New Products.

After reviewing the last bass master magazine I keep coming back to the “new products” and have to admit that they are truly the same old presentations we are all accustomed to.

While I have yet to try any of these out, The finer points of some of these products is profound. I have been keen to the subtle differences in the past and disappointed in many of the changes manufacturers make for the sake of making them.

Does anyone remember the old solid noise makers of the Bomber series. The low toned thunk in stead of the bee bee rattle sound now more common than any. I personally like the old sound and keep the remaining Bomber lures under lock and key.

Now you take one of the innovative companies like Lucky Craft. They have many products that are over priced but money aside the baits have many of the qualities I liked from baits that have gone by the wayside. For instance, does anyone remember the old -1 crankbait that had a flat bill face? These crankbaits had an extreme side to side action and were able to keep there action even when caught up with eel grass. The new versions are flashy and catch many fisherman but when is the last time you saw the old reliable silver with a red head -1? Its been years and the ones I can find are listed under the salt water sections. Onto another pattern that has changed for worse, Can I get a good old fashion rainbow trout pattern in anything?

Things they have done right….

The pointer minnow…. This bait has the best balance in 50 degree water that I have ever witnessed. Plane and simple they stay where you rip them. The husky jerk is a good bait and will always have a place in my boat but quite honestly when the money is on the line I will almost always pull out a pointer.

Tubes… Well the entire world has now heard how efficient these baits are. Bass pro, Cabelas ands the other are all listing a wide selection but color patterns and sizes are just not up to par. Take companies like Team Supreme and Mizmo, they produce many different color patterns that are definitely making a difference in my fishing but how about adding a 6” line or maybe even an 8. How many times do you use a 4” ringworm only to find that you are pulling hundreds of 1lb fish and switch to a jig or 6” worm to pull the bigger fish. I need a 6” tube stamp to whop someone up side the head with so I can get product that I need.

Jigs… Well just when you think everything has been done I am still finding improvements in head design and such. Last weekend I watched a program with Rollin Martin, yes I was bored, and he was fishing a hair jig. This jig was balanced with a the eyelet towards the back of some exaggerated minnow head. The bait looked ok but the fact that when swam the head was not driving the bait down really makes the presentation different. By having the jig completely balanced the rod tip, retrieval speed, and line diameter control the depth in stead of fishing the bait in a big looping motion or having to crawl it on the bottom trying to keep it out of the rocks. This application in a flipping jig is not something I would welcome but any place where fishing high in the water column is involved I might opt for this type of a presentation.

Next generation plastics such as Gulp and Snapback lures offer a different texture, sent and flavor release agents. These baits offer a longer hold time in relation to bass helping the careless or lackadaisical angler feel bites and have more time to react to the bite. These baits are just starting to have an impact and I think you will see this grow in the near future.

That’s all for now…

Jc

Did you notice in the “New Reels” section, Shimano now has a baitcaster out with a microchip in it to control the anit-backlash system????

JC,

I see new baits, in general, as more of something for
fishers to spend money on, to vent anxiety, before the
big fishing event. I have seen very few “improvements”,
that really make a difference. As you mentioned, there
is some room for tweeking in jigs, and any time a new
hard bait comes out, there will be a honeymoon period,
if it provides some unique wiggle, or twist, but few
will make the leap to the level of some of the old
standards like, Rapala floaters, Rapala Shadraps, and
a few others. Luckycraft may be an exception here,
once one get’s past the price. I know tackle marketing
type won’t want to hear this, but for the last three
years I have been buying samples of all of the latest
rage, and fishing them against my old standards.
Few, if any, have found a place in my “old standards”.
I guess the most noteable “new products” for me, have
been Senko style baits(fished since 1999), and Luckycraft
Pointers(fished since 2002). So I don’t advocate not
looking at new stuff, but there is a ton of “new” stuff
that upon close review, never makes it into my shopping
cart. I have never tried “Gulp”, a good ol’ 6″ Fliptail
Berkley worm has worked for the past 5 years, and I have
never felt the need to look for change. I bought one
bag of Exude “creature” baits, in a panic once, where
I was almost out of Zoom Brush Hogs, in a tournament.
That bag of Exude ended up in either the garbage, or
that big rummage sale box, my wife has for all of my
fishing tackle rejects. Again the tackle sellers won’t
like to hear this, but this year, I am going to make
a serious effort to clean all of the “crap” out of
my boat, and my tackle bags, and get down to “old
standards”, with maybe one pocket for new prospects,
just in case someone does come out with something
destined to be an “old standard”.

Incidentally, if you are looking for big tubes, there
are a few out there, that are “musky” sized. I am
sure if you hit a bass, or a tackle manufacturer in the
head with one of those tubes, they will notice(grin).
But for my big tube needs, I find a Yamamoto Big Ika
works nicely. It is a solid body tube style bait that
goes a long way when the fish are looking for bigger
meals. The only kick against them is one must be quick
on the trigger, or gullet hooked fish are common. Also,
they sink like a rock, so if you are looking for something
to fall slow, or even float, then look at those “Musky
sized” hollow body tubes. I think one brand is called,
“Tiger Tubes”, or something like that. They are BIG.

