Product is flying in faster than we can keep track here at TT HQ. 2010 is going to be a very busy year. Some exciting product we recently received hails from overseas and the prestigious manufacturer, Evergreen International. Here’s a pictorial sneak peak at what we have in our queue for the coming year.

Well guys, it’s about time to start wrapping up another year, and you know what that means… time to get to work on our Holiday Gift Guide. This was the occasion last year, where we took the opportunity to introduce everyone to our spokesmodel, Ms. Casey. Can you believe it’s only been a year?

To follow our 2009 theme, we decided to crank it up another notch this year and conduct our shoot out on the water right on the California Delta. We loaded up both of our TackleTour bass boats and headed out for several hours worth of shooting. Here are some behind the scenes look at what we have brewing for our upcoming article.

Back to writing and formatting so we can at least get part one of our gift guide out by this weekend. Hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes look and start saving up because I can promise you one thing, Casey delivered some rather compelling arguments for just about everything on our list

Back in January of 2008, I shared both my excitement and extreme disappointment regarding an at that time, new bait from Lucky Craft. It was a full sized big bait, the Real California Supreme 200. I was excited about this bait because finally we had a realistic big bait from a major manufacturer, available in good numbers, at a price that at that time, was way more affordable than anything else of similar quality on the market. Extreme disappointment came when after one cast, only two thirds of the bait made it back to the boat.

Enter ICAST 2009 where we met, for the first time, Lucky Craft USA president Minoru Segaua. Minoru saw me inspecting the Real California Supreme’s hinges and raced across the booth to tell me he had fixed the joints. He was so emphatic about this point, he literally took the display sample used to show buyers and handed it to me insisting I take it home to test. When I tried to put it back down on the table, he picked it up and put it back in my hand. This bait was all clear, with no finish, and it was easy to see the pins that served as half of the joints had been modified so the tail ends were now much longer making it virtually impossible for them to pinch and pull out.

I tried it out on Lake Toho several days later and again at Clear Lake and the California Delta and sure enough, the bait held up. But since there was no finish on the bait, I had little confidence I was going to hook up with something to really test the bait out. I sent an email note to Minoru and to Roy Gray, Western Region Sales Representative for Lucky Craft USA, telling them I agree the bait has been fixed and that I’ll get to work on a follow up review to announce this issue has been addressed. Surprisingly, A few days later, I received baits with actual finishes to them in the mail. Here’s the result.

No, this is not intended as the follow up review, but simply a prelude to that event and an announcement that more is to come. Suffice it to say, for now, Lucky Craft has totally restored my faith in this product and the scales of my love hate relationship with this company are beginning to tip over on the positive side. Now I have another new bait to put to through the paces and I can’t wait to toss this bait for some green backs in 2010.

You may already be aware that the annual Southern California event held by Angler’s Marine, the Bass-A-Thon, is not being held this year. Last year was TackleTour’s first trip to that event and we were all prepped and ready to go again when we were informed in late August that it had been cancelled. Needless to say, we were disappointed.

But where one event is cancelled, the opportunity for another to rise and perhaps take its place arises, and that is exactly what is happening. That’s right, the folks at MonsterFishingTackle.com and Marine Unlimited have gotten together to create the inaugural Northern California equivelant of the Bass-A-Thon and have dubbed it, Bass Jam ‘09!

Following in the tradition of the former Southern California event, Bass Jam ‘09 already has confirmed several big bait manufacturers including Black Dog Baits, JSJ Baits, Rago Baits, Mattlures, AC Plugs, Tylure, and many more yet to be announced. Confirmed seminars will be held by the likes of Brent Ehrler, Ish Monroe, Cody Meyer, Jerry Rago, Bub Tosh, and Aaron Coleman, and this list is also not yet complete.

The event will be held at the future home of Outdoor Pro Shop and Monster Fishing Tackle at 412 Houser Street, Cotati, CA 94931. The dates are November 14-15, 2009. For more information on this event, visit http://www.bassjam09.com/.

In the meantime, you can be sure the TT boys are packing their bags in preparation to cover the event. See you there!

It’s official… one of these “fish” I’m holding up is now available for purchase at a special introductory price. Can you guess which one?

They are available in 4 different colors with three different sink rates. Normally a bait this detailed and this carefully built would retail for at least $80 if not over $100. But not this bait.

Any guesses as to the insane price of this lure? How about half a c-note?!?

Several months back, there was some discussion on the TT Forum regarding big baits with a shad profile. By big, I recall guys asking for seven or eight inch baits. At the time, the only one of which I was aware was the Nate’s Baits product.

I totally forgot about the bait Triton Mike alluded to during our interview back in April of 2008. He chimed in on the discussion thread to bring us up to date on this bait and apparently, it has gone through a couple of different iterations.

Well, a few days after that thread took off, I received in the mail a sample bait from Triton Mike with a note asking me to check it out and provide some private feedback. This was shortly before our trip to El Novillo Lake in Mexico, so I took the bait down there with me to check out.

