Meet the Dink, the new smaller swimbait from Osprey

  
Impressions: Osprey started by releasing jointed wooden baits and since has transitioned to plastic swinmbaits a decade ago, and since that time the company has changed ownership and released a flurry of new baits. The Osprey lures in the past haven’t been the most lifelike swimbaits, but made up for it with tournament proven performance. Most famous in the Osprey line are the company’s admired Talon series baits which feature a flat back and an enlarged head and very active side to side wagging tail. Since the Talon’s introduction there have been countless knock offs from companies trying to make improvements to the original hand poured design. With the style becoming so fashionable it is no surprise that Osprey is adding a new bait to their lineup.

We head to Lake Sonoma in wine country to toss the Dink, the submerged timber comes in the form of drowned redwoods

The Dink is arguably Osprey’s most natural looking swimbait to date when it comes to profile. The Dink imitates a small trout and has plenty of protruding fins to help make the bait appear even more realistic. A very nice touch is the open mouth design which helps create an added element of realism to the lure.

The Dink comes in a plain clamshell

Like most Osprey lures the Dink appears to be poured in layers and makes abundant use of glitter to add more flash and depth to the lure. There are twelve patterns available ranging from the traditional light rainbow to the stealthy ghost rainbow and shad. The Dink also does come in some rather striking varieties including bluegill, baby bass, and a chartreuse shad pattern that has “Striper” written all over it. Each lure weighs in just under 1.8oz and all are 5.5” in length, the lure is designed to be a slow to moderate sinking swimbait and can be fished with either light swimbait rods or even flipping sticks.

The Dink is a small swimbait, here we compare it side by side with the Baitsmith 6" swimbait

Real World Test: To test the Dink we fished Lake Sonoma in the heart of California wine country, Stevens Creek Reservoir which is routinely stocked with trout, and our home water on the Delta. We targeted both largemouth bass and stripers with the lures and fished the Dink on a variety of swimbait rods, many of which were covered in our recent Swimbait Rod Wars.

Under the sun the weighted design becomes visible on the Ghost Rainbow pattern

The Dobyn's 795ML is overkill for the Dink, but it works