For me, ICAST is a forum to review new products
and engage in conversational fact-finding with my peers in the
industry in order to help me form accurate perceptions of where
the bass sportfishing industry is headed each year. This is so I
may help advise those companies that are clients or associates of
mine to best position themselves in the industry, and so I may
best inform anglers and readers who desire to position themselves
on the leading edge of bass fishing innovation on their own home
waters.
Circle hooks continue
to be a trend. "Circle hooks are a smart thing to
do from a conservation standpoint - and they work. If an angler
embraces how to use them, the strike-to-catch ratio improves and
for those fish that may be released, there is less chance of harm
from a circle hook," says Steve Fifer, sales manager for Henry's Tackle,
a wholesale firm that supplies over 7,000 sporting goods
retailers.
New research and development of natural food source
and biodegradable lures. The latest trend to emerge at
ICAST this year was significant industry research and development
toward natural food source and biodegradable lures that break
down and disappear from the environment if the lure is snagged or
left behind. A few such natural, biodegradable and/or
non-plastic soft bait products were debuted at ICAST by several
lure companies, lead by Berkley's new Gulp! product line which
won Best of Show honors in the soft bait category. Gulp! is
designed to break down and disappear from the environment if left
in water ninety days. Another firm, Kanji International,
presented prototypes of what they believe to be the first
biodegradable hard bait, a lipped minnow jerkbait hardbait, that
if left in water, would dissolve within a short time. Keep in
mind, some of these forerunners may be first release products
that do not have all the features or benefits fully perfected
yet. And at least several other companies are currently busy
researching and developing biodegradable or food source product
materials but haven't reached the point to openly present new
products yet. But there is so much eco-appeal in this budding
concept of biodegradable lures that it would not be prudent for
any company who offers hard or soft plastic lures to dismiss this
biodegradable market aspect completely.
In-store seminars for
anglers are a growing industry trend. From the largest
mega-fishing emporiums like Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops to chain
stores and savvy maverick retail store owners - all are holding
seminars to show and tell anglers how to use a bait they may
purchase at the store. "When an angler leaves a fishing
department with a purchase, the biggest complaint, number one
issue among anglers in exit interviews is that the product
packaging does not tell how to use it," says Mark Diss of
Phalanx Media Group, an advisory firm to the fishing industry.
"If the product is not successful for the angler, not only
will the product get blamed, but the angler also tends to blame
the store for this," says Mark Diss. So the current industry
trend toward in-store seminars solves this problem by enabling an
angler to leave the store with a product purchase and with
the information and confidence from the seminar how best to use
it. Manufacturers who partner with such stores, send guest
speakers, factory reps and other corporate presence at such
in-store seminars can benefit handsomely from this powerful
grassroots trend.
A trend toward new and
better overseas manufacturing sources. In China but
also Korea and other countries, there are more and better
overseas manufacturing sources being discovered and contracted
each year. Factories that can make a precision fishing product
and make it cheaply. It was not so long ago an eight or ten ball
bearing spinning reel was an innovation and expensive. Today such
a reel can be reproduced effortlessly with precision, beauty and
at low cost by any number of overseas manufacturing facilities.
The same applies to fishing rods, soft baits and hard baits. Most
any innovation in the fishing industry can be reproduced quickly
with precision by overseas manufacturers according to the
specifications of US or other firms that engage these
manufacturers to do so.
The Yamamoto Senko
continues to be an industry driver. In the soft bait
sector of the market, the Yamamoto Senko is undeniably a catalyst
driving new sales of Senko-like soft bait products for many of
the industry's soft bait manufacturers. Between this year and
last year at ICAST, the majority of soft bait companies have
unveiled competing models of Senko type baits of their own.
Red hooks are a
mega-trend. Due largely to the efforts of TTI
Industries who popularized the red hook concept in recent years
via their Daiichi Bleeding Bait hook offerings, the entire
fishing industry is benefiting from product sales of either hook
sales or lures with red hooks. Anglers have become so confident
of red hooks that the potential exists in 2004 for red hooks to
sell better in some circles than bronze or standard color hooks.
