Tournament News Powered By Lake Drive Marine
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
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Daiwa Report
Daiwa KAGE LT spinning reel
The new Daiwa KAGE LT spinning reel sports rich features, beginning with its extremely lightweight and rigid ZAION body. The woven high-density carbon resin ZAION material is also durable and corrosion resistant to extend the life of the reel.
The KAGE LT’s AIR ROTOR was engineered to be incredibly rigid and with minimal flex, especially at high drag pressures. Critically designed cut-outs reduce the weight of the rotor itself while adding stability and almost eliminating rotor “wobble”. The lighter the rotor, the less force it takes to spin around the reel, making it easier to turn the handle.
The KAGE LT also features a tubular AIR bail, which further reduces weight and offers more rigidity than standard wire, minimizing concerns over flex, bending, or breaking. The thicker material feels better to the fingers when flipping the tubular air bail as well.
A7075 aircraft-grade aluminum TOUGH DIGIGEAR® technology is another hallmark of the KAGE LT. The especially hard and lightweight aluminum is precision machined and digitally cut, making it considerably more resistant to wear than traditional gear materials on the market.
Anglers will also appreciate DAIWA’s brilliant Advanced Tournament Drag (ATD™) when setting the hook and fighting fish. The smart system applies an increased, instantaneous and calculated resistance during the hookset. After the hook drives home and the fish starts pulling, ATD automatically returns to the selected drag setting.
Where reel meets angler, the KAGE features a machined screw-in handle that connects directly to the main drive gear. The business end of the handle features a premium, compressed cork handle on the smaller 1000-2500 sizes and a larger rubberized T-handle for added grip on the larger 3000-4000 sizes.
THE PERFECT MATCH
Martin said DAIWA has made matching the new KAGE LT to a spinning rod simple. The recently released KAGE Bass and Walleye Series’ balance and fish ideally with premium, yet reasonably priced rods. Key features in both the bass and walleye versions include an Air Sensor Reel Seat, Fuji guides with Alconite rings, DAIWA’s elite SVF Nanoplus carbon resin, and x45 to eliminate blank twist.
The KAGE series is available exclusively at independent dealers. DAIWA strongly supports its vast network of dealers that are the heartbeat of fishing.
FEATURE REVIEW:
ZAION Body
Extremely strong and lighter than aluminum and magnesium, the woven high-density carbon resin ZAION material is durable and corrosion resistant to extend the life of the reel.
AIR Rotor
The smart design lessens weight, provides even rotary balance and stress distribution, and reduces vibrations, all while maintaining strength. Delivers a more precisely balanced reel performance than competitors.
AIR Bail
Innovative bail design features a hollow, tubular stainless steel bail that delivers maximum rigidity and strength with minimum weight. The smooth protrusion-free construction lets the line easily flow to the line roller for trouble free line control.
TOUGH DIGIGEAR
A7075 Aircraft Grade aluminum is forged into bigger gears with larger tooth patterns and perfectly meshed between an ultra-tough drive gear and pinion gears for optimized speed, torque, exactness, smoothness, and durability.
2BB Supported ATD (Advanced Tournament Drag)
The lightweight spool sits atop a pair of BB’s, resulting in a smooth, frictionless payout as the spool engages and rotates. This prevents fish from coming unhooked as drag pressure remains steady.
Machined Aluminum Screw in Handle
Precision tooling renders a smooth and secure fit. The ergonomic design delivers the ultimate in control and comfort with a secure grip.
Suggested retail is $249.99.
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Frabill Report
Frabill Collapsible Bait Bucket
Frabill bait management solutions raise the bar with the Collapsible Bait Bucket, designed to meet the needs of anglers who require compact and efficient bait storage solutions.
This innovative bucket collapses to the size of a standard Plano 3700 size StowAway, which is ideal for fitting into boat storage lockers, storage trays, or even in soft tackle boxes. When expanded, the 6-quart capacity provides ample space for bait. The Collapsible Bait Bucket is available with or without an aerator.
The bucket's handles feature a unique design that allows for handle rotation and easy packing down for storage when not in use. During use, the handles securely clip into the base of the bucket, preventing unwanted collapse while in use.
Key Features
- Collapsible bucket with 6-quart capacity
- Collapsed footprint of a Plano 3700 StowAway
- Clipped handles snap in to base to prevent unintended collapse
- Rotating handle attachments for compact storage
- Two models available
MSRP: $49.99 Bucket (w/ Aerator) | $29.99 Bucket (no Aerator)
For more information about Frabill Fishing, click.
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Blocker Outdoors Report
Blocker Outdoors’ New Lightweight Shield Reliant Pant
Recent releases in Blocker’s hunting pants category have been fully embraced, led by the Shield Verse Pant, Shield Verse Pro Pant, and Shield Field Brush Pant. With all those options, you’d think pants were covered in spades. Well, almost.
New for 2024, Blocker – wearer of the pants in the hunting family – adds an even lighter weight model, the Shield Reliant Pant.
“The poly spandex material is super stretchy,” immediately points out Blocker Outdoors Marketing Director and whitetail specialist, Steve Allie. “The double weave makes the fabric exceptionally durable as well.” Moreover, the material actively cools, which is essential to lightweight, early season hunting pants.
Cooling is supplemented by a pair of side seam zip vents. “It’s really a hallmark feature of the Shield Reliant Pant,” said Steve. “The fabric actively cools, but when temps start soaring or you’re huffing and puffing in the field, you’ll seriously appreciate the added ventilation.”
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Lowrance Report
Lowrance Elite FS
Lowrance has announced the expansion of its Elite FS line with new 10- and 12-inch display sizes, giving anglers access to the full line-up of Lowrance fishfinding tools, including live sonar on a larger screen, at an attractive price point.
