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Las Vegas, Nev. – The city in the desert is anything but a wasteland for fishing fanatics at the 50th edition of ICAST. Companies have come from around the world to show off their wares to the media and the rest of the industry. As could be expected, there are many innovations and award winning products to wade through, and The BASS Zone has compiled some of them for The BASS ZONE Viewers.
Pure Fishing
The Spirit Lake, Iowa firm Pure Fishing is always at peak performance when it comes to innovation, and their products are usually in line for some sort of award as Best of Category, if not Best of Show, and 2007 has been no different.
Pure Fishing won three Best of Category awards this year. Their new Berkley Tec Pistol Grip fish grabbers won for Best Fishing Accessory, and the new Gulp! Alive! was named Best Soft Lure as well Stren Microfuse Blue Glacier Florescent was named Best in the line category.
While the Pro Tec pistol grip will have limited use for BASS ZONE viewers, Gulp! Alive! and Stren Microfuse have distinct bass fishing applications. Gulp! Alive! is a minnow shaped soft bait that comes in its own minnow bucket that is filled with Gulp liquid. Gulp! Alive! will be an effective lure for use on jigheads, split shot rigs or drop shot rigs.
Stren Microfuse is a thermally fused Dyneema P.E. superline that is highlighted in a Glacier Blue florescent color that is illuminated by a black light. Stren Microfuse will be an excellent superline for fishing at night.
Berkley also introduced a new finesse football jig designed by 2006 Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year Mike Iaconelli. Ike’s Jig will be available in two sizes, 3/8 and 1/2-ounce, and five colors.
The Abu Garcia Revo received two new members of the family, the Revo Premier, and the Revo Inshore, the Premier is a six bearing reel with all of the features of the original Revo, but at 6.3-ounces is the lightest aluminum reel on the planet.
The Revo Inshore is a light saltwater version of the Revo that is beefed up to withstand the rigors of harsh saltwater conditions. Revo Inshore weighs 8.68-ounces and its increased line capacity might make it ideal for swimbait enthusiasts who want a low profile reel.
www.purefishing.com
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Snag
Proof
The latest edition of Bassmaster
Magazine featured an article that
told the story of Snag Proof
Manufacturing’s venture into the
jig market. The Bass Grabber jig is
a flipping jig that was presented to
the company by television host and
angler Charlie Ingram of Fishing
University.
The Bass Grabber features a
Gamakatsu EWG Double Hook and dual
weed guards that are designed to
give anglers a greater chance at
hooking fish that strike the jig.
Bass Grabber also features a trailer
keeper on the bottom of the jig head
that holds a plastic trailer
securely against the bottom of the
jig. |
Snag
Proof President Harry Ehlers said that
this jig was the logical first step to
expanding Snag Proof’s line outside of
hollow bodied weedless lures. “The
double hook just fits with our product
line,” Ehlers told The BASS ZONE. “It
was a way for us to expand and stay in
line with our double hook tradition.” www.snagproof.com
Vicious Fishing
Elite pros like Pete Ponds, Jeff Reynolds Jason Quinn and Kurt Dove have been exposing the fishing world to the outstanding properties of Vicious’ fluorocarbon and copolymer fishing lines. This year the Alabama company presented their initial offerings into the lure market with a new line of lures, some of which are designed by Elite Series Pro Russ Lane.
Vicious Fishing has been licensing their branding to outside companies, and Choo Choo Customs constructed a line of spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, jigs and shaky heads that Vicious displayed in their booth. All of the products are exceptional, but the one that really stood out was a heavy grass punching flipping jig called the Titan. The Titan is available in sizes up to one and a half ounce.
‘Big Daddy’ Russ Lane teamed up with Davis Bait Company to produce his Vicious signature series baits. The Russ Lane Signature lures feature a flipping jig, a spinnerbait and a buzzbait. Each of the lures were painstakingly designed and tested by Lane. Lane also came up with a new flipping craw called the Big Daddy Craw that will be hitting store shelves as well.
www.vicious-fishing.com
River2Sea USA
The Northern California manufacturer who sponsors Elite Series Pros Bill Lowen and Byron Velvick introduced four new products at ICAST this year. Kong is a double jointed hard plastic swimbait that will be available in two sizes, a six and a half and a nine-inch model. Each model comes in both a floating and slow sinking versions.
The Rover 230 is a nine-inch jumbo sized topwater walking bait that was designed for peacock bass and saltwater that will have an effect on trophy bass fisheries like Clear Lake and Lake Amistad. The monster walking bait is already taking huge fish in Southern California by River2Sea’s pro staffers. |
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The Nest Raider is a specially designed waterdog / salamander that is intended as a bed fishing tool. The seven-inch bait is equipped with a heavy internal head that makes a fish pick up the lure to move it off a bed. The shape of the lead, as well as an air chamber in the tail make this lure look like it is rooting the bottom. Nest Raider is equipped with a fluorocarbon weed guard and a massive black nickel hook.