"Red hooks show consumers that you are with it," says
Steve Fifer, sales manager for Henry's Tackle,
a wholesale firm that supplies over 7,000 sporting goods
retailers.
Superlines keep
improving. Braided lines and fluorocarbon lines
started appearing on advanced anglers spools in recent years, but
are still not yet for everybody. Features of these products
continue to become more "user-friendly" for the average
angler. At each ICAST show, several new brands of superlines
enter the market. In fluorocarbon, newer better variants of
"soft" fluorocarbon for spinning reels are an example
of the continuing incremental improvement trend here.
Hybridizing and
naturalizing hard and soft baits. Hybridizing hard
bait head sections with soft bait tail sections continues to be a
minor theme in new product development for some companies. A
related minor new trend I spotted this year was blending natural
fibers (feathers, fur) with soft baits or hard baits. A handful
of companies have begun to naturalize hard or soft baits
like this since ICAST last year. For example, Ron Troyer,
owner/designer of Thornwood Lures has begun to add natural
fiber tufts to the pectoral fin area of his premium hand-crafted
wooden topwater poppers and propbaits. "The addition of a
natural material does not seem to matter as much to my customers
on a crankbait that is kept in constant motion," says Ron.
"Where it matters most is when you pop or pause a topwater
hardbait, letting it rest. The natural material continues to
pulse and flutter softly even when the lure body is perfectly
still on top of the water. This small tuft of material triggers
strikes since it duplicates a motionless baitfish where only the
pectoral fins can be seen to move," says Troyer.
We've talked some about the minor and mega-trends
in the industry. Now let's talk some about the new tackle and new
tools that caught my eye at ICAST. Many new products often gain
the spotlight, become a national or regional fad for a year or
two...then fizzle. Every veteran bass angler has seen it happen
over and over again - the hot period that cools off as last
year's scorchers become next year's curdled tapioca.
With nearly 1,000 new products debuted at ICAST
this year, I can't say I reviewed them all, but here's a handful
of the shiny new products you may be likely to see Bassdozer
brandishing out on the water in 2004:
Aqua Innovations - For tournament
contenders and tournament host organizations, a new principle of
livewell and fish tank oxygenation was introduced at ICAST by
Aqua Innovations. Unlike standard aeration systems that pump
ambient air (at 20.9% oxygen) through a diffuser stone into the
livewell water, the Pure Oxygen Livewell
Keeper unit can produce greater than 80% dissolved
oxygen in 7 minutes. The benefits are better overall health of
fish kept in a livewell when returned back to the water, less
chance of fish dying in livewells (tournament penalties apply to
dead fish), and reduced stress. Fish lose weight and weigh
less by day's end when stressed in a livewell, thereby
reducing tournament points. www.aquainnovationsinc.com
866-601-1296
Awesome Bait Company - Seven models of new
Thundershad handcrafted balsa
wood crankbaits from shallow-runners to deep-runners in
twenty-seven color patterns were presented to the industry at
ICAST by Awesome Bait Company president Paul Kaptis. Developed in
consultation with Rick Clunn. www.thundershad.com
866-805-5290
Bagley Bait Company - To commemorate
their 50th anniversary, the Bagley Bait Company has re-introduced
the flat-sided, square-lipped Bagley B Flat II crankbait for
2004. Since the early nineties, the B
Flat II has only been made in special production runs
for certain tournament pros. A shallow diver, the buoyant
balsa-carved B Flat II has the tightest and fastest wobbling
action of all Bagley crankbaits. Can you spell r-e-a-c-t-i-o-n
bite? Bagley (I believe for the first time) will also offer a
spinnerbait for 2004. The new Spin'n B
has a wire arm that allows an anglers to change both the inside
and outside spinnerbait blades rapidly without tools, or go from
a single to double-bladed bait. www.bagleybait.com
239-693-7070
Berkley - *Best
of Show* in the soft baits category was awarded to Gulp!, a new biodegradable non-plastic
soft bait material by Berkley. Gulp! has 400 times more scent
release than soft plastic and is 100% biodegradable. If left in
water for ninety days, Gulp! is gone. www.berkley-fishing.com
800-237-5539
Concord Industries - Have your belt,
keys and trailer hitch looking good for 2004 with stunning bass
art emblazoned on belt buckles, trailer hitch covers, flashlight
key rings and leather fob key rings. These make great gifts for
bass anglers or for club or tournament award prizes. www.concordoutdoors.com
800-553-9824
Conquistador Tackle Company - During a
coffee break, I ran into John Hollis and Joe Michels whose WiredWorms are premium double hook
pre-rigged jigworms using Mustad UltraPoint jig hooks and
Gamakatsu tail stinger hooks. When bass are tail-biting soft
plastics, an angler will face difficulty using all conventional
rigging methods, since the hook lies in the front half of the
bait, therefore outside the mouth. Top Western pros like John
Murray and Ben Matsubu have long used pre-rigged double hook
worms to snare fish that aren't inhaling the head of a worm.
