Tournament News Powered By Lake Drive Marine
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
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RVLNT Report
True to their name which means “Solving Real Life Vexes with New Technology,” Minnesota-based hi-tech sunglasses manufacturer, RVLNT, has introduced another frame style to its current collection of 13 unique frames.
RVLNT’s BUCK is a sturdy, hardworking frame with maximum coverage. Sitting snugly on the wearer’s face, this dynamic frame will block sunlight from all angles. With its thick, durable arms and large wrap lenses, BUCK is sure to be your new favorite sunglasses for all your outdoor adventures.
“We’ve had stellar feedback on this new frame style,” said RLVNT Sales Director, Pat Kalmerton. “It’s designed to keep out light from all angles but still look good on the face. For fishing or hunting, the beta versions we sent out prior to full launch were well received for sharpening up the fishing and hunting experiences while maintaining a fresh, cool look.”
“Plus, our glasses are way more than polarized. All lenses are made of Trivex, as opposed to the scratch collecting properties of polycarbonate. Trivex has the same optical clarity as the human eye, significantly lighter, and shatter-resistant.”
Originally developed for the military, Trivex is a stronger, lighter, clearer, and overall, far superior lens material to polycarbonate. Trivex is also resistant to chemicals and offers better light refraction than polycarbonate. While Trivex lenses may be more expensive, the clarity, safety features, and built-in UV protection make RLVNT’s sunglasses a worthwhile investment.
Kalmerton concluded: “At the end of the day, BUCK caters to those who want a bigger, somewhat boxier frame that doesn’t let in sunlight from the sides and creates a large viewing area when worn. It fits in nicely with our other frames, offering something a lot of anglers and hunters want – basically bigger wrapping lenses and wider, taller, and comfortable arms.”
BUCK is available in three frame colors: Grey, Birch, and Tortoise, as well as Brown, Grey, or Chameleon lenses with ScreenVu™, the latter which not only adjusts in shade to light intensity, but provides the wearer with crisp, crystal-clear views of today’s sophisticated fishing electronics or your cell phone while maintaining the benefits of a polarized lens for seeing into the water.
How do you pick the best BUCK version for your situation and use?
First, you need to choose your base lens color, which can be Brown, optimized for enhancing warm colors in low light, cloudy or shady environments. Grey is great for bright sunshine and reducing brightness without affecting the color balance. The third option is the company’s most popular—Chameleon, which is light adapting for all-day adventures and features ScreenVu™ for clearly and crisply representing digital device screens.
Second, it’s time to pick the mirror style that meets your adventure. BUCK is currently available in eight finishes.
- Bronze Mirror is best for maximum glare reduction with bright reflections like on snow and ice.
- Smoke Mirror, too, is good for glared reduction and most suitable for wearers with especially sensitive eyes.
- Sunfire Mirror is optimized to lower reds, yellows, and oranges while enhancing blues, violets and greens, catering to those fishing in brown or red environments.
- Blue Mirror is your classic coastal/offshore mirror that lowers blues and enhances reds, golds, and brown.
- Rose Gold Mirror is perfect for any environment with how it lowers reds and oranges and enhances blues and greens.
- Red Mirror was designed for those fishing high iron or muddy waters with its ability to lower reds and enhance greens and blues.
- Green Mirror is great for fishing in heavy greenery; it lowers greens and enhances reds and browns.
- And lastly, there’s RLVNT’s proprietary Concealment Mirror, which provides UV invisibility from all angles—in other words, invisibility to game and fowl when sitting in the blind.
BUCK is also available in Single Vision or Progressive digital prescription types.
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Rapala Report
Rapala Report
The Rapala Twitchin’ Rap is BACK!
Based on angler demand, the Twitchin’ Rap has built a sort of cult following. The lure has reportedly been selling for $60 or more on E-Bay.
After retiring the Twitchin’ Rap a number of years ago, Rapala is bringing it back, and in a big way – with 10 new mouth-watering colors: Bone, Electric Chicken, Gold Black Mullet, Mullet, Purpledescent, Pilchard, Purple Chartreuse, Red Belly, Live River Shad, and Speckled Trout.
A favorite of both freshwater and saltwater anglers, the Twitchin’ Rap is designed for those situations when fish are easily spooked, such as clear water or shallow spots. The lure is especially popular for in-shore fishing along the Gulf Coast.