“We expanded our Elite FS family of units to include two additional sizes that give anglers more choices to upgrade their toolkit with live sonar on a larger, more affordable screen,” said Jeremiah Clark, VP and General Manager, Fishing Systems at Navico Group. “Our mission is to empower anglers with gear that drive success on the water. Including our full suite of sonar technology and seamless integration with the boat’s entire system, Elite FS is a powerful fishfinder that delivers exceptional value that performance anglers will appreciate.”
The Elite FS combines the power of Lowrance’s newest fishfinding tools with a display that is easy to use and easy to upgrade with additional technologies. Featuring support for ActiveTarget® 2 live sonar, as well as built-in support for high-resolution Active Imaging™, Elite FS offers anglers all the tools needed to find and catch more fish. ActiveTarget 2 provides higher-resolution views of fish movement and structure, enabling anglers to quickly recognize if lures and techniques are working in real-time allowing them to make adjustments to get fish to strike. Meanwhile, Active Imaging 3-in-1 sonar, featuring CHIRP, SideScan and DownScan Imaging™ with FishReveal™, offers excellent detail, revealing structure and cover over an impressive range.
C-MAP Discover Onboard inland and coastal charts built into Elite FS displays feature high-resolution detail. From finding key fishing areas, like ledges, drop-offs and ditches, to navigating with precision to fish-holding areas, anglers will have more success on the water with high-resolution one-foot contours on over 15,000 lakes across the United States and more than 9,400 in Canada.
The Elite FS 10-inch with ActiveImaging 3-in-1 is $1,799 and the 12-inch display with Active Imaging 3-in-1 is $2,299. The full Elite FS lineup now includes 7, 9, 10, and 12-inch displays.
Key Features
- ActiveTarget and ActiveTarget 2 Live Sonar ready
- Active Imaging 3-in-1 transducer ready
- Active Imaging HD 3-in-1 ready with a S3100 Sonar Module ready
- C-MAP Easy Routing, Navionics® Autorouting capability
- C-MAP Genesis Live onscreen mapping
- High-resolution IPS multi-touch touchscreen
- See with polarized sunglasses
- Integrated wireless, NMEA 2000 and Ethernet connectivity
- Full touchscreen control of Recon and Ghost Trolling Motor, as well as Power Pole Anchors
- Sirus XM weather compatibility with WM4
For more information on Lowrance and its tournament-winning fishfinding technology, please visit www.lowrance.com.
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Z-man Report
Z-man ChatterShad Ultra-Refined ElaZtechTrailer
Designed to embellish and activate your favorite ChatterBait, the new ChatterShad imparts tantalizing tail-kicking signals that equally befit an array of other applications, including jerkbaiting on a jighead or straight-up tail-kicking on a ZWG Swimbait Hook. Fans of the ChatterBait MiniMax will be equally stoked to discover the 3.5-inch finesse sized ChatterShad profile— perfectly matched to the popular pint-sized bladed jig.
Leading with its broad, ribbon-thin fantail and lean baitfish profile, the ElaZtech-enabled ChatterShad merges the softness and subtle movements of a small-batch hand-poured bait with the impossible toughness of its superplastic structure. The result, says Z-Man Director of Product Development Jose Chavez, is a high-action bladed jig trailer made for relentless bass bites.
“We built the ChatterShad to swim with a crisp, fluid, extra-responsive action,” explains Chavez. “The key to the bait’s rhythmic tail-driven motions is its diamond-shaped cross section. By sculpting the entire segmented tail zone with this specific angular arrangement—rather than more commonly used rounded or flattened sections—the ChatterShad kicks and ripples more like a natural fish, while exerting less effort, meaning its tail driven motions activate at any retrieve speed.”
Essentially, notes Chavez, this next-level engineering allows the tail to effortlessly slice through water and transfer energy from all across the body, straight to the tail. “To increase water displacement and quivering action though the tail section, we cut in a series of V-shaped ridges, top and bottom,” explains Chavez. “The design actually increases energy transmission from ChatterBait vibration right into the bait’s tail, for unmatched action and strong lateral line pings.”
Z-man Chatter Shad
Z-Man pro Seth Feider concurs: “The bait’s segmented, diamond-shaped tail section makes the ChatterShad swim with a crisp, fast whipping action, side-to-side. It’s a tight but up-tempo range of realistic movements that give a ChatterBait extra hunting action when you pop the rodtip.”
For rigging with standard sized bladed jigs, such as the ChatterBait Elite EVO, Z-Man offers a matching 4.5-inch ChatterShad profile. And as a downsized jig trailer, the 3.5-inch ChatterShad fits the compact ChatterBait MiniMax to perfection.
“For the first time, we have the perfect little MiniMax and WillowVibe trailer—two of the coolest under-the-radar bladed jigs today,” adds Feider. “The fast-kicking action of the 3.5-inch ChatterShad makes it the ideal trailer for burner MiniMax retrieves in summer—or anytime conditions call for a more active presentation.”
Equipped with dorsal and ventral hook slots, the ChatterShad is easy to rig arrow-straight, fitting all bladed jigs. Slots also allow for effortless weedless rigging on EWG style hooks. Beyond deployment as a ChatterBait trailer, the ChatterShad fits other applications, such as a spinnerbait / buzzbait trailer and a soft jerkbait/swimbait.
The new Z-Man ChatterShad lands at outdoor retailers in September. Offered in 10 colors to match prevalent ChatterBait patterns and two sizes (3.5” & 4.5”). MSRP $4.99 (3.5” - 5-pack / 4.5” – 4-pack)—crafted and packaged in the USA.