ICAST 2005:
New Bass Tackle & Industry Trends for 2006

By Russ Bassdozer

Ever wonder what it would be like to be a tackle industry insider? Well, feel just like a privileged insider by reviewing this sixty page report on ICAST. Be among the very first anglers to find out about new products for 2006 by some seventy bass fishing tackle companies, and gain insight into twenty major trends shaping the bass tackle industry today.

Put your finger on the pulse of the bass fishing tackle industry in Russ Bassdozer's comprehensive annual report on ICAST.

ICAST is the North American tackle trade industry insiders annual convention. It is held at the Las Vegas Convention Center each year in mid-July.

ICAST is overwhelming. You have a mere three days to walk the show floor alongside thousands of other tackle industry insiders, visiting as many of the 350 tackle manufacturer booths as time permits (an impossible task), scribbling notes and snapping photos of the hot new products for bass fishing for 2006. It takes a few more days after that to sort ICAST all out, and some solid writing sessions to get this report produced for you.

I hope you enjoy reading it.

Of course, to see something amidst the glitz and hubbub at ICAST is different than to fish with it. So be forewarned that something that looks and sounds swell at ICAST may fail miserably on the water. Even some items that win Best of Show awards (there are twelve product categories) at ICAST may not make it onto the market and may not win real-life angler approval hands-on the water. And other items that look low-key and Clark Kent-ish at ICAST, they may prove to have a spectacular Superman side that only bass can see!

Possible bass fishing tackle industry trends I spotted at ICAST this year include:

Going bass fishing for other species. A trend most visible at ICAST this year is several leading bass tackle manufacturers going fishing for other species - inshore saltwater species (redfish, sea trout, calico and kelp bass, etc.) or other freshwater gamefish (especially walleye, pike, muskie). In general, these are gamefish that would hit the same or similar styles and sizes of lures as bass. On bass hard baits for instance, corrosion-resistant, possibly stronger hooks and saltwater color finishes may be all that's needed to turn many bass lures into inshore saltwater lures. A few nimble bass fishing companies seem eager to cross over to other species markets this year.
Red not fading. Many in the industry felt red was going to fade by this time, but red-mania is currently stronger than ever. The angler demand for red-daubed bait shows no sign of slowing down yet. Most fishing company executives and lure designers at ICAST voiced surprise that the red trend has lasted so long. Some manufacturers are still dragging their feet and slow to get into red, despite anglers still going hog wild over red. Actually, the whole red craze was started by one hook company, Daiichi, and practically one man - TJ Stallings of TTI-Blakemore. After that, red just took off, apparently something that hit an amiable high note with anglers.
Strike spots are becoming popular. Even a company like Lucky Craft, generally considered to have some of the most subtle and muted low-key lure colors for bass (like its translucent Ghost Minnow finish) has conceded to angler demand to get some red on their lures. In 2006, Lucky Craft will offer new bleeding lure finishes. For example, one of its most subtle colors, Ghost Minnow, will now come in Bleeding Ghost Minnow with a bright blast of blood red where it matters most - right at the ideal strike spot - at the belly hook hanger. Overall, strike spots are becoming increasingly popular. Often just simple black dots or red dots or some other strike target to give fish a spot to aim at. And strike spots are moving closer and closer to the nearest hook point, rather than just being somewhere else on a lure.
Hot tail tips on hard baits. Another kind of strike spot or strike enticement getting onto some hard baits is a chartreuse tail tip to a crankbait, jerkbait or topwater - especially the tail's underside. This no doubt carried over from the popularity of chartreuse-dipped tails on soft baits. Now, manufacturers are starting to extend that chartreuse tail tip concept onto hard baits too. Dave Storm has put a chartreuse dye on the end of his SwishTail mylar skirted treble hook instead of tipping chartreuse right on a hard bait's tail. A good idea - chartreuse tail tips on hard baits, or on the rear treble dressing.
It's really getting friggin' froggy. There are so many hollow rubber frogs and solid-bodied soft toads on the market now, by crikey. I ain't fibbin', amphibians are flooding the bass market. Uncle Josh Sizmic Toad. Zoom Horny Toad. Berkley's new Gulp! BatWing. Mann's new Hardnose Swim Toad. Yum's new Buzz Frog. Sumo Frog. Stanley's new Ribbit. A spate of new Snag Proof hollow rubber frogs popped up the past few years. Kanji Customized Frog. Reaction Innovations Swamp Donkey. Mann's new Super Frog. Spro's new Dean Rojas Bronzeye Frog. I'm sure I left some out, but you get the point. Few of these frogs existed about two years ago, which was when the current frog frenzy started building to the peak it's at today.
Looking like Lucky Craft is a trend this year. Last year, we reported on Gary Yamamoto's Senko soft bait as being a bass fishing industry trend (it still is). Many (not all) other soft bait vendors have added a Senko-like offering to their product line. This year at ICAST, Lucky Craft hard baits are an industry trend. Many (not all) other hard bait vendors have added something Lucky Craft-like to their product line this year. It was easy to spot many bait shapes remindful of Lucky Craft's two most legendary baits - the Sammy and Pointer. Colors popularized in North America by Lucky Craft - Chartreuse Shad, Ghost Minnow, Lucky Craft-like renditions of Table Rock Shad and Mad Craw - were popping up all over ICAST this year. Favorite generic Japanese hard bait colors like Wakasagi and Ayu patterns were appearing on non-Japanese hard baits too.

It seems that other bass tackle companies, Lucky Craft's North American peers, are fascinated to witness Minoru Segawa miraculously bring his company and the entire bass fishing tackle industry to an undreamed of, unprecedented level of product quality.

What's most fascinating is North American anglers have demonstrated they don't mind gladly paying over $15 for a bass bait - if they feel confident it is one of the best made. Anglers have shown they want and don't mind paying for the best possible bass lures by wholeheartedly embracing Lucky Craft. For the rest of the industry, this has given them room to increase quality and resultant price increase necessary in order to provide anglers with the higher quality, better-catching lures that anglers desire. Overall, expect to see more feature-rich, more researched, better developed and therefore higher-priced bass lures as the industry amps up to meet anglers demands for the best possible bass lures.
Other Japanese bass lure companies not so lucky? Other Japanese lure companies may not be so lucky as Lucky Craft in North America. I have no way to be sure about this, and every company is different, but some Japanese lure companies that have journeyed to ICAST the last few years, some tend to say their lure sales in North America fall short of their expectations. Not every Japanese company says this, but it is not an uncommon story either. Some say they are unsure how to approach the North American bass market. They face a different marketing approach than Japanese anglers favor, a different culture, different attitude toward fishing lures, different expectations of what anglers want and hope to get out of a lure fishing experience. Also, the most popular and perfected bass lures in Japan tend to be smaller in general, bass are smaller and more pressured, and leading Japanese bass lure companies are often (not always) smaller companies than their North American counterparts. Some Japanese lure companies have full product lines across many lure types, but tend to become one hit wonders (or only a couple or a few successful lures become hits) in North America. That's all about hard baits. In terms of soft baits from Japan, soft baits simply don't seem to have made it across the Pacific to North America much yet. Partly maybe because typical Japanese soft baits are best-suited to finesse. For example dropshot type applications, and smaller soft baits than the standard North American angler uses here.

Obviously, some Japanese lure companies can be successful here. Look at Lucky Craft who hit the high road to success in North America, but certainly it was not always peachy for Lucky Craft, and there were times when the road could have seemed very unsure for the company. Bottom line, no two Japanese lure company's experiences in North America are exactly similar, yet some tell a common tale that they are unsure how to approach the North American market, and for those who have sluggish sales here, unsure how to grow them - despite feeling they offer some great bass lures.
China and Eastern Europe as subcontractors to the tackle industry. In addition to Japan being involved as a vendor, there are several other areas of the world presently work more like subcontractors to the North American fishing market. China is burgeoning, but also increasing interest and production from Eastern European fishing tackle manufacturers. Most of these entities, particularly in China, are not necessarily too eager to float their own brands here yet. But each year at ICAST, the trend continues that they are increasingly better at making tackle for the North American market, and increasingly knowledgeable of the North American fishing market. For instance, I spoke with one project manager of a Hong Kong tackle subcontractor at ICAST. His factory employs 800 persons who mainly make lures. They don't make hooks, fishing line, rods or reels. Just 800 persons mainly making lures is a huge, huge operation. Just one of a number of tackle factories in China. They're good at it. Lower costs, ample labor, modern technology, and many advancements in luremaking are being made in China today. Eastern Europe too is interested, definitely able, currently involved, and want to be even more involved in the North American market.

