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Just What is Demystifly?
No doubt if you are an avid
reader of TackleTour then you probably have already seen the banner on the site
for Demystifly, but exactly is the publication all about? While many of us here
enjoy fly fishing we also acknowledge that it is a very different style of
fishing than the conventional fishing, not only from a technique and gear
standpoint, but also in terms of mindset. |
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The Difficult to Rip Spro McStick 110
If BASS Elite Series Pro Mike McClelland has a signature technique it has to be the rip bait, and naturally a pro of his stature must have a signature bait to match his signature technique. For McClelland it all goes back to the original Spro McStick now referred to as the McStick
110. |
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Still on Fire? Daiwa’s New
Fuego Baitcaster
Once one of the hottest reels
in the Daiwa lineup the Fuego Series has shown signs of making a comeback in
recent seasons. First with a standard aluminum based Fuego and now with the even
more aggressively priced Fuego CT. |
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The Search for One : Fenwick's HMG Series
I'm sure I'm not alone in this
mind set as Fenwick was the very first brand to offer graphite fishing rods and
therefore the first brand to offer a fishing rod that could be considered high
end. It was back in 1973 when the company debuted their HMG series of rods that
forever changed the industry. Today, we take a look at the current
interpretation of this lineup with a look at the HMG72M-MFC. |
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Double the Blades, Double the Buzz? Picasso's BuzzSaw Buzzbait!
If there's one technique on the California Delta that never gets old, it's throwing a buzzbait. Up until now, I've been a proponent of the traditional, single bladed buzzbaits, but a couple of years ago Matt Newman, owner of iRods, turned me onto a double buzzer he helped design for Picasso baits. Here now is our look at Picasso's BuzzSaw double bladed buzzbait. |
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Gamakatsu's Aaron Martens TGW Drop Shot Hook
Even though he prefers to be
known as a well rounded angler, three time BASS Angler of the Year (AOY) winner
Aaron Martens is best known for relying on finesse techniques to catch limits of
fish. Of course, there is one finesse technique specifically that will forever
be tied to his name - the drop shot. So when Martens comes out with a drop shot
hook designed to his exacting specifications, we take notice. |
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Big Bite's Latest Addition to Their Squad : The Suicide Shad
Soft bodied, paddle tail swimbaits have become a staple of the bass angler's tackle box. It began with the Basstrix hollow body craze over ten years ago and there was a revival when the umbrella rig exploded onto the scene roughly five years ago. Today, we take a look at Big Bite Bait's interpretation of this classic bait. Here is their Suicide Shad. |
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Molix's 3 Dimensional Lover Spinnerbait Designed by Mike Iaconelli
Molix's new Mike
Iaconelli Lover Spinnerbait features three willow leaf blades, but what makes it
interesting isn't the fact it has three blades. It's how these blades are
configured that make the bait standout. |
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Worth a Spin - The Abumatic 170
Continuing on our journey into the world of spincast fishing, today we take a look at one of Abu Garcia's interpretation of this hybrid reel. Abumatic is to their spincast lineup as Revo is to their low profile baitcasting reels. In fact, Abu Garcia makes an Abumatic S, SX, and STX mimicking the same model numbers found in Revo and Orra. Our interest today, however, is in a model number aberration - the Abumatic 170.
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Seaspin USA Enters the Market with the Bruko, a Soft Plastic Stick Bait
The retail battlefield over soft plastic baits
is real. There are countless worms, craws, creatures, lizards from which to
choose: scented plastics, no-scent plastics, plastics infused with salt, hand
pours, machine pours, even plastics firm and soft. Well, you get the idea... |
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Megabass's MagDraft Soft Bodied Swimbait
Megabass is spitting out baits and new
iterations of baits faster than we can keep up. Case in point? The MagDraft is a
bait Megabass introduced just two to three years ago and last year at ICAST,
they introduced a new bait with the same basic profile, but with a different
action in the MagSlow. So before we can check out latter, we need to finish up
with the former. |
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Kistler's ZBone LEXF Spinning Rod, the LEXF-2MS-70
During the Fall of 2016, we shared with you our thoughts on a Search for one Candidate from Kistler Custom Rods Zbone series, the LEXF-3MH-70. Representing what can be achieved when you combine a minimal build with top end components and a Made in the USA pedigree, that stick won our Editor's Choice Award. Today we take a look a the singular spinning rod from this same flagship lineup. |
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Crank It Up : Spro's John Crews Little John 50
If there's one genre of
crankbait I like to throw the most, it has to be a shallow runner like the
squarebill or flat sided crank. Running the banks, firing at visible targets and
cranking in shallow water is therapy for those of us with short attention spans. |
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Abu Garcia's Villain 2.0
Continues to Impress
In this age where the anti-hero is gaining more popularity on the silver screen Abu Garcia was perhaps ahead of the curve with the villainous naming of their freshwater bass rod series. We've already told you about the newly revamped Villain 2.0 series with our review of the VC70-6 casting rod. Today we take a look at the gentler side of Villain with our review of their VS610-4 spinning rod. |
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Rapala's Shadow Rap Sequel - the Shad
Early in 2016 we shared with you an exciting new rip bait from Rapala USA, the Shadow Rap. A few months after we published that review, Rapala announced their new Shadow Rap Shad. A bait with the same spirit as the original only with a shad profile instead of a minnow and a slightly different swimming action. How different is this bait? Let's take a look.
