ICAST 2013 has now come and gone and we haven’t had much time to just sit down and sort through all the information that we got while we were there. This year we thought that, as opposed to giving you a laundry list of new offerings, we would instead focus on those products that caught our attention more than any others as well as showing you some new baits that are available, just not in our market!
Understand there are so many more vendors who were at the show that we won’t mention in any of these articles that pertain to ICAST that deserve recognition for their ideas, efforts and innovation. With that being said, let’s get rollin’.
Spro’s Baby Fat John 50
Let’s start with the venerable old crankbait. Spro is one of the manufacturers who have been providing quality, affordable lures for some time now while pursuing innovation in collaboration with their pro-staffers.
Most of us have thrown the John Crews series of baits. We appreciate the consistent performance,quality and versatility of these cranks. This year Spro is debuting the Baby Fat John 50. This diminutive lure is 50 mm in length(about 2 inches sans the circuit board lip), weighs 3/8 of an ounce and carries 2 Gamakatsu trebles.
The finishes are the quality we’ve become accustomed to from Spro and the colors are both varies as well as highly applicable to most waterways.
The biggest alteration to this bait besides the size is the wide circuit board lip which is designed to be run through all kinds of cover without hanging up. We’re really looking forward to banging this thing around in the shallows ‘cause it just screams, “EAT ME!”.
The Storm Arashi
Another family of new baits are the Storm Arashi. These baits were being used by Brandon Palanuik recently in an Elite series event. As of this writing, they have 4 models which include both silent and rattling versions as well as covering the water column from shallow to mid-range depths. Billed as a self-tuning bait, they also feature updated paint schemes, circuit board lips and rotated hook hangers that are supposed to keep the hooks closer to the body resulting in fewer snags.
Koppers Live Target BaitBall Series
Koppers Live Target Series took home the award this year for, “Best of Show-new hard bait”. Their new BaitBall series include a squarebill, a medium diving crankbait, two jerkbaits and a popper.
What’s interesting about this series is that they all utilize a clear plastic that has an internal 3D image of a baitfish with a external 3D painted image of the same baitfish on both sides of the lure resulting in the appearance of a small school of prey.
Unfortunately, none of the lures that they showed were complete with hooks or other components that will come on the finished product so we’ll have to wait to see what the final appearance really is. However, the prototypes managed to get lots of folks talking. If you’re looking to get your hands on them you’ll probably have to wait for a couple of months more for them to get into stores.
Megabass’s Knuckle 50
Megabass is another high-end manufacturer of hard baits. They are expanding their line with some new offerings that include both large and small lures that bookend existing products. For you lipless aficionados, the Vibration-X Jr. produces a high pitch wobble while being small enough to use effectively year round.
The Knuckle series gets a smaller sibling with the Knuckle 50 but maintains its unique, two position lip that the angler can adjust on the fly to alter its running depth.
The Ito series of jerkbaits required no introduction but it too will have some new stable mates this season. The Vision OneTen gains a smaller sibling aptly named Jr. as well as a stable mate, the Ito Shiner, the Shading-X will be available in a 75 version and their new Pony Frog has a new BFF in the Pony Gabot which is a popping frog.
Duo Realis
Duo Realis has some very interesting new baits in their line-up with an emphasis on you top-water warriors. The Pencil 110 and Pencil 85 provide the same great action but give the angler some great choices in size with excellent finishes rounding the package.
The features that caught our eye are the use of glass beads in the head with metal beads in the body. This combination of sounds has been one that is very successful in coaxing bites. They round out walk the dog lures with the Popper 64. A unique front cup, feathered back hooks, quality colors and finishes are the trademark for Duo.
This is not a comprehensive list of all the new cranks you’ll see in the coming months. Far from it, this is simply the ones that, in our opinion, really separated themselves from the pack in ways that we believe will make them very productive.
See ya’ on the water …