A "Skater" is an interesting lure used in Europe and Scandinavia for pike, and I have included a photo of one at right that symbolizes some of the things I just wrote about. The Skater isn't a lure type normally found on the North American market, especially not for bass. It looks like a lipless rattlebait, but a Skater is typically wood with no rattles. Most are painted like European perch or bream or trout. Basically a classic and honored nature-scheme finish pervasive in European lures. It gets its name because when you retrieve a Skater very slowly, it is designed to saunter or skate from side to side like Dutchman Hans Brinker on his silver skates. The Skater at right is a recognizable European shape, design and color finish, subcontracted to be made in a Chinese tackle factory by a Japanese vendor to sell to anglers in North America. The Skater lure shown here is a product of the four corners of the world that impact the North American fishing market today and for the foreseeable future. A bit closer to home, subcontracting for North American tackle companies also occurs to a good degree south of our border, such as Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico, for example. Some lure vendors take this route, since access to and project management with the companies south of here can be quicker and easier, versus China or Europe.
Holographics rule. Holographic films, foils and finishes have made their way into soft baits, particularly the modern, more durable, tough plastic swimbaits. Plus more and more holographic finishes are popular on hard baits (crankbaits, topwater, jerkbaits).

Relatively few North American companies have much experience or produce holographic lures themselves, despite holographics being a major lure trend. More than anyone else, the fishing tackle manufacturers in China seem to have advanced the fine art of holographic finishes. Eastern European manufacturers also have their own slightly different style of holographic special effects for walleye, trout, salmon and pike spinner blades and spinner bodies.

Holographics on bass spinnerbait blades have not really made it onto the scene yet. Partly because it is an imperfect process using heat and holographic film or tape. However, new application techniques are coming that seem improved over current methods to get holographics onto spinnerbait blades but good. As fishing tackle factories (especially in China) revamp and retool to use such newer processes to apply holographics to spinnerbait blades, look for that stunningly beautiful sector of the market to take off.
Bass fishing television. It was just a couple years ago, a major tournament would not air on TV until a few months later. Today, a tournament has practically same day coverage and commentary. Timeliness is a new trend in bass TV. Providing information on what baits and tactics the pros are using is also a trend. Historically, most bass TV would show you plenty of bass boated, but you rarely got much meaningful info on the lures or methods. All that has changed. Today, you get detailed tips on TV from many top pros per show. TV is also making stars out of the top twelve to twenty (if that many) figures in the sport. The new trend in bass TV is to have short clips of several different leading pros per week. So, instead of the same one bass celebrity hosting a show for one-half hour week after week, you may get three ten-minute mini-stories (vignettes) per week, with a different popular bass star per vignette. There's more of a sports commentator and field reporter approach; less of a show host in this format. You get much more diversity of winning bass stars per show, which stays constantly fresh (plus practically same-day or within-week timeliness) versus the conventional format of one show host per season series.
Spinning tackle gets new respect. Thanks to bass TV, spinning tackle is getting new-earned respect. No doubt you've noticed many top BASS and FLW pros on TV using spinning gear more this year than ever before. I don't think this trend has trickled down to the serious non-professional tournament anglers who think it's sissy to use spinning. However, pros on TV using spinning gear goes far to encourage newer, younger and inexperienced anglers to be more confident and successful with easy-to-use spinning gear. It's good to see the top pros in the world using spinning more and more. Spinning gear is good stuff, despite what the macho baitcaster types out there say.
Shaking Southern Style. Pros have started using spinning gear in part to better handle lightly-rigged finesse worms and light shaking worm jigs. The last time shaking became a trend, it started in Southern California to shake a brass sinker and glass bead with a four-inch finesse worm. The new shaking trend comes out of the Southeast this time around. It involves jigs more, and tends toward longer, say 4" to 7" thin finesse worms this time. The techniques and tackle first evolved for spotted bass, but now it is simply called shaking. New jig hooks with more of a fulcrum effect have been designed for shaking jigs, new lighter wire hooks for rigging finesse worms on spinning gear, and new spinning rods designed for shaking jigs have appeared this year. Confusingly, there are many rods on the market still labeled as shaking rods from the previous California brass 'n glass shaking trend, so be careful what rod you buy.
3D Eyes. Sounds weird to say it, but the bubble type 3D eyes are a trend, for hard and soft lures. The realism of 3D eyes has caused an overall increase in realism. Across all bass lure types, realism has gone up. When 3D eyes are put on, luremakers usually add other complimentary realism as well - gill outlines, etched mouth, etc. Painted eyes are pass�.
Flat Sided Crankbaits. Quite simply, everyone who makes crankbaits has felt obligated to add flat sided ones to their product line lately.
Jointed Crankbaits. These have gained a little attention in early 2005. Therefore, a few more models predictably popped up at ICAST. These are different from tail-jointed crankbaits of the past, which never really made it big. The new style jointed crankbaits are jointed behind the gill section, as if a gill joint. If anglers seem interested and start to produce good results with jointed crankbaits, expect more crankbait companies to add jointed crankbaits to their product lines.
Swimming Jigs. It's really up to one man, Tom Monsoor, to make swimming jigs a national trend or not. Monsoor got close to doing that in 2004, but his uphill battle stalled in 2005. His tournament success in 2006 will determine whether swimming jigs become a bigger trend or not. In the meantime, there isn't anyone fishing a tournament in the area of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois who doesn't have one, or more like a couple dozen swimming jigs in his bag.
Swimbait Stew. The swimbait market is like a big stewpot. Luremakers keep a fire going under it, and they keep chucking items into it. Swimbaits tossed into the stew may be traditional injection-molded soft plastic, hand-pours, the more modern and durable swimbait-type plastics with holographic foils, super-stretch plastic, hard plastic, wood, or hybrid hard/soft swimbaits, double-, triple- or quadruple-jointed lures with or without soft tail fins or metal blade tail fins, and with or without frontal diving lips. It seems luremakers may throw most any big bass lure they like into the swimbait stew pot. If it's big, chuck it in. Stir the cauldron a little, let it steep, and it all becomes swimbaits.

Soft plastic swimbaits have been around for thirty years, but there have never been as many different models of soft swimbaits as today. Originally (let's call them first generation), there were hand-pours and injection-molded soft swimbaits that first appeared in the early eighties. They were not that radically different (except in shape and action tail) than other injected and hand-poured soft baits. In the early nineties, the huge, beautifully-painted trout swimbaits and other huge hand-poured swimbaits began to be made in California for monster bass. For sake of discussion, let's call these second generation, and let's say wood and hard plastic and hybrid hard/soft monster swimbaits are part of that genre. A third generation of swimbaits began to appear in the early 2000's. This third generation is best defined by more durable plastic, holographic finishes and prerigged insider jigheads and internally-molded body weight systems and hookhangers factory-molded into the soft swimbaits.

Usually, you expect a newer generation of a lure type to replace or make an older generation obsolete. That hasn't happened in swimbaits. All three generations are thriving today, along with all their offshoots and permutations the past thirty years. Swimbaits are more a trend today than ever before - and still really undiscovered by many bass anglers. So there is huge potential to see more stewed up on swimbaits in the future, as bass anglers discover and incorporate swimbaits into their "go to" bag of tricks.
Soft baits being used more? It's hard to prove this, but I sense soft baits are being used more widely today than ever before. No doubt, the Senko may have started this renaissance in increasing use of soft baits, but there have also been other soft baits, creature lures, Reaction Innovations' Smallie Beaver, the new genre of soft toad baits, swimbaits, flipping tubes, Great Lakes tube-dragging, dropshot baits, etc. I do sense a current increase in soft bait usage among bass anglers across the continent. Anglers may still own more crankbaits on average than any other lure type, but soft baits do seem to be more widely used today than ever before.
Tungsten and Titanium increasingly preferred metals. Anglers are finding a preference for tungsten versus lead or other weighty metals as sinkers, spinnerbait, buzzbait, jig and lure heads or bodies or ballast inside lures. Anglers are slowly realizing that tungsten fishes better in the applications mentioned, than any other metal. Titanium is being acclaimed for its diverse beneficial properties, depending on titanium alloy type and application, in lure arms, split rings, rod guide frames, corrosion-proof finishes and other uses that are just beginning to be pioneered with titanium. Same goes with tungsten, applications are still in their infancy. However, companies who invest in ongoing research and development of these two modern fishing tackle metals now, they may technologically advance themselves beyond the rest of the industry and emerge as tomorrow's leaders in tungsten or titanium fishing tackle.
Biodegradable baits beckon. Likewise, soft bait companies who are currently investing in, experimenting with and expanding applications of biodegradable baits today, they may become the soft bait industry leaders of tomorrow. The pioneering research and development they do today may give them an advantage tomorrow versus companies that are not currently investigating and ramping up in this area. Likewise, hard bait companies that are researching hybrid hard/soft baits now will be better poised to meet biodegradability needs if/when they may arise in the future. Biolures are really putting bait back in bait, and at least theoretically, less foolery or trickery should be required to catch more fish with less artificial biolures.

