Tournament News Powered By Lake Drive Marine
Friday, October 10, 2025
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Z-Man Report
A Bladed Bass Jig for the Deep Thinker; New Chatterbait Includes Wobble Head
Effective collaborations aren’t just about merging two cool concepts— e.g. a pair of running shoes with a built-in iPhone, or two killer craft beers in one can. Leading edge brands bring an exceptional talent to the table, and when a terrific twosome becomes one, amazing things can happen.
Already the undeniable trailblazer in bladed bass jigs, Z-Man is set to unveil its newest entrant in the ChatterBait® category, a collaborative effort with Freedom Tackle Inc., innovator of hinged, free-swinging fishing lures. The last time Z-Man teamed with another top tackle brand—Japan’s Ever Green International—the ChatterBait JackHammer™ was born. The sensation created by that influential bladed jig stands alone.
Hailed for its high-performance on deeper structure, the ChatterBait Freedom CFL melds Freedom Tackle’s patented free-swinging football shaped head and hook with Z-Man’s own patented hex-shaped ChatterBait blade.
Freedom Tackle owner and designer Michael Tamburro says the new bladed swing jig exhibits a unique set of perfectly melded component parts. “We used a lead-free zinc football head and exclusive hook attachment that allows the back end of the lure to pivot and swing freely as you retrieve the lure,” says Tamburro. “The patented Freedom hook-release even allows the angler to make quick hook changes, if needed.
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VMC Report
VMC Debuts Heavy Duty Weighted Willow Swimbait Hook
Try a new spin on swimbait fishing with VMC’s new Heavy Duty Weighted Willow Swimbait Hook. A new take on the “under spin” concept, this new Ike Approved innovation features a willow-leaf blade attached via an extended spinner arm, ensuring maximum rotation and flash and optimal blade position.
Trailing the willow blade on a spinner arm gives it additional range of motion. “Every twitch of your rod tip or pause on your retrieve can kick out that willow leaf in any direction, catching light in the water column and flashing,” says Rapala Pro Michael “Ike” Iaconelli, namesake of VMC’s Ike Approved line-up of hooks and jigs. “That flash triggers bites. Pretty much any forage bass feed on, it flashes as it swims around, changes directions, tries to escape.”
What’s more, the spinner arm positions that fish-triggering flash closer to the hook, minimizing short strikes, increasing your hook-up ratio.
With the release of the Heavy Duty Weighted Willow Swimbait Hook, VMC is introducing a newly designed self-centering spring to securely hold soft-plastic swimbaits in place.
“That new spring is absolutely crucial, because when you rig a swimbait, it has to go right down the center,” Iaconelli says. “If it’s off by just a little bit, it won’t run right. So having that right in the center is key.”
Heavy Duty Weighted Willow Swimbait Hooks are forged from hi-carbon steel and feature a needle point. They come two per pack in seven sizes: 3/16th oz, 3/0 hook; 3/16th oz, 4/0; 1/4th oz, 5/0; 3/8th oz, 6/0; 3/8th oz, 7/0; 3/8th oz, 9/0; ½ oz,11/0.
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Bullet Weights Report
Bullet Weights Offers Mr. Crappie Add-A-Hook With Snelled Hook
Bullet Weights now offers the popular Mr. Crappie Add-A-Hook with a snelled hook to allow even more pole-in-the-water time.
The Mr. Crappie Add-A-Hook makes fishing easier and more productive by eliminating the time and effort needed to tie knots. Anglers can create a double fishing rig in seconds rather than minutes. The Mr. Crappie Add-A-Hook design prevents slipping for a perfect hook set on every bite.
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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.”