Tournament News Powered By Lake Drive Marine
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Tokyo Rig Now Offered with Heavy Duty Flippin’ and Worm Hooks
Tokyo Rigs will bring even more bass into your boat with VMC’s release of two new models: one armed with a Heavy Duty Flippin’ Hook, the other with a Heavy Duty Worm Hook.
Imagine a drop-shot rig on steroids – with a big hook and indestructible metal leader. That’s a Tokyo Rig. It comprises a Heavy Duty hook, barrel-swivel, welded O-ring, and a 2-½-inch rigid-wire dropper arm to which you can attach a weight or two of your choice. The original model featured a Wide Gap hook, but the new Flippin’ Hook and Worm Hook models make the innovative fishing system more versatile.
“There’s three hooks bass guys use – now we’ve got all of them on a Tokyo Rig,” says Rapala Pro Mike Iaconelli. “There’s nowhere in the water column where you can’t fish this rig and catch big bass.”
A Tokyo Rig will trigger more bites than a traditional offering like a Texas Rig, because it allows you to impart much more action to your favorite soft-plastic beaver, craw, tube or worm.
“You can leave your bait in one spot and just kind of shake it and get a lot of free action out of the bait,” explains Rapala Pro Seth Feider, a Bassmaster Elite Series contender. “The bait’s not really held down by the weight. It stays up, suspended from the bottom.”
The new Heavy Duty Flippin’ Hook Tokyo Rig excels for flipping solid-body, soft-plastic baits, like beavers, in submerged vegetation. The Heavy Duty Worm Hook Tokyo Rig is perfect for pitching smaller soft-plastic creature baits and worms around heavy cover.
Tokyo Rig can dramatically increase your hook-up ratio as well. Its innovation is positioning your weight below your hook and bait, away from the impact zone during the fish’s initial bite and your ensuing hookset.
Easily customizable, a Tokyo Rig can carry enough weigh to flip heavy cover or punch mats. To keep your weight(s) in place, simply use narrow-nose pliers to bend back the end of the rig’s rigid, 2-½-inch dropper wire.
The straight shank on a VMC Heavy Duty Flippin’ Hook features a double-spiked baitholder with opposing barbs that lock on softbaits. Heavy Duty Flippin’ Hooks come in three sizes: 3/0, 4/0 and 5/0. VMC Heavy Duty Worm Hooks feature a 3-degree offset point, which dramatically improves your hooking percentage.
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VMC Report
New VMC Bladed Hybrid Treble Adds Flash to Your Lures
We’ve all seen a fish make Mike Iaconelli freak, but soon the tables will be turned. Ike is outfitting his favorite baits with the new VMC® Bladed Hybrid Treble, the tweak that makes fish freak.
“We’re in a day and age where making your bait stand out from the norm is so important,” says Iaconelli, a VMC and Rapala® Pro.
The Bladed Hybrid Treble does just that, making your favorite baits extra-fishy by being extra-flashy. It comprises a small silver willow blade attached by a resin-sealed split ring to the back of a 1X-strong, wide-gap, short-shank, high-carbon steel VMC Hybrid Treble. On the split-ring, the willow-leaf trailer can rotate 360 degrees, so a bait’s built-in action can make it kick out in any direction. Each time it does so, it will catch any light penetrating the water column and flash.
“That little extra flash in that bait is a triggering mechanism,” Iaconelli says. “Every type of baitfish I know of, if it’s a forager swimming in the water, guess what? It flashes.”
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Zoom Report
Zoom Rolls Out Versatile Z Craw Worm
Zoom Bait Company announces the release of the new Z Craw Worm, which combines the body of the company’s Mag Finesse Worm with the tail of the ultra-popular Z Craw, to create a package unlike anything the fish on your home waters have seen before. It provides exactly the right combination of bulk and finesse to create a profile that will lure fish under any conditions.
Veteran tour-level pro Dan Morehead played a key role in the Z Craw Worm’s development. His home waters of Kentucky Lake are the epicenter of “high-hopping a worm” and “stroking a jig,” but the fish there are educated. He took a cigarette lighter to two of his favorite offshore baits to produce something altogether new. “They see a lot of ribbon tails out there, but they acted like they’d never seen anything like this before,” he said. “It has a good hard action and a proven profile. I was only able to keep it under my hat for a little while.”
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p>Shimano Report
Shimano Adds Sedona Ice Fishing Combos
Taking its ice-fishing rod and reel line-up another step, Shimano follows the wave it made in 2018 to continue with its ‘next level’ ice rods now offered in the new Sedona Ice-Fishing combos.
All matched with proven Sedona spinning reels featuring Shimano’s durable HAGANE Gear and Propulsion Line Management System, combos with 500 size reels include those with 24- and 30-inch ultralight power rods, 26-inch light power and 34-inch medium-light versions, and two with 28-inch rods in medium-light power and medium power. Matched with larger capacity Sedona 1000 reels for bigger walleye, northern pike and lake trout action, Sedona ice-combos offered include ones with a 28-inch heavy power rod, a 36-inch medium power, and a 40-inch medium-heavy power rod. All nine combos retail for $99.99 (USD).
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Shimano Report
Shimano Offers Special Pricing on Loomis/Shimano Baitcast Combo
For the first time in the 20-plus years G. Loomis Rods has been part of Shimano, bass anglers are being offered a limited-edition combo now available from select tackle shops nationwide.
The combo matches up Shimano’s high-performance Bantam MGL reels with a special model G. Loomis IMX-PRO 863C JWR rod – normally a combined $675.99 value, for the special price of $499.99.
“This is a great opportunity for those anglers who want to experience bass fishing at a higher level, with what many consider one of the best reels and best rods available,” said Trey Epich with Shimano’s product development staff. “We take great pride in the Bantam MGL as one of our legacy reels, and the IMX-PRO rod showcases the advancements in G. Loomis’ rod manufacturing that have happened since Shimano’s ownership role starting in 1997.”
With the Bantam MGL reels – offered within the combo in three different gear ratio models in either right- or left-hand retrieve, anglers can experience Shimano’s ever-expanding technology to its original low-profile baitcasting reel. The reels feature Shimano’s ‘CoreSolid Body’ design providing rigid, solid and sensitive performance, while the super-light MGL spool allows added casting distance, even with lighter lures, along with smoother flipping and pitching.
Designed within its extensive IMX-PRO line-up, the versatile 7-foot-2-inch medium-heavy power IMX-PRO 863C JWR is ideal for a wide range of bass fishing applications. The rod relies on G. Loomis’ proprietary Multi-Taper Design blank construction, tangle-free Fuji K-Frame guides to help with slackline techniques, and a tapered full cork rear grip that gives the split-grip feel many bass anglers favor.
Only a limited number of these special baitcasting combos are available – just in time to brighten the holidays for any avid angler on your list or to even just treat yourself. For the tackle shop locations offering the baitcasting combo, visit here – BANTAM MGL/IMX-PRO 863C Limited Edition Combo.