New Rod and Reel Highlights for 2006

New rods shown this year at ICAST are changing. Bass rods are slowly getting longer. There are few new rod introductions under 6'6" nowadays. Most new rods seem 6'8" to 7'2" for most applications plus 7'6" to 8'0" flipping sticks.

A trend across several rodmakers this year is a preoccupation with doing away with grips, handles and reel seats in the name of sensitivity and lightness.

One company, Airrus, has taken it to the extreme, devising a new way to flare out the blank itself where the handle used to go, so you simply have a much-widened part of the rod blank as the rod handle. It felt a bit slippery, but if it gives more sensitivity, pass me the rod rosin please.

Most other companies are trying less severe methods to eliminate material from handles - in order to maximize sensitivity and touch. More and more foregrips are disappearing off rods. On rear grips, it's becoming fashionable and looks stylish to split the continuous-piece rear grip into two smaller grip sections - a split rear grip with exposed blank between the sections.

Reel seats with a soft touch coating are becoming popular. This seems to go against the grain of more sensitivity, but companies say it is more comfortable and provides a surer grip.

Palm swells are appearing, which are swollen humps in the handle, right behind the reel, where your palm would go. The couple I handled were baitcasters, and I liked the fit in my hand very much. I also noticed, but did not handle, a contoured spinning reel seat by American Tackle's that provides a palm swell for spinning rods too.

Overall, I like to have a hefty handle. So, I am not enthused by the current trend to downsize handles. I like to use a handle to, well... handle the rod. So I am uneasy that everyone wants to trim down handles. If there is hardly any handle, how am I going to wield and hold my rod, I wonder? Think of a sword or saber with hardly any handle. No problem, just hold the blade, okay? It will be lighter and more sensitive. So you see, handles have a purpose.

Nor am I convinced that eliminating handle parts will radically heighten sensitivity. I always felt sensitivity was a function of the rod tip (not the handle). Ask any grizzled guide who commands clients to set the hook by watching their rod tips (not their handles).

Heck, I 'm not even a staunch proponent of lightness in a rod. I'd rather have a way to hold it than have it lighter. Indeed, I always make my rods much heavier by stuffing chunky lead slugs in the rod butt for better balance. I always felt rod balance far outweighed lightness? I am probably wrong here since no rodmakers factory-balance rods that way. However, every rod I balance becomes heavier - but vastly improves its sensitivity (to feel the rod tip not feel the handle).

Then again, I always thought the rod's backbone, the spline, should be used to wrap guides either on (baitcasting) or directly opposite (spinning) the rod spline (the rigid backbone of a rod). Yet most all factory-made rods I own are wrapped willy-nilly, as if the rod spline isn't important (it is).

There were also a few companies that ran counter to the rest of the industry. These mavericks introduced hard graphite handles and grips attached to the blank with little or no fillers or shims between the blank and graphite handle. This makes the handle solid but sensitive, they say; the exact opposite of soft, vibration-dampening material like cork or rubber grips.

Airrus Rods. This rod line seems slow getting into stores, but that has not stopped rod designer Ken Whiting from innovating incredible rod engineering advancements. Ken won Best of Show in 2002, 2003 and 2004 for three different rod engineering breakthroughs. A fourth feather in Ken's cap is he pioneered and perfected use of multiple modulus with fantastic results when properly deployed like in Gary Yamamoto's Dropshot rod. This year, Ken blew the doors off everyone who is trying to reduce handle weight. Ken simply made the rod blank the handle itself. That's right, the blank itself flares out to become the handle grip. The minimal parts necessary to seat a reel are surface-mounted right on the blank itself. There are no shims or filler material between the minimal reel seat parts and the blank. There is no other grip material of any kind to dampen vibration. Without any grip except the blank itself, the rod handle felt slippery, but if touching the blank equates to the ultimate sensitivity - there you have it. There's nothing else but blank to touch. Ken also says flaring the blank to become the grip creates a megaphone effect that amplifies sensitivity.

Ken eliminated the sensitivity-robbing grip problem by making the blank the grip. Next, Ken conquered the lightness issue. Incredible Ken debuted the use of carbon nanotubes in the resin mix of the rod blank. These tiny capsule-shaped tubes of carbon fill space between the blank fibers, spaces that were formerly filled with heavy, brittle, weak resin binder. The carbon nanotubes are extremely light yet extremely strong material. Ken says nanotubes are 200 times stronger than titanium and 450 times stronger than steel. Ken says this results in the lightest, strongest, and most sensitive rods ever produced by Airrus.