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Labels Shmabels - Phenix's 7'-4" Glass
Cranking Rod
In today's bass fishing
marketplace, the glass cranking rod is an endangered species. More common is the
tech hybrid, part glass, part graphite cranking stick, and of course there are
the all graphite cranking rods built with moderate tapers. |
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First Look Inside the New, all ALUMINUM Daiwa Steez A TW 1016 Baitcasting Reel
As usual, word
about Daiwa's planned introductions for this year broke out at the Japan fishing
tackle shows held in January and February and the only question was, which of
these products, if any, would make it to the US... |
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First Look Inside the Tank that is the New Shimano Tranx 300 Baitcaster
Power Anglers rejoice, the new smaller 300 and 400
Shimano Tranx low profile reels have finally arrived. Originally designed for
tackling fish like tuna, musky, and stripers, the Tranx 500HG and 500PG reels
offered anglers a reel that could hold up to both big baits and big
fish. |
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13 Fishing's Aggressively Priced One 3 Origin Reels
13 Fishing's Official Classic Release included a new entry lineup with a
clever play on their 13 brand; Meet the new "ONE 3" reels. These new baitcasters
are instantly recognizable alongside 13 Fishing's higher end offerings and are
designed to provide anglers with high quality low-profile reels at exceptional price points. |
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A Classic is Reborn : G.Loomis's MBR842C GLX
Back when bass fishing was full of more
independently thinking anglers, G.Loomis set the industry standard with their
Mag Bass series, or in the brand vernacular “MBR”. At ICAST 2016, the
manufacturer turned back their product clock by renewing, revising, and updating
their neglected, under appreciated, and ultimately most versatile bass fishing
lineup. |
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What Makes Molix's SS Shad a Special Swimmer?
Paddle tail swimbaits are by now, quite
ubiquitous. Just about every soft bait manufacturer of any size has their
interpretation of this staple. Some have more than one or even two! So how can a
manufacturer with their sights set on bringing their own version to market
distinguish themselves from the masses? |
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Respect YoDaddy, Big Bite Bait's Surprising Little Creature Bait
BASS Elite Series pro Russ Lane is a veteran of the tour and knows, as any other veteran does, that you have to have a solid flipping, pitching, punching game if you're going to survive. Today, we take a look at his signature series flipping, pitching, punching bait by Big Bite Baits, the YoDaddy. |
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Denali Goes on the Offensive with Their New Attax Series
The ninety to one hundred
twenty dollar ($90 - $120) bass rod space is a hotly contested market. Each
year, more and more manufacturers either introduce more lines priced within this
range or refine pre-existing lines to stay competitive. This past year at ICAST,
Denali was one such manufacturer going on the offensive to take on this segment
of the market... |
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Crank It Up! : Storm's Arashi Squarebill Crank
Several years ago, Storm put their name back in the minds of bass anglers with the debut of their new Arashi line of baits. Headlining this debut was their new squarebill featuring a self tuning line tie eliminating the need to dial in your bait now and then to be sure it was swimming true. Here now, finally is our look at the Arashi Squarebill Crankbait.
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Cutters with the Tenacity of a Pitbull
If you fish with braided line
at all, you likely share
in the frustration of
finding a reliable tool
to cut it with. The
issue is obvious since
every tool that has a
cutting jaw or snip
associated with it
usually clearly states
that it can cut braid.
Don't get us wrong -
most of these tools can.