Fished with a “slide ‘n’ glide motion, when twitched, the wide profile of the lure glides and hangs. Twitch again, and it gently comes back. Reel it in steady for a gentle searching action. Allow it to sit, and it slowly sinks in a flutter action when paused.
The Twitchin’ Rap is made with premium balsa wood and with a through-wire construction. It has a running depth of a half-foot to 2 feet.
In addition to the ten new colors, the Twitchin’ Rap also comes in original Copper Flash, Hot Bone, and Hot Olive.
The Twitchin’ Rap has a body length of 3-1/8 inches and weighs 3/8 oz. It comes with two No. 3 VMC Black Nickel Round Bend Hooks.
The Twitchin’ Rap has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of US $10.99.
The Rapala Twitchin’ Rap is BACK!
Based on angler demand, the Twitchin’ Rap has built a sort of cult following. The lure has reportedly been selling for $60 or more on E-Bay.
After retiring the Twitchin’ Rap a number of years ago, Rapala is bringing it back, and in a big way – with 10 new mouth-watering colors: Bone, Electric Chicken, Gold Black Mullet, Mullet, Purpledescent, Pilchard, Purple Chartreuse, Red Belly, Live River Shad, and Speckled Trout.
A favorite of both freshwater and saltwater anglers, the Twitchin’ Rap is designed for those situations when fish are easily spooked, such as clear water or shallow spots. The lure is especially popular for in-shore fishing along the Gulf Coast.
Fished with a “slide ‘n’ glide motion, when twitched, the wide profile of the lure glides and hangs. Twitch again, and it gently comes back. Reel it in steady for a gentle searching action. Allow it to sit, and it slowly sinks in a flutter action when paused.
The Twitchin’ Rap is made with premium balsa wood and with a through-wire construction. It has a running depth of a half-foot to 2 feet.
In addition to the ten new colors, the Twitchin’ Rap also comes in original Copper Flash, Hot Bone, and Hot Olive.
The Twitchin’ Rap has a body length of 3-1/8 inches and weighs 3/8 oz. It comes with two No. 3 VMC Black Nickel Round Bend Hooks.
The Twitchin’ Rap has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of US $10.99.
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Rapala Report
Rapala’s new Precision Extreme (PXR) Series Jowler was meant to catch the attention of fish from long distances on the water, but even the most hopeful bait designers and pro anglers never thought it would make headlines even before hitting the market.
Nevertheless, that’s exactly what happened when Rapala pros Patrick Walters and Cody Huff finished first and second at the May 2024 Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on South Carolina’s Lake Murray, both employing the Jowler as a critical part of their tournament strategy.
“It casts far, catches bigs and calls them up,” said Walters, who won by nearly 13 pounds. “It was critical to be able to cover a lot of water and get the attention of those fish, and it walks amazing.”
The Jowler is a pencil popper-style lure, 5 inches long, weighing 15/16 ounce, and it is packed full of features that make it tournament-ready out of the package. With three-dimensional eyes, ten eye-catching color designs, a dual-frequency knocker and VMC RedLine Series 1X Round Bend Treble Hooks – it’s an enticing meal for both aggressive and lethargic bass alike.
Out of all of its features, most notable, is the Jowler’s mouth design, which gives the lure its name.
“There’s nothing better that throwing a big topwater and seeing a big bass come up and blow it out of the water,” said Bass Pro Tour champion Jacob Wheeler, who was integral to the lure’s design. “It’s almost an obsession.”
Fellow BPT Champion Dustin Connell put the lure through its paces not only on largemouths and his native Alabama’s spotted bass, but also on big smallmouths, and liked the fact that it started walking from a dead stop, but also resembled a fleeing baitfish just with simple twitches.
“My favorite thing about the Jowler is that I can throw it a really long way, right to the fish while it’s still up in the water column,” Connell said.
Armed with three premium VMC RedLine Series 1X bend treble hooks with dressed rear flash feather tail to make this a complete fish-catching surface bait.
The lure is being introduced in a 5-inch body length with a weight of 15/16th oz.
The lure is available in 10 colors, including: Ayu, Broken Bone, Black Back Shad, Clear Ice, Glitter Bone, Matte Shad, Okie Bone, Pure Chrome, Silver Flitter Shad, and Yellow Perch.
The lure has a suggested manufacturer’s retail price of US $19.99.