To me, Airrus rods are the most beautiful and well-engineered rods. It's not rocket science, but it is light years ahead of some other rod designs. To me, two things Airrus has not really done yet are: 1) to get more widespread hands-on tournament-test feedback and product refinement from top national pros, and 2) get its rods into more stores. www.rodsbyairrus.com Ken Whiting, President airrusrods@cox.net 702-395-2173 Las Vegas, NV
All Star Graphite Rods. New offerings include sixteen high modulus technique-specific bass rods in its new Platinum series plus twenty multi-modulus technique-specific bass rods in its new Instinct series for 2006. www.allstarrods.com Joel Townley Joel@shakespeare-fishing.com 800-334-9105x3225 Columbia, SC
American Rodsmiths. New H3 Titanium series has six technique-specific bass rods that integrate titanium into the fibers, creating a titanium, graphite and carbon fiber hybrid rod blank. Sensitivity is enhanced by their new patent-pending Maximum Contact handle system. The handle features a soft to the touch reel seat, and the reel seat is attached directly to the blank without any shims, filler or padding material except graphite contact bars that are directly in contact with both the reel seat and the rod blank, resulting in direct contact with the rod blank no matter where your hand comes in contact with the handle, says the company. www.americanrodsmiths.com Jake Brewer jake@flex.net 281-252-0474 Magnolia, TX
American Tackle Company. This rod component company introduced the new Titan solid titanium frame guides with a new high tech NanoLite ceramic fused rings which the company says are harder and more durable than silicon carbide. Titanium is 100% corrosion-proof and less than half the weight of stainless steel. www.americantackle.us Joe Meehan, President sales@americantackle.us 508-432-7735
BassMedics. The makers of Rejuvenade livewell treatment have introduced the 2iG UltraStrike Pro series of nineteen new graphite rods. Two models are endorsed by Snag Proof for fishing Snag Proof hollow rubber frog baits. www.bassmedics.com Joey Couvillion, VP 866-944-2277 Springdale, AR
Daiwa Corporation. The new Team Daiwa Viento baitcasting reel intrigued me. If I pressed the Twitchin' Bar very slowly, it stitched in about four inches of line. If I pressed the Twitchin' Bar quickly, it spun the spool just a bit, and twitched in a tad more line, maybe seven inches. Comparatively, turning the reel handle, even a little bit, tends to bring in much more line than that. And moving the rod tip, even a little bit, tends to move the bait more than that. So if the Twitchin' Bar helps anglers slow down their retrieves and make smaller, slower, and more subtle lure movements (with jigs and soft baits especially), then it may be a great new reel feature. Oh yeah, imagine what would it be like to pause a suspending jerkbait or crank in the feeding zone, then just twitchin' it with the Twitchin' Bar! This may be something. www.daiwa.com Bill Liston, Advertising Manager bliston@daiwa.com 562-802-9589 Cerritos, CA
G. Loomis. Two new high end super high modulus GLX bass spinning rods were introduced at ICAST. The Bronzeback series smallmouth finesse fishing rod, and a new Drop Shot series rod. www.gloomis.com 360-225-6516 loomis@gloomis.com Woodland, WA
Kistler Rods. The company has taken the most popular features from Kistler's existing rods and brought them to the next level with two new rod series, the Helium II LTX series (which the company says to be the lightest rods on the planet) plus the new Magnesium TS series. The new Helium series features Kistler's proprietary super lightweight Ampli-Fiber core rod blanks. The new Magnesium series is a fusion of Helium and Magnesium graphite fibers in the blank. Here's a special page to preview all the advanced new Kistler rod features at: www.kistlerrods.com/53 Trey Kistler sales@kistlerrods.com 281-259-8033 Magnolia, TX
Lamiglas. The new XMG50 series bass rods includes eleven new models for 2006. The company says the rods are designed for the high-key tournament angler who cannot afford to miss a strike that can cost an angler serious money, points, and angst nowadays, whether at the pro, regional, club or local level. The new series sports American Tackle Company's Titan guides. Lamiglas says these rods push the envelope of sensitivity with graphite handle grips. These graphite handles transmit to your hand an unmatched sense of the presentation, strike and fish, says the company. www.lamiglas.com John Posey fishon@lamiglas.com 360-225-9436 Woodland, WA
Lucky Craft. The LC-Magnum series of seven baitcasting rods were on display at ICAST. I was surprised the rods were not technique-specific to various Lucky Craft lure applications. The rods were defined by the general power/action rating of each rod instead of being tied to Lucky Craft lure applications. www.luckycraft.com sales@luckycraft.com 714-241-8484 Costa Mesa, CA
Powell Products. Since 1910, the company has been making fine flyrods. For the last few years, company president Keith Bryan has been perfecting a series of twenty-six bass rods designed by Gary Dobyns, which made their debut at ICAST. The bass fishing rod market is much larger than for flyfishing rods, and my favorite pastime is bass fishing tournaments, says Keith Bryan. All twenty-six Dobyns bass rods have similar features. All are tall from 6'8" to 8'0", have split rear grips, no foregrips, all have emphasis on lightness and sensitivity that crosses over from the company's century of flyrod expertise. They're all tough blanks, tournament tested, says Dobyns. All rods feature a smaller than usual first guide for lightness and reduced weight. For some reason, it's become a convention to put a big first guide on rods, but you don't need it, it doesn't do anything at all except add weight, says Keith Bryan. With Gary Dobyns' design, these are rods Western guys will surely want. We'll gladly get started with that, and may ultimately add rod styles for the remainder of country if we find different regional rod styles are necessary, says Bryan. www.powellco.com Keith Bryan, President kb@powellco.com 415-382-9745 Novata, CA
Reel Time Designs. Potentially one of the best answers to the hook keeper conundrum I've ever seen. Only actual on-water usage will tell. I just don't know why the company pigeonholed its patent-pending Drop-Shot Weight Keeper System as a dropshot solution? It is also the solution to any rigged bait. You do not have to take the buried hook out of a Texas-rigged soft bait to stow it on this keeper. Plus the retainer arm is big enough that baits won't pop off easily, and it has a retainer bend to prevent that. Best of all, it is smooth. I can't tell you how many times the conventional thin wire D-shaped hook keepers have opened a slice in the knuckle seam of my index finger. At first blush, Steve's doesn't seem it can hurt you like that. It comes with self-sticking rubber stretch tape to attach anywhere to any rod. Even if you have an existing hook keeper on your rod, you can wrap this on right near it. The tape has no glue; it sticks to itself. Some rodmakers are already factory-wrapping (with thread) this new hook keeper onto their factory rods. It could set a new industry standard. I'd say to give it a try. www.phoenixblazerods.com Stephen Kokai, Sales DropShotKeeper@yahoo.com 908-876-3723 Long Valley, NJ
Shimano American Corporation. Greg Hammond and Bob Mahoney briefed me on the three new models of Curado D baitcasting reels for 2006. First, a High Speed Version 7:1 gear ratio for burning baits without hand fatigue. Second, a Power Version 5:1 for working large crankbaits or slow rolling spinnerbaits and third, a 6.2:1 version for pitching and flipping. Of most interest to me was the Curado D baitcasting reel model CU200DSHV with a 7:1 gear ratio that takes in 30 inches of line per handle revolution. If you need a fast reel to burn a lure like a spinnerbait back - or just to suck in slack lightning fast to set the hook at the end of a long cast - this new Curado D just may break the bass fishing industry retrieve speed record. Even for pitching a jig, where you just get bit on the fall, then reel in like the dickens to make the next pitch, this new high-speed demon may prove valuable.

All three new Curado D's feature:
- Magnumlite Drilled Lightweight Aluminum Alloy Spool, the benefit of which is optimum casting performance and line control, especially when using light baits and lures.
- Superfree, which is a bearing supported pinion gear to eliminate friction on the spool. The benefit is Superfree allows for smoother spool rotation and therefore longer casts.
- High Efficiency Gearing, meaning oversized drive and pinion gears to offer increased leverage and power thus allowing for high speed retrieves without the torque on the reel. The benefit is incredible gearing and the guts to winch fish out of the nasty stuff.
- Super Stopper one-way roller bearing to eliminate backplay in the reel. The benefit of Super Stopper is immediate, solid hooksets.
Two new Citica D low profile baitcasters are available in two models/gear ratios (6.2:1 and Power 5:1 versions). It features Superfree, High Efficiency Gearing, and Superstopper.

The new price-conscious Cruxis baitcaster has all the features of its big brothers but does not come with the price tag. The Cruxis is the perfect reel for the budget-minded tournament angler, says Shimano. The Cruxis is available in both right and left hand with a 6.2:1 gear ratio. It features Superfree, High Efficiency Gearing and Super Stopper.

Shimano's Compre Rods have been totally redesigned for 2006, offering a variety of actions in both spinning and casting models. Compre rods feature IM8 graphite blanks, New Concept Fuji Hardloy guides, and a limited lifetime guarantee. Select Compre baitcasting and spinning models have a Fuji Exposed Blank reel seat for direct finger touch on the rod blank. There are also several crankbait models using high modulus TC4 blank construction. www.shimano.com Stacey Thorn, Marketing Manager sthorn@shimano.com 949-951-5003 Irvine, CA

St. Croix. Seven new technique-specific Legend Tournament Bass series rods debuted at the ICAST show - the Small Cranker, Big Cranker, Swim Bait, Mega Swim Bait casting rods plus Shakin', Split Shot and Tube action spinning rods. www.stcroixrods.com Jeff Schluter, VP jeffs@stcroixrods.com 715-762-3226 Park Falls, WI

Adams, Ltd.

I made new friends with Nickolay Chervony and Viktor Damme, attending their first ICAST show. Adams is their export/import company in Kiev, and Sagittarius is the manufacturing company they co-own in Severodonetsk, Ukraine. This is their eleventh year in the fishing tackle business, but their first ICAST.

Nickolay and I did not know who we would meet at ICAST, but we knew it would be easier way to meet more North American tackle buyers here than in Russia. So that is why we have come here, says Viktor.

Their tackle factory employs sixty persons year-round which more than doubles to 130 persons at peak tackle order seasons during the year. Much of their output is geared to ice fishing. Russians have more ice fishing experience and our progress with ice fishing equipment reflects that, Viktor says. Being Russians, we have a cold country and lots of ice fishing days; so we make many ice fishing items as suppliers to North American firms, says Viktor. We are nationalists and very proud of our country, adds Nickolay. If you see fishing packages in America that say Made In Ukraine on back of label, we are proud of that.

I asked Nickolay how a Russian company could get an English name like Adams? Nickolay beamed a smile. When he and Viktor were first deciding to make their company, they held many business discussions while fishing for trout. The trout were stubborn to bite, and days went by while they worked out the details of their corporate partnership on the river, yet they didn't land many trout. Finally, Nickolay tried a trout fly pattern called an Adams fly, and soon they were successfully catching many trout. So Adams became their company name based on its success that day, and as a symbol of hard work and perseverance that ultimately spells success in fishing and in business.