But quite often, this
new found, easy braid
cutting tool last for
just a few trips, then
it's back to square
one... |
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An Easier to Fish Schooling Bait -
The PDL Rig
The problem with most A-Rigs is that they require more setup time,
take extra effort to fish, and are even banned from most tournaments. A company
from Spain, Longas Baits, has created an innovative new take on the bait-ball
concept with a new hybrid style swimbait called the PDL rig. |
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Creature Fever : Huddleston's Huddlebug
Rarely does a manufacturer's name become
synonymous with a single one of their products, but when you speak the name,
"Huddleston" in bass fishing circles, any bass angler worth the salt in their
Senko is going to think of an eight (8) inch soft plastic trout swimbait, but
did you know they also make a crawfish imitator bait? |
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[kroe-nark] : Casting Reel ... 1. must have
To
say I had high expectations of the Chronarch MGL would be a little off the mark. I didn't expect the this reel to do well. I knew it would. Was this confidence in Shimano warranted? Let's find out.
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Enigma Fishing's Search For One Candidate, the EAM73MB-M
Enigma Fishing continues to make strides in the market thanks in large part to their headline pro Aaron Martens. In the Spring of 2016, we shared with you our score of the Enigma EAM610-DS-ML-S spinning rod - a stick we found to be a good performer for the price, but one we wished had just a tad more sensitivity. Today we look at the Search For One candidate in this lineup, the EAM73MB-M casting rod. |
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A "Game Changer" from G-Rods?
Up until now G-Rods have been pretty exclusive, and getting your hands on a Pro Bass rod
was both somewhat challenging and expensive. To expand their reach G-Rods is now
introducing their more aggressively priced "Game Changer" Series, which is
designed for mainstream anglers. |
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An Exclusive, TackleWarehouse Search For One Candidate!
Last spring, we shared with you our findings on the TackleWarehouse exclusive, Daiwa DX Bass rod cranking stick - a full graphite rod with a moderate taper tailored for moving baits. Today, we share with you the Search for One candidate in this lineup. Here now is our look at the DXB731MHFB from Daiwa. |
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Stay Afloat With Amphibia Hydra Sunglasses
There's a bunch of
choices out there as far as eyewear goes, and Amphibia offers some quality
solutions with some great added features... like the ability to float! Let's
find out what their Hydra glasses are made of! |
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TT Interview: Pro Angler Aaron
Martens and DUO Head Masahiro Adachi Talk About the New Partnership
His competitors
often say, arguably, that Aaron is among the best tournament anglers on the
Bassmaster tour. So it is really no surprise why he would grab the interest of
high profile Japanese Lure Company like DUO.
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A Better Jig? NuTech's
Lures are Designed Not to Hang Up
NuTech didn't take the easy route to create differentiated jigs, and
turned to physics to create their lineup of signature baits, which are designed
to resist snags better so you can put the jigs right over the structure, in
front of more fish, with the goal of driving more strikes. |
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The Stuff of Wonder, Graphene Infused G-Rods
It is rare that a new rod company offers something really
unique to show us at ICAST but that is exactly what happened when we came across
G-Rods at ICAST. The young rod company was at the show touting their use of
graphene, a “wonder material” that I had heard of being used in semiconductors
and Li-ion batteries before, but never before within a fishing rod. |
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It’s all about
the Journey – The Shimano Stella FI Spinning Reel
If the idea of spending nearly 800 dollars on a spinning reel seems like
madness then you might want to stop reading right now. The Stella is designed
for anglers that want, no… demand, the very best that the fishing industry has
to offer, and are willing to pay for it. If the price tag still hasn’t scared
you off then join us on the journey to assess this halo reel. |
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Abu Garcia Blends Flagship Status with Big Bait Aspirations
We were pretty excited when we
caught wind that Abu Garcia was introducing their coveted Fantasista line to the
North American market several years ago at ICAST. Originally designed for the
Japanese Domestic Market (JDM), this series is known for aggressive styling and
high end components.
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Looking Lively! Live Target's
Threadfin Shad Swimbait
My local waters
don't contain any true lunkers, so fishing smaller swimbaits really has a lot of
appeal. Speaking of appeal, Live Target's new line of swimbaits has a ton of it.
These are offered up in a variety of forage imitations, one of them being my
usual favorite: the threadfin shad. As many anglers know, looks are one thing
and performance can be another...
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Is Fenwick's New Flagship Really World Class?
When Pure Fishing negotiated exclusive rights to 3M's Powerlux resin material, many wondered what the company had in store. We can answer that question in part today with a look at Fenwick's new World Class series of rods that are built with blanks featuring this nano-resin material from 3M.
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