Big Bass Bane

i am in agreement with BBB on this issue. I have made an effort to clear the junk so to speak out of my tackle boxes, (partly do to the fact that i can never seem to find the 4″ power tube soon enough) i don’t like weeding through this stuff i never use. My solution is to give this stuff to my two teenage newphews as they are more likely to use it. It all boils down to confidence, it changes year to year sometimes with new stuff, and recycles with old, (I threw a spinnerbait more this year than ever, two years ago everything was husky jerk), weird because the bottom line is everything works if you fish where there is fish, I have saved $$$$$ on crankbaits, only use three types, i think i have every one of the discontinues plastic fat raps

There does get to be a point of clutter………I admit it! But for every time I’ve wanted to actually weed out the “junk”, I can think of an instance where one of those “junk” lures saved my day! Not every one of them and not every day, but often enough that I’ve had a select few of them become “go to” lures………….and it ticks me off when I lose one because they’re almost impossible to locate another one………..or so it seems to be for me, the “joe average” fishing guy. So, it makes it difficult to just trash ’em.

I was wondering how many of you might have been paging through their copy of Bass Master as I thumbed through it last night! Thanks for your product input guys!

Stillakid2,

I went through that phase, too. Afraid to ditch something
that looks good, and might work some day. And I have
had those days where the other person, in the boat, was
throwing a purple with pink polka dots, 12″ worm, with
legs(grin), and I took great pride in reaching under
the deck, and pulling some out, just to show him there
were few limits to my tackle selection. Did I need
a 12″ purple, with pink polka dots, worm to catch fish?
NO! Did I think I did? Probably. I guess my point
is that I have slowly come to the belief that it is
more about my confidence, and my correct analysis,
as to what the fish are doing, than it is about throwing
an exact match to the “hot bait”.

I recall a guy laughing in the front of his boat, as
he bumped another good fish, that his secret crankbait
was going to kick my butt. Since no more were made,
and the fish HAD to have that one, I was in trouble…
Or at least that was my partner’s thoughts. At which point
I watched just exactly what he was doing for retrieve
speed, and guessed at the depth his bait was running,
and then reached into my hardbait box, and started
trying a few of my “secret” hard baits. After about
3 trys, I had something that was catching more fish,
and bigger fish, 3 to his 1. I really believe we
could have switched baits, and I still would have
caught more fish than he did. For me it is more about
the Indian, than it is about the arrow, after years
of believing it was the arrow. Many still believe
it is the arrow, and if that is where they find
confidence, well I say. “Good for them”. But for
me, I really believe I can get by with a few light,
a few dark. and a few in between, in each of my “old
standards”, and catch a lot of fish.

Big Bass Bane

Pink Polka-Dots !!! Wait a second. . . . I threw some of those once upon a time.

What gets me is all of these “new” methods that they keep writing up in the mags. The one that struck me the funniest was written about “Texas rigging salt craws, The Go-To Bait of the Pros”!! At the time of the article coming out, I think we had already been tossing salt craws at the bass for about 5 years.

BBBane,

That’s the greatest piece of persuasive encouragement I’ve been given in a long time! THANK YOU!

I can certainly absorb the wisdom in your words and I do think it’s going to help me be more “selective”. I could certainly thin down my arsenal…………but I could also use more time on the water to gain more of this kind of knowledge.

Thanks again for that excellent post!

BBB,
Very good and informative post. The Indian always catches the fish, the arrow is only the tool and as we all know by now, many tools work in most situations. Very few times have I encountered situations where only one bait (tool) would work. It is more about location and presentation than color in my humble opinion. We cannot forget that we are dealing with an animal that has to make split second reactions in his environment to sustain life on a daily basis. If a bass choose only to eat a certain colored food of a ceratin size, configuration, etc. then all the bass that out there would be 15 inches long and weigh 10 ounces! Bass are the epitome of opportunistic feeders and most times if it looks even close to something that they would normally eat they will eat it. How many bubblegum colored animals are in the Mississippi River or elsewhere for that matter and at times they will eat those (and others) like candy. The “pros” don’t carry nearly as much tackle with them as we do yet we still feel the need to buy the new “holy grail” every year at the sport shows. We are so easy!!

i hear you tazbbassin, and good call name by the way. People in the industry can didctate what is going to be the “hot” bait with just one thing, promotion, and yes, I have been texas rigging salt craws since the early 90’s, i have also caught crap loads of walleyes on a bait called the reaper for even longer,( it kind of looks like that new HOT bait the super doo )

