Abby Bogarts the Sauce!

As everyone has probably seen in recent months, “Slab Sauce” and “G Sauce” have kind of been the rage lately! It seems that once someone posted their initial thoughts, comments, and own personal field testing, the flood gates opened and Slab was inundated with orders. It’s one thing to have a “professional” on television or the internet “recommend” the usage of a product, but I have a hard time believing that they sell much of these products. We see them tout a new device, new bait, or new lure, and we instantly dismiss the hype simply because we know that these people are paid to represent a company or a product line. How much of what they are saying is actually true? Does it really work or are they just saying it because that is what they are getting paid to do? That is why the progression of “Slab Sauce” is so interesting!



Unlike paid advertisers that work for a company, the majority of the field testing, comments, and hype that surrounds “The Sauce” has come from Crappie Dot Com members. None of us (well, accept for “G” maybe) is getting paid to represent this product. Sure, Slab has sent samples of this stuff to different people for them to test, but he did it knowing that the product worked. The meaning behind the message wouldn’t have been clear if it simply came from the person that created and sells the product. That is what makes the hype all the more interesting. You can search Crappie Dot Com and find tons of success stories. All the testers probably went in to it with some form of reservation. Can this stuff really be as good as everyone claims it to be? The answer to the question: YES! Don’t be surprised if someone doesn’t WIN a major crappie event very soon using this product! You heard it here first. And the winner won’t be someone that is sponsored by this product. It will be someone that has purchased it with their hard earned money after reading reviews of the many of us that share our success stories about this product. Heck, if it was me, I’d want to keep it to myself.

I’ve been involved with testing and evaluation of products for more than 15 years. The primary reason why is because I possess two sets of skills that are very important in the testing and evaluation phase of a product. One of which is the ability to express the facts and findings in the written word. I don’t sugar coat things. The other skill is my ability to setup tests that provide accurate results in real world environments. The ability to show accurate comparisons between products. Basically, does it catch more fish?

The information below was NOT a test for myself. I’ve already tested and evaluated the product and know what it can do. Instead it was a test to provide the reader with a real world, no bull comparison! For me, when testing a product, everything must be equal! It would be very hard to put two people in the boat, give them a soft plastic affixed to a jig, spray one with “Slab Sauce” and leave the other bare, and do a good comparison. Each person has their own rhythm, their own cadence. One day you have it, the next day you don’t. You also cannot park over one area, jig some fish, and expect it to be a good comparison. The area of the boat, the area of the structure, the area where the fish are holding, all of this will factor in to the outcome.

For this to be a fair an accurate comparison, I needed THREE people!
The setup:
We would be slow trolling overtop of 11 to 14 feet of water directly next to a weed bed and floating vegetation. Each of us would be utilizing a live minnow rig directly under the boat as we trolled along. Each person would have one size number 4 gold Aberdeen hook, the same sized split shot, and a minnow hooked through the lips. We are all running Stren original mono in 6lb test.

The sauce:
Abby, my 11 year old daughter who has about 8 years of fishing experience chose the “G Sauce” (Garlic).
Brian, who has about 15 years of experience, all under my tutelage, would be sporting the original “Slab Sauce”.
Me, with more than my share of experience, (more than 38 years), would be using a plain minnow.

Once we found the proper depth that our baits need to be at, all of us would set our rods to that depth. Additionally, Brian and I would be casting soft plastics towards the floating vegetation (a deadly tactic in this body of water). We are doing this to see if the fish are more active under cover or directly under the boat. NONE of the casted soft plastics would be sprayed with any “Sauce”.

As you can see, Abby held her sauce very close! The reason is coming… FYI: She said the “G Sauce” smelled like garlic bread!



On the first pass, Abby was the only one that hooked up with a crappie on her minnow rig



As the evening progressed, Abby caught fish after fish after fish. Understand that she had her feat in the water, splashing around, and her bait only 4 to 5 feet below the surface. I allowed her to do this to continue with an accurate test. Were the fish attracted to the sauce or her feet splashing in the water? One would think that the splashing would rappel the fish in these clear waters where crappie are often boat shy. Was the smell of the garlic too much to resist?



I would love to show you tons of photos of Brian and I catching fish BUT… that really wasn’t the case with our minnow rigs. Abby ended up catching 12 fish (all on the Garlic). Brian caught 5 fish (on the original sauce) and myself, the lonely person fishing with a plain live minnow with zero attractant? I caught 1 fish!!!!!

We ended the night with 29 fish. 11 of which came on soft plastics casted into lily pads. As much as I wanted to switch everything over to a minnow and Garlic combo, I didn’t want to screw up my test. Besides, I would have had to fight Abby tooth and nail to get that stuff away from her!

Understand that results and outcomes can change minute to minute and from one day to the next. We all know this when it comes to fishing. A hot bait today can be a dud the next time you hit the water. Sometimes, live bait out produces soft plastics. Other times, the movement and vibration of soft plastics is hard to beat. I never would have expected the results of a live bait test would be this skewed. The smile on her face should say it all. Oh she bragged about it! That she did. But we wouldn’t have it any other way!