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CrushCity Report
Tournament champion Jacob Wheeler stakes his career on versatility and efficiency, so when it comes time to clean up a mess, real or imagined, he calls on the CrushCity Janitor.
The Janitor is one of four new softbaits to join Rapala’s wildly popular new line of tournament-grade softbaits called CrushCity. The Janitor is a fearless worm ready to tackle the toughest tasks.
“Three hundred sixty-five days a year, I have this bait rigged up in some way, shape or form,” he said. “Coast to coast, north to south, no matter what conditions I’m dealing with, I can get bites on the Janitor.”
Wheeler worked closely with Rapala’s designers to take an existing form, and make it not only better, but as close to perfect as possible. The little subtleties that make a difference include a six-inch ribbed body, a quivering, tapered tail, and a pre-designed slot for VMC Crossover Rings. The Janitor comes in 14 pro-selected colors to account for any water clarity or conditions.
Wheeler also likes the fact that it’s made of a precisely formulated PVC, which allows for perfect additions of salt and scent.
“You can use it on a dropshot, a shaky head, weightless, on a weighted Texas Rig or on a Neko Rig,” Wheeler said. “It has the perfect gliding action. The blunt nose and pointed tail cut through the water and when they get into the strike zone it creates the key action to generate bites.”
The Janitor is available in 14 colors, including: Baby Bass, Bama Bug, Black, Black Blue Flake, Candy Bug, Ghost Morning Dawn, Green Pumpkin Magic, Green Pumpkin, Merthiolate, Ox Blood Red Flake, Perch, Plum, Sprayed Grass, and Watermelon Red.
The Janitor is sold eight per pack and has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $6.49.
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Daiwa Report
On the heels of last year’s introduction of the Last Ace 128S, EverGreen comes to town with the slightly smaller Last Ace 103S.
The advent of forward-facing sonar (FFS) has hatched numbers of nouveau techniques to tempt fish marked in front of the boat. There’s ‘moping,’ ‘hover strolling,’ and ‘mid-strolling’. And like the Last Ace 103S, Ever Green’s new 4-inch Last Ace 103S is designed for ‘power mid-strolling’ with the aim of enticing the alpha bass in the pack.
The Last Ace 103S’s power mid-strolling effect is accomplished by its noticeably up-curved tail design. “The unique shape and angle of the tail makes it effortless for anglers to achieve that tantalizing rolling action so popular with FFS,” said Martin.
Its action is further enhanced by a specialized salt constitution. “The salt composition is evenly dispersed through only the belly half of the Last Ace 103S,” said Martin. “Rigged weightless and power strolled, it causes the bait to sink horizontally and produce a shimmy akin to an injured baitfish. Its offset weighting is the key.”
Infused with baitfish scent throughout, the Last Ace 103S has an exceptionally flexible belly and tail, while the denser top yields exceptional durability around the hook.
Cosmetically, fish will appreciate the Last Ace 103Ss raised, 3D “real eyes” and dotted lateral line, which accentuate its authenticity. Available in 6 baitfish mimicking color patterns, this lure can represent forage ranging from bluegill to shad.
RIGGING THE LAST ACE 103S
The slow sinking and exceptionally durable Last Ace 103S can be rigged weightless with a swimbait hook. Downward into the nose, back up through the body, and then slide the hookpoint into the molded notch on the bait’s back. The hookpoint stays hidden but is easily activated by a striking fish. Rigging as such also makes the Last Ace 103S virtually weedless for operating through vegetation.
It can also be paired with a jig. Go lighter for working the middle of the water column and heavier if you want to operate near or on the bottom. Long-shanked jigs with quality baitholders work best.
Lastly, and most simply, impale the middle of the Last Ace 103Ss back from side to side with a kahle-style hook. Flip it out, let it sink, and twitch it around.
LAST ACE 103S FEATURES:
- 4-inch minnow-style bait
- Slow sinking
- Ideal for forward-facing sonar (FFS) techniques
- Unique upturned tail produces lifelike rolling action
- Specially balanced with a salt formulation for a horizontal fall
- Infused with baitfish scent
- Raised 3D “real eyes”
- Dotted lateral line for authenticity
- 6 proven colors: Baby Gill, Super Wakasagi, Natural Shad, Neon Moroko, Armando Gold, and White Clear
Suggested retail is $12.99 (4 pack)