In the former Soviet Union, spinnerbaits are new items but growing popular quickly. Anglers only started to use them the past two years. The photo below shows spinnerbaits and skirted flipping jigs designed by Adams for pike fishing in Russia.

Another photo shows a traditional style Russian jigging spoon. It is used for fishing in rivers for zander (Russian walleye) that hunker down on bottom in deep holes in Russia's rivers, says Viktor. The line tie is not on the nose of the Russian jigging spoon. You tie to a swivel exactly dead center on the side (which becomes the top) of the lure. It falls like a dying baitfish, says Viktor. You lift it fast and let it drop slowly, which is when it acts like a wounded baitfish drifting on its side, adds Nickolay.

Our spinnerbaits and flipping jigs, we make them for anglers in Russia, but they demonstrate we can produce very good lures for American bass fishing also, suggests Viktor. "Manufacturing fishing tackle is not rocket science," Viktor says, then hesitates as he finds the correct English words to continue, "but Nickolay and I, we know making good fishing tackle, it is truly an art. No, not rocket science. Yes, an art. We know that from our ice fishing tackles. We see we have some better ice fishing designs in Russia. We can easily see which other manufacturers in the world know or do not know the art to make ice tackle like we make it. So we know Americans have refined the art of making bass fishing equipment," says Viktor. We would like to understand the American bass fishing art, and make artful tackle in Ukraine for American bass anglers, adds Nickolay.

www.adams-fishing.com Viktor Damme, Co-owner adams@sdtcom.lg.ua Kiev, Ukraine

Adventure Products

I've lost more nets, rods and reels than I care to remember (hats too), either flipping them over the side somehow, or when not secured properly, having them fly off the boat running wide open between spots. So, I stopped to see Adventure Products who introduced their Ego landing nets. The nets float - and the handle section has nothing for your line to wrap around, no exposed sharp edges, no nuts, bolts or anything to cut your line and cause you heartache. Adventure Products is not a fishing tackle company. Nets seem to be what they sell; many kinds of nets. Yes, they really do take butterfly nets seriously, plus marine specimen collection nets, pond scum skimming nets, aquarium nets, cast nets to corral bait, soft-meshed livewell nets for cradling live bait, and landing nets tailored to different species. Their best net for bass fishing may be the Ego large rubber mesh floating net. Rubber mesh is especially valuable in an intense tournament fishing scenario. Rubber mesh does not tangle with tackle so easily whereas nylon mesh may lead to nasty, time-consuming tangle with hooks, lures and rigs. Tangles take precious time while keeper bass are biting. Less time unpicking the pieces out of a rubber mesh net means more time to land the winning sack!

www.adventureproducts.com Grant Corbett, CEO grantc@adventureproducts.com 478-788-2404 Macon, GA

Bagley Fishing Products

Mike Rogan, president of Bagley Fishing Products seemed most proud to show me the new Turbo Chat'r B Rattling Weedless Spoon. Originally designed with redfish in mind, Mike says it was not long until bass pros like Tommy Martin started chucking the new spoon in slop for largemouth - with wrist-wrenching results. The spoon sports an attached metal-cased rattle and a tail tied with feathers and flash material. The spoon body is linked by a heavy duty split ring to a stout wire arm with two prop blades that counter-rotate in opposite directions between free-spinning metal ball bearings. The counter-rotation of the prop blades negates any sideways torque. That lets the spoon body wobble perfectly on the retrieve. When paused, the spoon falls with a rock-the-cradle action, says Mike. Available in 24K gold plate, silver or Flash'n Black finishes.

Bagley company employees were also proud to put together a Bagley Classic Winners Collection Edition to commemorate company founder Jim Bagley's induction into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame this year. This is a set of four Bagley lures that have won the Classic. It includes four Classic-winning models and colors:

1974 - Balsa B 3 - Black/Pearl
1976 - Honey B - Tennessee Shad
2000 - Kill'r B 2 - Hot Tiger
2004 - Balsa B 2 - Black/Chartreuse

www.bagleybait.com Debbie Rogan, Media Contact drogan@bagleybait.com 239-693-7070 Ft. Myers, FL

Biosonix Systems

Biosonix products were conceived in conjunction with the persons from Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap Lures. So they already know how well sound (such as a Rat-L-Trap) attracts fish to strike. Biosonix took that to the max with the BSX Fish Activator. It plays sounds underwater of distressed prey and predators feeding. The company says that bass are constantly listening for those types of sounds. Hearing such sounds makes bass more competitive, and it tells fish it is time to eat before other fish eat all the food in its territory. The product was at ICAST last year. The company had new news this year on how Kevin VanDam has been using the BSX Fish Activator recently.

The company says it gave Kevin VanDam the BSX unit in March, 2005. At first, Kevin was skeptical, and waited some time before he tried it. VanDam started using the BSX unit at Table Rock BASS E-50 event, says the company. Fishing with it, VanDam was in first place after the first two days. On the third day, VanDam had to switch out of his own boat, and he inadvertently left the BSX Fish Activator behind in his own boat. Without the BSX, Kevin fell out of the competition, says the company.

At the next big event on Smith Lake, Kevin was in first place again using the unit, but he bumped and broke the underwater speaker which was mounted on the trolling motor, and again sunk lower into the standings without using the BSX, they say.

The third event on Lake Lewisville, Texas, Kevin VanDam told the company he used the BSX Fish Activator to locate the eleven pounder in pre-fish, which was the fish that really helped VanDam win that tournament.

At the fourth event at Wisota, Wisconsin, VanDam again won it using the BSX. By this event, VanDam had shed all skepticism, and held a strong belief the BSX was helping him. Van Dam caught an incredible amount of fish with the BSX unit, even while others fishing nearby struggled desperately. By this time, VanDam was like a kid in the candy store, catching fish and believing so strongly in the BSX unit, the company says.

For shallow water fishing, the BSX speaker unit is often mounted on the trolling motor between the shaft and the lower unit, which is fine for water down to fifteen feet in depth. Anything over fifteen feet, you may want to drop the waterproof speaker over the side to varying depths.

I did not see or hear how the unit works when turned on, but from the explanation I was given, it seems you can program it for different sound patterns and program it to play at different intervals. The company did give one sure tip, one thing that seems consistently most successful is to play the unit intermittently - rather than constantly play it. Intermittent use of the unit has proven best to stimulate fish to strike at lures, says Biosonix.

www.biosonix.com Wes Higgins wes@biosonix.com 800-633-4861 Alexandria, LA

B.S. Fish Tales

This new company offers their own versions of several original crankbaits discontinued by Storm Lures. Many bass anglers favored the original discontinued model Storm Wiggle Warts which were no longer made, says Duane Dettmann. So B.S. Fish Tales built Brad's Wiggler Series crankbaits to be as much as possible like the old discontinued Storm models.

There's the 1/5 oz 2" Lil Wiggler; 1/3 oz, 2-1/4" Wee Wiggler; 3/8 oz, 3" Wiggler and 3/4 oz 3-3/4" Magnum Wiggler.

The company also offers Brad's Thin Fish crankbait for all anglers who loved the discontinued Storm Thin Fin.

www.bsfishtales.com Duane Dettmann, GM bsfishtales@aol.com 360-423-9365 Longview, WA

Bullet Weights

PermaColor Screw-In Sinkers are new for 2006, says company president, Joe Crumrine. The screw-in sinker pegs itself to the head of a soft bait without a toothpick, a rubber strip, etc. In fact, no other item or threader tool is required, except to easily screw the wire retainer into the soft bait. Voila! Many top soft bait anglers prefer this type sinker. Gary Yamamoto in particular favors the screw-in sinker type. There are several reasons pros prefer it. First, ease of use. Second, no other tools or parts are required. Third, it does not compromise the line strength since the internal plastic tube inside the sinker cushions the line without ever pinching it or abrading it. Third, it integrates the bait and sinker into one unit, making it extremely snagless during the presentation and very accurate to cast it in tight cover. Fourth, once a fish is hooked, the sinker tends to break away from the plastic. It slides out of the way, leaving a direct hook-to-fish connection that is difficult for the fish to throw. This sounds simple, but few other sinkers or sinker-rigging methods possess these key points.

Prior to this, screw-in sinkers were heavily marketed by a different company, but no longer. So it was good news to see Bullet Weights added the screw-in sinker style - and improved upon it with attractive, durable PermaColor finishes.

