch original. True to his handle...it was a hookjaw. Seems like a lot of the bigger fish we have been seeing this year have been males.

4-16-04

Macks on the move! Just got this picture in...it really is a beautiful fish...so we had to post it on the front page. This lucky angler hooked this 14 pound laker on a 7 inch original. This is a very nice fish for the lake he was fishing.

4-7-04

Watch Allan Cole and Jim Bringhurst catch and release some nice lake trout to 20 pounds or more. These highlights were from a trip in '94 when they couldn't keep the fish off their lures. Most of these fish were caught on originals.

3-20-04

Check out some vintage video highlights of Allan pulling on some stripers from '94. At the end of the video a disbelieving angler checks out Allan's catch for the day...pretty interesting stuff.

3-12-04

Allan has been chasing Stripers on the river lately. Here is a small snippet of his latest catch. He hooked a bigger fish the same day that pulled the hook. How big was that fish? We will never know =]

2-29-04

A.C. Plugs is proud to announce that all lures will now be exclusively using owner cutting point® treble hooks. If we say that the A.C. Plug® is the ultimate lure, then we have to use the ultimate hooks. We are the first hard bait that we know of that will be shipping with high-end owner trebles stock. These are a much more expensive hook than the VMCs, but we are not raising plug prices.

2-21-04

Here are some video highlights from Allan's latest Largemouth Bass trip. Even with tough fishing conditions, (no other fish were weighed in while he was at the lake) he still managed to catch and release 91/2, 8 and 4 pounders.

1-25-04

Check out this amazing footage of quality largemouth nailing the A.C. Plug® in Japan...you have to see it to believe it.

12-08-03

Another big one for Allan (48.5 pounds)...that makes two over 40 in as many weeks...

12-3-03

Allan posts another huge striper...this one at 41.4 pounds. He hooked this beast on the A.C. Plug® "Hatchery Trout " seen hanging from the fish's maw.

11-24-03

Allan decided that the timing was right to go out and chase some big stripers...needless to say, he got em! Five quality fish to 26 pounds...not bad.

10-03

BrownBagger Jim Bringhurst caught and released this 12 pounder in Oregon...what a fish! He hooked this one on an A.C. Plug® "Minnow". Check out the size of that adipose!

8-11-03

Allan caught these two monster stripers (32 and 36 pounds) ...just another couple of days fishing for him. These would have been the fish of a lifetime for most.

7-25-03

Allan has been bustin' the Stripers lately...including this 22 pounder caught on an A.C. Plug® "Minnow".

7-03-03

Allan did it again. He got the "brownbaggers itch" and headed up to north/eastern California to see if he could get a big one. Sure enough he pulled out the biggest fish of the season for the lake he targeted...a lake that has received huge amounts of pressure since opening day. Yep, the A.C. Plug® has still got it after all these years!

6-23-03

Mark Wiza over at the Fish Sniffer wrote a great article on chasing big Macks in the Tahoe area. On his first time ever using an A.C. Plug® he hooked, landed and then released an estimated 15 pound Laker out of a heavily pressured lake!

6-8-03

The A.C. Plug® was featured on Hank Parker's Outdoors via TNN. The show was titled "Swimbaits and Trophy Hunters". Guess which plug caught the largest fish of the show? You guessed it...the original and the best!

5-29-03

Allan Cole hooks and lands the 5th largest Brown ever caught on the west coast! The beast weighed in at over 26 pounds and was Allan's largest in 36 years of chasing these monsters. This fish was caught on a 5 inch A.C. Plug® "Minnow" in the Rainbow Trout color.