Rivr2Sea’s jig family expanded this year to include their new Junk Grenade flipping jig. The custom designed jig features River2Sea’s Natural Matte Finish, a hand tied skirt with both silicone and flat rubber, a big bite round bend jig hook and a two barrel tungsten rattle.
www.river2seausa.com
Strike King
The Collierville, Tenn. Lure maker added several new products to their huge line of lures this year. Along with their new Tour Grade shaky heads and football jigs designed by Three Time Bassmaster Angler of the Year Kevin Van Dam, Strike King brought new soft plastic baits to the market.
Their new Rage Tail soft plastic family features a tail design that moves an incredible amount of water and makes a huge amount of racket on the surface, as well as vibration under the water. Designer Steve Parks and Factory Dealer Account Manager Crispin Powley showed off the Rage Tail baits. Rage Tail will be available in four bodies, a soft plastic swimming frog, a craw type bait as well as a jig trailer and a shad bodied bait that is designed to be rigged through the flat side with a large extra wide gap style hook and fished on top like a buzzbait.
Powley said that he tested the Rage Tail Baits with angling legend Denny Brauer who showed Powley how much action the jig trailer had. “Denny put a 4/0 weightless hook in the trailer and threw it in the water,” Powley told The BASS ZONE. “That bait started to sink and the arms started waving back and forth frantically, and I knew we had an awesome bait on our hands.”
| Powley also showed off Strike King’s new Coffee Tubes. Through extensive testing, the company has found that coffee grounds seem to trigger an incredible feeding response in fish. So, they began experimenting with a Coffee flavoring and scent in their Denny Brauer and Kevin Van Dam tubes. Powley said that during filming of promotional videos, professional angler and videographer Kim Stricker called and said that they had better order more than their projected amount, because the scent triggered incredible responses from the fish while he and his son were filming.
www.strikeking.com |
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Powell Rods
The 97-year-old fly rod manufacturer entered the bass rod market in 2005 with their Bass Max line of rods, and the results were excellent. Powell consulted with pro staffers like Elite Series Pros John Murray, Jared Lintner, Frank Scalish and Women’s Bassmaster Classic Champion Pam Martin-Wells and their dealers to introduce several new models to the lineup.
Powell added two new 7’3” spinning rods and several baitcasting rods. A new telescopic 765 Flipping stick will make anglers with shorter boats or limited storage space happy. The new 763 Fast action rod is designed especially for Carolina rig junkies with a perfect tip to cast and retrieve baits along the bottom with enough tip to allow the fish to take the bait, and backbone to drive the hook home.
Crankbait chuckers will dig the new 754 glass cranking stick. The 7’5” rod is perfect for making long casts with deep diving crankbaits with just the right action and power to fish all day without wearing down.
www.powellco.com
Black Dog Bait Company
New to the market this year, the California based Black Dog Bait Company brings their hand carved and brilliantly painted wooden swimbaits to the show along with a new weedless soft plastic swimbait.
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The Lunker Punker is a large fish shaped topwater walking bait that has already taken largemouth over 15-pounds in California lakes. The Lunker Punker is available in two sizes, a six and eight-inch version in trout patterns. Southern anglers should take note of the six-inch two piece Go-2 Minnow waking bait as well as the Shellcracker jointed bluegill. All of Black Dog’s wooden baits are hand carved and painted with amazing paintjobs and feature glass taxidermy grade
eyes. |
The new weedless minnow swimbait is a six-inch long soft plastic swimbait that will go through tules and weeds to get to where the big girls live.
www.blackdogbaits.com
Bassackwards Big Bait Posse
Speaking of big fish and swimbait junkies; a group of Southern California anglers teamed up to produce a video of themselves catching giant largemouth on a variety of swimbaits and topwater baits. The Big Bait Posse video is set up to be an entertainment video as opposed to an instructional video. The fast paced video features footage of giant fish being caught and lost by the group.
The video features footage of Elite Series Pros Aaron Martens, Mike Iaconelli and Byron Velvick and his fiancée Mary Delgado catching big fish.
The video will be available in August at dealers and
www.swimbaitnation.com
and is enough to get any angler pumped up to go out and try their hand at swimbait fishing. For a sample of the Big Bait Posse video click here.
Stay Tuned to BASS ZONE’s on location coverage of ICAST as we bring you more information from the world’s best manufacturers of bass tackle as the show progresses, and afterward, because It’s All About Being There!
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