PermaColor paint is baked on, so it lasts a long time and won't chip like other sinkers, says the company. Available in translucent purple, translucent blood red and watermelon green pepper with black flakes. All have a transparent sheen to give them more flash in the water, flash which attracts fish to the trailing bait. Available in 14 sizes from 1/16 to 1 ounce.

www.bulletweights.com Joe Crumrine, President info@bulletweights.com 308-382-7436 Alda, NE

Cavitron Lures

Cavitron Lures is recently under new ownership. The new owner, Bobby Uhrig also owns Megastrike, Inc.

Cavitron buzzbaits got a facelift for 2006. In fact, they've gone bright RED in the face with a new bold red splash under the chin of every Cavitron buzzbait. The heads are now airbrushed with a new red throat, giving a strike target for bass to attack. All Cavitron buzzbaits now come with a new red Gamakatsu hook too. It's the finest, sharpest hook in the industry according to company president, Bobby Uhrig.

The buzz blades are now being anodized by a new high tech process that Megastrike developed in order to make the blades squeal and squeak like no other buzzbait. Many other buzzbait finishes, the finish coating actually insulates the blade with the finish, thereby restricting and muffling the sounds produced by the blade. With the new process we discovered at MegaStrike, we use a special acid which allows a metal to metal abrasion to be formed when the bait is pulled through the water. The Cavitron buzzbait squeals right out of the package, but when water is added to the process, the sound intensifies tenfold, says Uhrig.

Cavitron also designed a new black anodized blade for night and low light conditions, and there is a new red anodized blade for 2006 too.

What also sets Cavitron apart from other buzzbaits is a oxbow bend in the lower arm shaft. We have studied what goes on in a buzzbait strike. Why we developed this oxbow bend is it makes the head and hook run slightly below the surface. It lets the fish see the bait without the bait being distorted by the wake of the blade. It also lets the fish inhale more water when attacking the bait therefore not sucking as much air like other straight-shaft buzzbaits. The Cavitron creates more of a vacuum effect and increases the chance of the fish engulfing the head and hook. Up goes your catch ratio, says Uhrig.

The patented "stealth body" design of the Cavitron glides over just about any form of cover. Two cranks of the reel handle and it glides up on top of the water already.

www.cavitronlures.com Bobby Uhrig, President buhrig@megastrike.com 732-833-9680 Jackson, NJ

Dave's Lures, LLC

I spoke with legendary lure designer, Dave Storm, about his new Ka-Pop! topwater lure. It sits tail-down says Dave, which keeps the glittering SwishTail mylar skirt right in the bite zone. Dave has popularized this type of mylar flash tail on a few of his earlier lure designs. Let me tell you, the sparkling tail at times seems of more interest to the bass than the rest of the lure, in my experience.

I love a topwater lure that rests tail down. Few do. When a topwater lure rests tail down, the tail bobs and jiggles and flashes with every surface ripple or movement, encouraging fish to grab the tail - almost like bobber fishing for sunnies! It works. Best of all, Dave's Ka-Pop! has big hooks for its size.

Dave's lures also have, for all practical purposes, dipped tails now too. Many bass anglers dip chartreuse on their soft bait worm tails. Dave has colorized the tips of his mylar tails too. I am not a big fan of other synthetic fibers in a treble tail dressing, but really, Dave's SwishTail skirt is the cat's meow. It's the best synthetic tail. Especially in grassy waters, the SwishTail won't pull apart like feathers do when you pluck grass off the hooks. Good stuff, Dave.

www.daveslures.com Dave Storm, Owner david@daveslures.com 405-321-0000 Norman, OK

Doc Waters Lure Company

Doc's new bulky Man-O-War Flippin' Tube seemed super. At 4-1/2" long, it appeared big enough to handle a stout 5/0 flipping hook. The tip of the head was solid for reliably holding a hook, yet the rest of the body was designed with a super-thin skin for effortless hooksets. The wide-flared double skirted tail tentacles added much bulk for flipping. The second inside tail was not obtrusive, but flashed a subtle second color, and appeared to be sturdily connected to the rest of the body. I've seen other tubes in recent years with inner/outer skirt colors that didn't totally thrill me, but Doc Waters seems to have given this tube much thought and to have gotten it right. Overall, it seemed to be a nice flipping tube. Good tube, Doc.

www.docwaterslures.com George Ghilarducci george@docwaterslures.com 866-362-5873 Austin, TX

Falcon Lures

Company president Wayne Falcon showed me his new Red Bait Jerker Hook for 2006. We tried a few of the popular hook manufacturer's red hooks first, but were not satisfied with the way the finish would flake off after a few fish, says Wayne. What we have here on our hook, the red finish won't come off, says Wayne. Believe it or not, there is only one machine in the entire country that can put a finish on like this. In fact, this unique finishing machine is in such high demand for diverse industrial uses, that there are only certain weeks of the year when the machine is scheduled to apply red finishes. Other times, it does other colors.

www.falconlures.com Wayne Falcon, President falconlures@bellsouth.net 337-232-7326 Lafayette, LA

Fish Arrow

These are huge hard swimbaits, whose gigantic proportions can't be gauged from the photo. They are designed for giant bass. The top item is a Monster Jack (2 oz). Second from top, that's a new model Spooky Jack. Third from top looks like an IT Jack Jr. (1-1/2 oz). The bottom lure is their Monster Jack Baby (1 oz). This seems to be what Fish Arrow produces, or at least offers via distributor Lobina Lures in North America - monster hard jointed swim baits, plus they offer a line of swimbait fishing rods designed to throw these brutes.

www.lobinalures.com 800-498-9520

Fishing Pool

This twenty-five year old company from the UK designs wooden fishing lures. The British company's first trip to ICAST was last year, says owner Phil Griffiths. The contacts he made were encouraging enough for Phil to return again this year.

Unfortunately, most of the company's fine lures are too big for typical bass fishing. The sizes are more appropriate for European or Scandinavian pike fishing. Many of the lures are even larger than pike size, used for Nile perch in the Canary Islands, Kenya and Egypt. Actually, Nile perch look very much like largemouth bass, but Nile perch can grow to several hundred pounds.

My reason to write about Fishing Pool is their Flipper lure. It come in the following sizes suitable to bass - 2-1/2" 3/8 oz; 3" 1/2 oz; 4-1/2" 1 oz However this lure type is practically unknown in the bass market.

This shad-shaped, deep-bodied slow-sinking bait has been the top European trophy pike lure for years. The original Flipper design was made by renowned pike lure designer Dave Scarff who made it for a man from Zimbabwe who wanted something along the lines of the old Bagley B Flat muskie glide bait. The reason the fellow wanted to use them was to catch giant largemouth bass in Zimbabwe. Ironically however, Flipper-type lures have never made it into bass fishing - although they have caused a modern-day renaissance of lure fishing for pike in Europe and Scandinavia.

Like it's name implies, the Flipper flips on its side when twitched, and that is exactly what drives fish wild - when the Flipper flashes its belly color at fish. For this reason, some Flippers are painted dark or drab-looking overall, until they flip and suddenly flash light-colored belly streaks, which is when they get bit. A dark-sided, flat-sided flipper is designed to hide or conceal the bright underbelly from a fish - until it is flipped, which is like flipping the lights on in a dark room. No one ever said fishing is rocket science, but it truly is an art.

Without any diving lip, the action of this lure type comes mainly from the weighting and the angler-imparted action. This makes it a "hands on" lure that is more challenging to use. The Flippers are retrieved using long slow jerks or short sharp snaps - and everything in between.

Phil Griffiths fishingpooluk@aol.com Coventry, Great Britain

Flying Fisherman

Best known for their polarized sunglasses, Flying Fisherman also offers high quality headgear (caps and visors) depicting many popular game fish, including the largemouth bass embroidered caps and visors. A removable terrycloth sweatband and exceptional largemouth bass embroidery are the two best features of the cap and visor. Attached by Velcro, the removable sweatband is absorbent and machine washable. There is also a Velcro adjustable strap to match your head size, an extended bill, and non-glare material under the brim. The company also offers replacement sweatbands for when the head juice just gets to be too much. The replacement terrycloth sweatbands fit both the cap and visor. To me, the Flying Fisherman largemouth cap and visor ranks among the most stylish and functional bass headgear available today.

www.flyingfisherman.com Linda Sheldon, VP Linda@flyingfisherman.com 800-335-9347 Islamorada, FL

Gamakatsu USA, Inc.

