"It Slices...It Dices...It's the Niftiest of Devices"

So I'm no good at writing catchy advertising slogans. That's OK because, based on customer reviews I've read, the Ninja Grass Blade (see right) really doesn't need any slogans. Its reputation as a must-have item for any angler who ever fishes serious "slop" already is well-established.

Here's what one customer said: "I've had this for about a year. Here in Florida, there are plenty of weed-choked lakes and pads just about everywhere. Going in to flip heavy cover is a big part of our fishing, especially during the hottest parts of the year. Ninja Grass Blade has allowed me to get into the thickest areas--places I couldn't reach before I started using it--without fouling my trolling motor."

Another consumer said this: "I've run a Ninja Grass Blade for three years now and love it, as I fish the Big O in the winter and some grass-filled Ohio lakes in the summer."

The Ninja Grass Blade measures only 2 inches by 1.5 inches and attaches easily to the lower unit of your trolling motor with a piece of double-sided tape provided in the package. It's made from machined, chemically sharpened aluminum, which chops up vegetation with the greatest of ease as it gets sucked through the prop.

Tackle Warehouse, for one, sells these devices for only $29.99--not a bad price when you consider the headaches usually incurred with much older alternatives, such as the Weedmaster Weedguard, Mister Twister's Shear Magic prop blade, the Jens-Su, or Doug Hannon's original weedless prop.

Back in the 1970s and '80s, you saw a Weedmaster Weedguard on just about every trolling motor. The concept was pretty simple: Keep the weeds away from the prop, and you won't have to clean them off the motor. There was just one glaring problem with that kind of thinking. While the basket protected the prop, it had no effect whatsoever on those weeds that would wrap around the trolling-motor shaft, or that also would gather on the basket.

The net result was that the Weedguard only would work in an area without many weeds. If you were fishing some place like Guntersville or Okeechobee, so many weeds would get hung on the basket, the average man couldn't lift the trolling motor to clean it. And, too, without water flowing to the head from the forward direction, any ability to move nearly was lost.

The next thing to come along was the Doug Hannon weedless prop in 1980. He first looked into the science of propeller design, then studied how water moved around a prop, before designing a 3-bladed version that actually moved weeds away from it. His invention wasn't 100 percent effective, but it was much better than the Weedguard.

In the 2000s, Troy Jens came up with what he called the Jens-Su, a knife blade that attached to the head of the trolling motor. The blade was positioned just in front of the leading edge of the prop. As weeds accumulated on the prop, they were cut by the rotating motion of the prop against the Jens-Su blade.

The popularity and demand for the Jens-Su led to Mister Twister developing a similar product around 2009. It was called "Shear Magic." The device had two blades, both made of plastic. Unfortunately, production didn't last very long.

Bottom line here is that many trolling motors today come with weedless props (or you can purchase them at reasonable prices) capable of dealing with varying amounts of slop. It's only when you're fishing an area like Guntersville or Okeechobee that you likely will need an extra device, such as the Ninja Grass Blade.