Conquistador appears to have raised the bar in terms of superior
quality and components in this little-known but useful genre of
double hook pre-rigged jigworms. www.wiredworms.com
928-772-3068
Gamakatsu - For 2004, Gamakatsu has
designed the Wacky Wide Gap.
It has a very short shank with an extremely wide and round bend
designed to accommodate the thicker mid-section of many of the
newer stick type soft plastic baits like Gary Yamamoto's Senko.
The design of this hook also makes it good for drop shot fishing
with thicker baits that require additional gap, but don't need
the weight of a larger worm hook. www.gamakatsu.com
253-919-1722
Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits - The company's
new Senko Kit was the hot
topic for buyers at the Yamamoto booth. The Senko Kit has 40
Senkos in 6 top colors in a rugged utility box with instructions
from Gary Yamamoto himself how best to fish Senkos. For 2004, the
new Yamamoto Kahuna Kut-Tail
series is ready to begin winning tournaments, five big bass at a
time! www.baits.com
800-645-2248
Hart Tackle - Hart's new models of
spinnerbaits and buzzbaits for 2004 take the red hook megatrend
to the max with red Owner spinnerbait hooks, red silicone
twin-tail trailer strands, red eyes, and Bleeding
Hart red gill plates under the chin. Most intriguing
of all Hart's new features for 2004 is the new Hart Thumper spinnerbait which welds a
willow leaf and Colorado blade into one combined blade. www.harttackle.com
800-542-0774
Lee Sisson Lures - Thirty years ago, Lee
Sisson started designing balsa wood lures for Bagley Bait
Company. and he has manufactured lures for companies such as
Heddon, Strike King, Manns, Arbogast and others. Now Lee Sisson
has unveiled his own line of lures at ICAST for the first time.
Lee Sisson lures for 2004 are made of Jelutong, a wood with
similar flotation and action as balsa but Jelutong is stronger.
Lee Sisson crankbaits and jerkbaits all feature a ticker sound
chamber insert. Tel. 863-967-4036
Lucky Craft - *Best of Show* in the hard bait
category was awarded to the new Live
Pointer. A double strand of stainless wire runs
through the flexible jointed swimming tail section of the Live
Pointer. The tail wire joins with the hard plastic front head
section containing weight balances, rattles and diving lip. Lucky
Craft sales manager Chris Armstrong says "The Live Pointer
can be used in either a jerkbait or a swimbait situation. The
jointed body lets an angler get either action." Also new for
2004 is a larger 4-inch size Wander
95. You rarely see mention of the Wander (also
available in a Wander 80 version), but it is a great bait. The
best way to describe the Wander is it has a Senko-like image and
action, but made of hard plastic with treble hooks. www.luckycraft.com
714-241-8484
Mojo Lure Company - ICAST welcomed
several new Mojo sinker styles for 2004. Unlike Austin Powers
however, these new sinkers help you not to lose your Mojo.
All new sinker styles feature the slender cylindrical shape of
the original Mojo sinker - one of the best sinker shapes to get
soft bait rigs through weeds, rocks and snags. First, the new RockHopper sinker excels in
snagless fishing in areas with vast amounts of rocks. "It
may not look like a lot of technology has gone into the
RockHopper, but this sinker is full of scientific leverage
principles, and so unique that we've got a patent pending,"
says Mojo Lure Company president Larry Glavinich. "Best of
all, it's simple to use," smiles Larry Glavinich proudly.