While I agree with most of this, each year it seems that we all learn a “new” technique in a “new” fishing environment that prohibits TOO much change and most “good” fisherman have an arsenol that could fill at least ONE tailgating size Green Bay Packer Fan toting Igloo beer cooler… I, for one, could fill at LEAST one…

I mean, we all have to have a few shapes, sizes, colors, etc of:
1. Plastics, including…
A. Worms
B. Tubes
C. Lizards
D. Helmegranites or Centipedes
E. 7 different bullet weights (and made of different metals)
F. Creature baits (maybe if you buy in to these)
G. Glass beads of different shapes, sizes, colors
H. Carolina weights
I. Swivels
J. Clickers
K. Wide gap hooks (Sizes 1 – 5)
L. Normal gap hooks (Sizes 1 – 5)
M. Flukes
N. Senkos
2. Drop Shot Gear
A. Assorted Plastics
B. Appropriate Hooks
C. Matched Weights
3. Shallow Cranks (Shad Pattern, Craw Pattern, and of course, Chartreuse)
4. Deep Cranks (Shad Pattern, Craw Pattern, and of course, Chartreuse)
5. Oh, yes, medium running Cranks (Shad Pattern, Craw Pattern, and of course, Chartreuse)
6. Floating Jerk Baits
7. Suspending Jerk Baits
8. Frogs
9. Chugs
10. Spooks & Sammy’s
11. Propellar baits, both stick and buzzbaits
12. Pig n Jigs
13. Lead Heads and Twister Tails
14. Spinnerbaits (Colorado, Willow, French Cut, Etc Blades in an assortment of colors)
15. Swimming Jigs
16. In-line spinners
17. Jigging Spoons
18. Johnson silver minnow with a trailer and frog
19. Popper
20. Hair Jigs

Okay, I think I made my point… we all use these at some time during the year… in some pattern…

Who would we be kidding if we didn’t admit to own at least one of the aforementioned catagories?

I for one, use MOSTLY 3 baits (changing up size and presentation) all year, but always have 8 rods in the boat for a different look at a moments notice… because “What if…”

So, while I usually only purchase REPLACEMENTS of baits lost, I can admit that I try something new each year… this year it was the Sammy in place of the Zara… a good choice I think.

I, for one, enjoy reading about the new gear each year, what else do we have to do in December through February but dream… when we hit the water in March, we all know dead-sticked Rapala’s and Rogues will catch the fish… but one never knows, perhaps that pink and purple spotted worm will be the winner!

Reel Guy,

I didn’t mean to imply that there was a limit to “old standards”.
I do have a self-imposed limit to
what I need within most of your listed categories.

One of your categories, Drop Shot Gear, is one that
I am guilty of experimenting with, but as of yet, have
not found it’s niche, where I fish most. I will probably
stick with it one more season, but I have yet to find a
situation where it out produced some technique I already
am comfortable with. I did find it effective, when
I used it on a couple of western reservoirs, but in
the upper Midwest it just has not impressed me. I
guess if I ever fish a T where I get on deep smallies,
in sand grass, or deep boulders, I will change my mind,
but until then, my drop shot gear is in danger of gathering
dust, on my storage shelves…Until my next western trip.

Things like “clickers”, and rattles, are more of those
fishing trinkets that have not impressed me. JC did hand
me a couple of tube insert rattles, last year,that may have
made a difference a time or two. But even then, if I
wasn’t already stuffing an internal weight in my tube,
I wouldn’t bother stuffing in a rattle. But since it
was one of JC’s secret weapons, I had to give it a test

Incidentally, I don’t carry centipedes, helgies, or
lizards. But I do carry waterdogs, and sculpins.

I do agree that “New” tackle is always worthy of a look,
but as I get longer in the tooth, I find less I need
to buy. Come February, I will once again be deep in
the grip of cabin fever, and those Purple, with pink
polka dotted worms, will be looking pretty good

Big Bass Bane

BBBane… agree… so, how many coolers could you fill?

Seriously, the Mighty Miss NEVER saw a drop shot rig from me… nor has any WI water, for that matter. BUT, when I was in Canada, getting Smallies to hit in the mid-day on those gin-clear lakes was next to impossible… So, I remembered reading about Drop-shot Finesse gear…

I tied them on, and as LoanARanger will atest, fish were found biting right in the hot high sun parts of the day… the part of the day usually reserved for leeches, crawlers, etc. I was sold… and have them in my arsenol for just those occassions.

So, I ask, anyone using it on the Miss?

Hay pointer fans, doesn’t the Bassmaster Suspending Minnow look like it came from Lucky Craft? The price isn’t bad either. http://www.basspro-shops.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=49958&hvarDept=100&hvarEvent=&hvarClassCode=5&hvarSubCode=2&hvarTarget=browse

Reel Guy, I have used the drop shot on a limited basis on pool 4 with some success. I was able to turn on a reluctant school of smallies using it. It took some time to get them going but once one bit the next fish hit the sinker as it entered the water. Isn’t that typical of smallies.