The addition of Red EWG treble hooks were the news for bass anglers from Gamakatsu for 2006. Available in hook sizes 2, 4, 6.

www.gamakatsu.com John Burgi, Western Regional Sales Manager sales1@gamakatsu.com 253-922-8373 Tacoma, WA

Gambler Lures

As the Gambler Ugly Otter name implies, the new Otter is remindful in some ways of Reaction Innovation's trend-setting Beaver - but the Otter is unique enough to be appreciated for its own merits. The Otter's three Flapp'n Shad type appendages all flap and thump, which can be felt thumping even just shaking the lure in your hand. All three flappers can be split in half - either split from the back, or split from the front Flapp'n Shad style which creates a flutter from each split appendage.

It appears the Otter has good potential to be buzzed and flapped across the surface in the same way as many of the new soft frog and toad lures too.

Another new product, the Gambler Florida Rig sinkers have been totally redesigned for 2006 - without the pigtail screw wires of old - but still keeping the same Florida Rig name.

Instead, the center bore and end cap of the sinker are filled with Gambler patented "Gambler Goo" a viscous plastic. There's a separate line threader, that has an eye like a sewing needle. You poke the threader though the Gambler goo-filled sinker bore, put the line through the needle eye, and tie the hook on.

You can thread any type or size or test line, says Gambler's Byron Childers, and you can convert from a Texas to Carolina rig in seconds. This sounds like it could be great to go down an irregular shoreline, where you may want to slide the sinker up the line two feet to Carolina rig the deep side of a point, and then slide the sinker back down onto the nose of the bait to toss a Texas rig into a bush on the next cast.

The new patented Gambler Florida Rig sinkers are available in lead, and Gambler will also have tungsten models by 2006 in 1/2 to 1 ounce sizes.

www.gambler-bang.com Byron Childers byronc@gambler-bang.com 954-969-1772 Pompano Beach, FL

Gan Craft

Due to language, it was kind of hard to get in-depth details from the Gan Craft lure designers, Yuji Amano and Yuya Nakahira. Fortunately, as the saying goes, a picture is worth more than words sometimes. As you can see, the Gan Craft hard swimbait below looks good enough to fillet for dinner tonight. I also saw a short video clip of how it swims barely below the surface very slowly in a serpentine "S"-shaped action. It didn't really roll on its sides, just swim in an "S" kind of dazed and disoriented way which looks very lifelike.

The Gan Craft spinnerbait, and the wire bends in the arm, are unique. As I understand it, the wire bends let the blades immediately start turning as soon as it hits the water, and that generates many strikes immediately. If you start to turn the handle as soon as it hits the water, the blades will be turning instantly. Or if you do not engage the reel right away, the blades will immediately start turning anyway on their own in a perfectly horizontal helicopter fall. Overall, it is a spinnerbait posture-improving wire bend that makes it so unique, and arguably better, says the company.

Yuya Nakahira gancraft@yahoo.co.jp Japan

Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits

As if the Senko was not good enough, Gary Yamamoto has extended his 5" Senko line with new Senko Hot Tip colors to be ready for 2006. New injection molding technology has opened the gates to exciting and productive new two-tone Senkos with contrasting tail tips. Field tests have shown that Senko Hot Tip colors can be powerful strike inducers. Senko Hot Tip colors can attract, agitate and motivate fish to bite better at times than ordinary Senko colors, says the company.

Legendary lure designer Gary Yamamoto's entry into the saltwater market also took off at ICAST - with an incredible bang. The new Yamamoto Saltwater Swim Bait will be ready for 2006.We certainly know from field-testing that the new Yamamoto Saltwater Swim Bait crosses over easily to freshwater bass fishing, striper fishing, and walleye just seem to crave it, but initial marketing will be geared to saltwater, says the company. The huge demand generated by the new swim bait's three-day showing at ICAST will be a tall order to fill just for saltwater buyers, says the company.

The company also extended three of its best-selling freshwater baits into the saltwater market, with the Yamamoto Saltwater Hula Grub, the Yamamoto Saltwater Ika, and the Yamamoto Saltwater Singletail, which will be ready for 2006. We'll debut new saltwater colors and a new saltwater formula; also contrasting skirt colors on the Saltwater Hula Grub and Saltwater Ika, says the company.

www.baits.com Russ Comeau, Advertising rcomeau@baits.com 800-645-2488 Page, AZ

Ima

Masa Nakatani presented me with an overview of the Ima brand, which was launched in 1998. The company name comes from the first three characters of the word, "imagination". The company primarily caters to the saltwater inshore surf fishing angler in Japan. Several of Ima's lures are also favored by Japan's freshwater bass anglers. Company officials say these three Ima's are their most successful models for freshwater bass in Japan:

Komomo. Momo is the Japanese word for "Peach," and the name of the company president's daughter, Momoko. So Ima's first and for seven years still their most famous lure is the Komomo, named after Momoko. This super shallow runner gets about one foot below the surface. Only a slow steady retrieve is required to create body-rolling motion. The underside of the bait's tail is grooved and finned, which is what the company says makes the lure's balance and action so famous throughout Japan. Since there is no protruding diving lip, the lure casts great distances, and has a weight transfer system to further increase casting distance. Reel slowly, steadily, stays near the surface. The Komomo simply catches the most fish in saltwater and freshwater.
P-ce 80. (Pronounced "peace") Released in late 2004, this pudgy lipped minnow works with a slow retrieve, stays shallow, rocking back and forth to create a lot of irregular turbulence like a wounded baitfish. The company says it is one of their top producers.
Trip 85. Ima tested and perfected the Trip for over four years before releasing it in summer 2005. This sinking pencil type lure has a wicked slow side-to-side action underwater. The curved humpback body design is intended so water does not flow straight over the lure, but swirls around the body to create a super live action with simple steady reeling. Without twitching or jerking the rod, the Trip will swim in the shape of the letter "S" near the surface. The action is distinct. It is safe to say no American fish has seen this awesome action yet, says the company.

www.ima-ams.co.jp/us Hartman Distributing USA hartman-usa@popeye-web.com 573-392-1921 Eldon, MO

Jackson, Inc.

I met Masao Kato and Masao Ueda of Jackson, Inc. Jackson was established in Japan about twenty-five years ago. This was practically the origin of lure fishing in Japan, says the company. In early years, Jackson imported USA brand lures, yet the local demand by Japanese anglers evolved into a desire for higher quality and better-performing lures, which motivated Jackson to set up its own research lab and factory. The company says Japanese anglers are unique because they are so keen about lure actions, that they got tired of using US lures. Newly-developing Japanese lures became of more interest, had better finishes, and better quality lures were being made in Japan, so Jackson decided to join the ranks of Japanese lure manufacturers. Prototype mastering, tank testing and field tests are done by lab technicians until the lure designer's concept is embodied in the Jackson product. Today, Jackson has gone through ten years experience in its own lure development, has veteran craftsmen, quality control at every step of production, and is always improving as progress enables new and advanced lure-making techniques, materials, tools and machinery to create and finish lures.

Jackie. This is the first time that Jackson has entered ICAST, and one of their very newest (and best, they say) crankbaits, they singled out to be very good for bass indeed, especially in a pond environment, due to its small size. Regular crankbaits with normal wobbling, highly-pressured bass in Japan become wary to show an interest because bass often see this same action. What sets Jackson's new Jackie crankbait apart, and what bass are not conditioned to (except in nature) is when you twitch, the weighting causes the belly to come up, roll up on its side. It is an irregular action that works so well because the bass have not seen such flipping/flashing action at all in a crankbait, yet baitfish do it all the time, says the company.
Athlete series. Overall, Jackson's Athlete jerkbait series is most popular in Japan because any situation you face, you can use the Athlete in one size or another, says the company. It comes in five sizes, swims better than other products, and catches better size fish than other products.
Artoron. Another Jackson jerkbait model that is most productive for bass is the Artoron, which is the Greek word for knee or elbow joints, says the company. A problem with jointed lures is they cast like potato chips and inaccurately. The Artoron jointed lipped minnow transcends this casting problem since the joint locks stiff on the cast to maximize distance and accuracy, yet unlocks on the retrieve to maximize jointed wiggling action, says the company.
Nyoru Nyoru. Company officials were especially proud of the funny-faced Nyoru Nyoru. Still rather new, they say the Nyoru Nyoru has been successful on the Japanese market for about three years. It was invented to work in highly-pressured fishing waters. With a very slow retrieve, it swims with a combination of wobbling and rolling. When paused, it sinks horizontally with vibration (like a Senko). It casts farther than you expect, is good for a steady retrieve, but can be twitched also, says the company.

www.jackson.co.jp Masao Ueda, Sales info@jackson.jp Shizuoka-city, Japan

Kanji International, Inc.