Second is the new Rig Saver
sinker. Its main advantages are that the Rig Saver sinker can be
attached or disattached to a Carolina rig instantly without
cutting the line or disassembly of the rig. If the Rig Saver
sinker snags, the weight will release from your line at
approximately 4 lbs of pressure, allowing you to retrieve your
complete rig (minus the weight). And unlike other Carolina rig
sinkers, the line runs freely through a wire ring so it is not
subject to line-weakening abrasion by the sinker or banging
against the knot by the sinker. The third new item, the Pineapple Swivel Down Shot sinker
has a line-cushioning knotless swivel clip. One annoying problem
with other swivel clips, they can cut your line as you rig up.
But Mojo's Pineapple Swivel is designed to help prevent cutting
the line during the rigging process. All Mojo sinkers feature a
metal alloy mix designed to make a high pitch fish-attracting
ringing noise upon contact with the bottom or when using beads in
your rigging to add noise to your presentation. www.mojolures.com
800-474-mojo.
Optimum Baits - Of Optimum's new products
for 2004, the new Rabbit Hair Series
was most innovative. This new series is seven styles of soft
baits with fish-attracting rabbit hair strips imbedded in them.
The segue from soft plastic to rabbit hair flows well. "When
fish are on beds or when lethargic bass just eyeball baits, plain
soft plastics just lay there lifeless on a bed or in front of a
bass. That's when we've seen the most dramatic difference with
the rabbit hair series," says company owner Tony Paino.
"Even when the soft plastic portion of the bait lies
motionless, the rabbit hair strip will breathe with the slightest
water movement, and when that hair comes alive in front of a
watching bass, that is the strike trigger that cannot be gotten
with plastic alone." says Tony. www.optimumbaits.com
909-676-6384
Owner Hooks - The new Long Neck Worm Hook has an
adjustable stopper that can be positioned along the hook shank to
rest against the soft bait and hold it in an ideal pre-strike
position (adjusted for that specific bait) on the Cutting Point
Owner hook. www.ownerhooks.com
714-668-9011
Rivers Edge Products - *Best of Show* in the decorative
category just had to go to the Decorative
Transparent Toilet Seat for the Outdoor Enthusiast which
has either hooks, flies or antique lure replicas molded into the
transparent toilet seat and cover. For the rest of the bathroom,
Rivers Edge offers fishing reel toilet paper holder, antique lure
shower curtain, transparent plastic drinking cup, soap dish and
toothbrush holder with fish hooks molded into the plastic. To
fish-ify the entire rest of the house and to turn everything else
fishy in your life, Rivers Edge offers fish cups, plates, car
antenna toppers, picture frames, drink coasters, cookie jars,
salt & pepper shakers, cream and sugar bowls, cutting boards,
oven mitts, pocket flasks, fish phones, lamps, clocks, mailboxes,
box cutters, windsocks, fishing rod barbecue tools, magnets,
wearable pins, flashlights, pens, fish staplers, bottle openers,
playing cards, fish lighters, wrapping paper, wallpaper,
Christmas cards, tree lights, patio lights, fish slippers for
your toe and feet fins and much more. www.riversedgeproducts.com
888-326-6200
Sirrus Rods - *Best
of Show* in the fishing rod category for the second
straight year has gone to Ken Whiting, owner/designer of Sirrus
Rods. According to the company's web site: "You may come
across some words unfamiliar to you here when it comes to fishing
rods and their construction. These words: Filament Wound, CO-MATRiX
and Multi Modulus. They are not used to create a mystique nor to
dazzle and impress you, but merely provide you with terminology
to give you a greater understanding of our NEW ROD line, how they
differ from existing rods and why we believe SiRRUS rods are the
finest dollar for dollar investment a fisherman can make in his
equipment, bar none." www.rodsbysirrus.com 702-395- 2173
Snag Proof Manufacturing - The Wiggle Wog is a new hollow rubber
bait design for 2004. It has the bulbous snagless body of a grass
mat frog to slide across the top of snags and grass mats without
fouling. And it has a swimbait type tail so that the Wiggle Wog
can be pulled under the surface in open water to create an
underwater swimming action. www.snagproof.com
800-762-4773
Stren - *Best of
Show* in the fishing line category went to Stren Super Braid which has been
designed to address some of the inherent drawbacks in super lines
- poor knot strength and slippage, color and coating loss,
fraying and digging into the spool. Stren says the new Super
Braid will retain its original round shape, color, slickness and
strength longer than ordinary super lines that use a wax or
Teflon coating, and Stren Super Braid can be worked around the
nastiest structure without fraying, claims Stren. It won't
flatten and is less prone to dig into itself on the spool with
exceptional knot strength and knots won't slip as easily as most
braids says Stren. www.stren.com
800-243-9700.