I was pretty excited about this bait mostly because it had a true, made in the garage feel to it with rough edges, cuts, etc. – like a bait that was already beat up. Honestly, how many of you have noticed that just about any hardbait seems to catch MORE fish after its received some battle scars? Well, this bait had some right out of the package and while Triton Mike was a bit embarrassed by this fact, I really appreciated it!

His Bull Shad was the first big bait I tied on at El Novillo, and it ended up being one of the last. On the retrieve, the bait has a pretty tight swimming motion – not wide like a Triple Trout which is what I expected since it’s a three piece design. About 5 casts later though, my Bull Shad fell victim to the Dragon Bushes of El Novillo. JIP and I tried to free the bait for a good ten minutes – I could see the bait under the water, but not reach it and we did not have anything on board with which to knock the bait free.

One final push with my rod tip and *snap* – not my rod, but the line finally broke from all the abrasion. The bait was lost

Well, recently one of our site advertisers had a sale and while I was browsing through the Hooked Up Tackle e-tail site to see what I could buy for 15% off, I noticed he had some of Triton Mike’s Bull Shads! I immediately ordered one and had it in time for a recent tackle testing trip with Zander out on Lake Pardee. Check out the result!

After I told Triton Mike what happened to his original bait he sent me, he mentioned he was already at work on a new version – typical. After I purchased the bait from Hooked Up Tackle, two days later, they announced they received in stock, the new version of Triton Mike’s Bull Shad – even more typical.

Regardless of which version you end up with, this bait is worth a look. I know I’m going to be throwing it this Fall for some of those Delta Striper if we manage to get out for them this year.

As a tackle reviewer, the amount of gear that shows up and accumulates on my boat over the course of several months can be overwhelming. While I try my best to go through each and every product and give it time on the water, in many cases, stuff gets discarded, sent back, or given away without ever getting wet.

Sometimes, I receive a product I’d like to test and write up but I find it’s either out of production, too difficult to source, or the details of its availability are just too fuzzy. One such product is this paddletail minnow that I found laying in a forgotten compartment within my boat. Its name? The “One’Up Shad”. That’s right, it bears a similar name to the hardbait from 3:16 Lure Company – a tidbit I found somewhat amusing.

This product showed up on my boat, and stayed there, after sharing time on the water with a very good friend of mine. This friend knows my affinity for JDM tackle AND big baits, so he brought these baits along as a “I betcha never seen these before” kind of challenge. Well, he was right, I hadn’t seen them before and my intial thought was, “oh, not another paddletail bait”, but after seeing its name, I knew I had to at least try them.

Well, before my friend departed, he left me several packages of the product, but of course, they got lost into obscurity amongst the pile of “stuff to check out” on my boat. Just recently, on a tackle testing trip to Lake Pardee with Zander, I remembered to pull them out to have a look.

Pardee is a favorite place for us to go to check out new baits for while the fishing can be very difficult due to the ultra clear water, this clarity affords us the unreal opportunity to really see what a bait is doing in the water on a full length cast. In fact, the only thing stopping us from going there more often is a complimentary VIP pass at the gate!

But back to the One’Up Shad. At first inspection, the bait is somewhat unremarkable. The colors are farily opaque and the shape of the bait is reminscent of an oversized Slug-O – remember those? The difference here, of course, is this bait has a paddletail AND a somewhat distinct joint in the middle of its body.

While distinct, this joint is no where near as thin and fragile as that of the Imakatsu Javallon. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized, this probably affords the bait a very unique swimming action.

Onto the end of the line it went aboard a Dobyns Rods 804CB paired with an Abu Revo Elite Aurora series reel. I spooled the Revo with 12lb test Toray HiClass fluorocarbon. Not necessarily an ideal combination, but amidst the Crankbait Rod wars, you have to make due with the rods you’re dealt.

After a few test pulls alongside the boat and remarking of the bait’s sinuous action, I made a cast to shore alongside some semi-submerged brush (Pardee is currently at full pool). I watched the bait and noticed the same swimming action we saw at the side of the boat, was happening on my medium paced retrieve. This bait has some moxy! Then, about two feet behind the bait, a large, dark shadow emerged and just as soon as I noticed it, it slowly sank back down into the depths.

Whoa! Whatever it was, it was BIG! This experience is typical of Lake Pardee, only this fish was darker than anything had seen previously and so dark, I could not make out any markings. Just it’s overall shape – literally as if it were a shadow.

A few casts later, it was on and I was able to pull up this healty, but significantly smaller largemouth bass.

I’m told these baits were made several years ago. I’m not certain if they are still made, or where in Japan you can or cannot find them, but if you are over there, and come across these baits, AND are into the paddletail style products, I suggest you buy as may packs as you can afford. I know I will now be guarding mine very closely