I went to ICAST hoping to see Kanji's Tungsten Zen Spinnerbait. These spinnerbaits retail well over $10 apiece in the United States - when they can be found. Kyoko says Kanji just cannot keep up with the demand by American anglers for this premium spinnerbait, and dealers often sell out as quickly as they can restock them.

Stunningly detailed and beautiful with holographic blades and multiple color paint patterns (black back, green, gold tiger stripes, yellow, orange belly in photo below), Kanji is far ahead of its peers in looks and style.

Kanji is also far ahead in use of tungsten material. With the body appearance of a 1/4 oz spinnerbait head, the Tungsten Zen Spinnerbait weighs 3/4 oz due to its hidden weight (under the skirt) and dense tungsten composition. This lets a very short wire arm, small blades and small appearance be presented in a heavy 3/4 oz lure. Just a great example of what a good spinnerbait should be. Super bass "jewelry," Kyoko.

Kyoko Shibata, President kanji946@earthlink.net 914-946-8862 Hartsdale, NY

Lee Sisson Lures

Lee Sisson reintroduced eight legacy lure designs from the seventies and eighties plus Lee also introduced four brand new designs for 2006, making a total twelve new Premium Balsa series crankbaits.

The eight legacy lure models reintroduced by Lee include:

Premium Balsa Shallow 1, 2 and 3. (BB1, BB2, BB3)
Premium Balsa Diver 1, 2 and 3. (DB1, DB2, DB3)
Killer P 2 (KB2) and Diving Killer P 2 (DKB2)

All the above have the same actions which have made the old balsa lures so sought after. The lips are unbreakable.

Lee's four brand new designs for 2006 include:

Skinny P Shallow and Skinny P Diver. Two new flat-sided cranks that suspend at rest.
Mini P Shallow and Mini P Deep. Also flat-sided, and are the smallest cranks Lee makes.

It's fascinating, and you realize it is something historical, to speak with legendary crankbait maker, Lee Sisson.

This was the first time I've seen Lee at ICAST. Lee got back into making crankbaits a few years ago. When he got back into the business, Lee brought out a line of Jetulong wood lures. Jetulong is a good, less expensive wood than balsa. I chose Jetulong when I got back into the business since Jetulong was more economical, and I felt I had to keep my lures, the components and paint finishes down to an affordable price level, Lee says.

Lucky Craft opened my eyes this year, says Lee. I saw I could afford to build a better lure for $10 and make money on it. I had been trying to shoehorn a lure into a $4 price range. Lucky Craft made me realize I did not need to do that.

For 2006, Lee has reintroduced premium, hand-selected balsa wood. He's putting premium hooks and glitter finishes on his new lures for 2006. Actually, eight "new" lures in Lee's new Premium Balsa series are the original designs that lots of guys caught bass on dating back to the seventies, over thirty years ago.

Lucky Craft's success made me realize I have over thirty years knowledge building crankbaits, and anglers are willing to pay for me to make the best possible lure I can for them, says Lee.

Lucky Craft has created a new demand for good quality lures, says Lee. They are excellent promoters, and I admire what Lucky Craft has done to build good lures and to teach people to use them, says Lee.

In the early seventies to mid-eighties, Lee was involved with crankbait evolution at Bagley Baits. The lures Lee offers today are the same shapes, same lips out of the same molds. What's new is what was old, says Lee, except I have added 3D eyes and fine glitter flash finishes, plus premium hooks.

Many other glitter finish crankbaits today have too much glitter, says Lee. Sisson's new glitter finish cranks have more of a fine sheen, not a gaudy display of glitter, says the crankbait designer.

I asked Lee what are his favorite crankbait colors? Going back to the seventies, black/pearl and black/chartreuse have always been tops, he says. Black/chartreuse is Lee's top-selling color today. I couldn't make enough of them this year. No doubt, the current popularity of black/chartreuse was helped by Takahiro Omori winning the last Citgo Bassmasters Classic on that color, however it has always been terribly productive going back to the seventies. Black/pearl is in the top five, always has been and will be, says Lee. Some anglers have seen and done it all with crankbaits the past thirty years, and they keep coming back to these two basic colors.

I asked Lee what are his favorite crankbait models? He doesn't have a favorite. It would be like asking a handyman if he liked to use a hammer more than he likes to use a pliers or a screwdriver. Crankbaits are like tools in a toolbox, says Lee. It just makes sense to use one for a certain task.

What's incredible, says Lee, is to realize at one time (about 1972) the whole world did not have any tool - no crankbait that could go more than six feet deep - until Lee made one. Today, Lee's deepest lure is his Premium Balsa Diver 3, a copy of his original from the seventies, which digs 8-15 feet deep.

Lee is also making four totally new flat-sided crankbaits for 2006. Some with polycarbonate lips, but also an exclusive series will feature circuit board diving lips for a top cataloger.

Some guys believe the thin circuit board lip is easier to fish, says Lee. The exclusive circuit board lip series might get a little quicker action than a polycarbonate lip, says Lee. Mostly, it is a regional preference. Lee feels a preference toward circuit board lips exists among anglers in some parts of the Northeast, maybe the southern mid-Atlantic states, in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and thereabouts.

www.leesissonlures.com Lee Sisson lee@leesissonlures.com 863-967-4036 Auburndale, FL

Lil' Hustler Tackle Company

I took a look at the new Pro Jig, designed for flipping thick cover, and Swim Jig since both are good examples of two contemporary minor trends or styles being evolved in jigs today:

First, a flipping jig style where the jig head is being designed in order to cover up the hook eye to render the hook eye less protrusive - as in Lil' Hustler's Pro Jig. The reasoning behind this is to reduce any way that weeds can collect on or behind the hook eye, prevent snags due to a protrusive eye, and especially so the hook eye is not blatantly protruding during a hookset, so the eye does not stick up or become an impediment that compromises a clean, clear hookset. Traditional flip jigs, the hook eye protrudes and sits on top of the jighead. With this contemporary variant style of the flip jig, the jighead shape is being designed to integrate the hook eye into the jighead shape, so the eye is not protrusive.
Second, Lil' Hustler's Swim Jig is a relatively new style of jig - actually two different styles, both called swim jigs. One swim jig style stems from the Upper Mississippi River in Wisconsin. The other swim jig style stems from the Southeast for use on grass-choked lakes like Lake Guntersville, Alabama for example. Both contemporary swim jig styles are fished similarly - you keep the jig moving - "swimming" high through weeds and wood. A single tail grub trailer is often used in the North whereas bulkier trailers are more typical in the South.

www.lilhustler.com Brian Sanson briansanson@lilhustler.com 603-224-8856 Pembroke, NH

Lucky Craft, Inc.

New lures for 2006 that were seen in Lucky Craft's booth or cited in their new product literature include:

Live Sammy 120. 4-3/4" 4/5 oz. Hybrid hard/soft topwater
Live LVR. 2-3/4" 3/5 oz. Lipless hybrid hard/soft rattlebait
Wood Sammy 100. 4" 1/2 oz.
Wood Pointer 78. 3" 3/8 oz.
Fat CB BDS1. 2" 1/4 oz. Crankbait
Fat CB BDS2. 2-1/2" 1/2 oz. Crankbait
Flat CB Mini SR. 2" 1/8 oz. Flat-sided crankbait. Shallow runner
Flat Mini MR. 2" 1/8 oz. Flat-sided crankbait. Medium runner
Flat Mini DR. 2" 1/4 oz. Flat-sided crankbait. Deep runner
Saltwater Lipless Slim Pointer

ICAST 2005: New Bass Tackle & Industry Trends for 2006