TTI Companies - The rear-weighted Daiichi Bleeding Bait Butt-Dragger
hook was added to the TTI Company's Daiichi brand of hooks for
2004. A streamlined pinch-on sinker on the hook shank has
pre-cuts so sinker sections can be broken off to adjust it to
make it weigh less. "When the weight size is clipped down
(if needed) and the Butt Dragger is moved along the shank so the
center of balance is fine-tuned to a specific soft bait, the
Butt-Dragger can dramatically enhance the fish-attracting action
by making a soft bait swim horizontally as it falls," says
TTI's marketing director TJ Stalling who adds, "This type of
swimming action would be impossible with a weight-forward jig
head or nose-down bullet sinker." A screw-in wire clip on
the hook eye holds the head of soft baits securely to the
Butt-Dragger hook. www.daiichihooks.com 800-421-5768
U.S. Reel - The Ray
Scott SuperCaster 225 lightweight large diameter spool
spinning reel debuted at ICAST. The advantages claimed for light
lines (2 lb test and up) are: longer casts, less line twist and
lower line memory than any other reel designed for light lines on
the market. That alone is a significant claim, yet there's more
in that the company claims the Ray Scott SuperCaster 225 is the
best choice for lines all the way up to 15 lb test, say for
pitching a tube into heavy cover. Your wrist will no longer need
to wrestle a heavy-duty saltwater-like spinning reel because the
SuperCaster (even with a huge 2.25" diameter spool) weighs
under 9 ounces. What's most unique is I believe that the Ray
Scott SuperCaster 225 may be the industry's only
mass-produced reel still made in the USA. www.usreel.com
314-962-9500
Xtools - Soft-padded lightweight Floating Pliers with replaceable
tungsten carbon jaw inserts for cutting braided line were what
got me into the Xtools booth, but it was the floating watertight
digital gripNweigh tournament
culling scale that kept me there. The gripNweigh grips the lip of
a fish firmly without having to go under the sensitive gill flap
or pierce the jaw membrane as with many other handheld scales. It
stores five fish in memory, always shows the running total weight
for the best five. The culling floats (currently under
development) also grip the fish lip without having to pierce the
jaw membrane as with most other culling systems, and the culling
floats are visually identified as 1 to 5 rather than red, blue,
green, etc. To me (and I think to many anglers), this float
numbering system may be more intuitive and easier to work with
than a colored float system. That is, the first fish weighed goes
on the number one float, the second fish kept on the number two
float and so on up to five fish. I'd much rather call them one
fish, two fish (the first one caught or the second) rather than
red fish, blue fish. Makes too much sense, eh? www.xtools.us
Tel. 877-4xtools
Uncle Josh Bait Company - Although not at
ICAST this year, I just spoke with Uncle J's sales manager, Brent
Northrup who's excited about Uncle Josh new products for 2004: a
crawfish-scented 3-1/2" long Dropshot
Pork Worm; the new series 143 Porker,
a great trailer to use when swimming a jig; and a silicone
skirted Uncle Josh Pork Jig
with a "Fast Clip" that prevents pork chunks from
blocking the hookset when the hawg of a lifetime inhales it. Plus
the Fast Clip makes pork removal a snap. The Uncle Josh Pork Jig
with the "Fast Clip" is available in two head designs -
one for flippin', another for fishing thick weeds, both with
premium 5/0 Gamakatsu hooks. www.unclejosh.com 866-BIG-BASS
Those are some of the new tools, tackle and
trends I observed at ICAST and that I am expecting to see lead
the bass sportfishing industry into 2004.
