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ProducTTpreview : Rapala Makes a Splash in the "CDM"
Rapala Canada have introduced for 2010, several new series of rods that can officially be dubbed CDM, and we’re here to preview these products that are sure to peak the interest of Enthusiasts all over the world. Presenting Rapala Canada’s new rod lineup for 2010. |
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PRODUCTTPREVIEW: Berkley 2010 Classic Baits
We first broke news of
the new Classic baits offered by Berkley at the end of last year and since then
we have obtained both more detailed information as well as the baits themselves for a
more in depth look. |
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PRODUCTTPREVIEW : Rise of
the "Zombie" Rods
Born in the backyard of
the California Delta a new rod company introduces their line of application
specific fishing rods. Zombie Rod & Tackle has roots in custom rod building and
now brings a branded line of flipping and pitching rods to market, these rods
definitely exhibit some enthusiast appeal and are designed for power fishing.
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A Better Fishing Shirt, the Under Armour Flats Guide II
Under Armour’s Flats Guide II Longsleeve shirt is a lightweight garment built with UPF 30 protective fibers designed to give you protection from the sun while keeping you cool and warm at the same time. Cool and warm at the same time? Did I say that right? |
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New terminal tackle and optics at the Big
Rock Show
We return to the Big Rock Show to check out some new hooks from Mustad as
well as the latest optics from Costa Del Mar. It is hard to innovate in both
these categories and yet both companies manage to do just that.
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New Premium Lines at the Big Rock Show
The Big Rock Show offered dealers a few new lines ranging from premium
100% fluorocarbon to updated braids. Two of most interesting came from Seaguar
and PowerPro. |
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Shimano debuts new ultralight Cumulus rods at the Big Rock West show in Las
Vegas
We stop by the Big Rock
West Dealer Show in Las Vegas to see if any of the manufacturers will launch any
mid season new products and learn about Shimano’s new ultralight rod series
which is appropriately named “Cumulus.” |
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Consistency & Variety in a Jighead : Fin-Tech's Title SHot
There may not be one dominant technique but it’s
obvious from our perspective that one application continues to shake things up
beneath the big bait talk. That’s right, the “yin” to the West Coast’s big bait
“yang” is the finesse oriented technique shakey head. |
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PRODUCTTPREVIEW:
e21 Goes Micro
Since the departure of Boyd Ducket from the e21 camp, there have been a few other changes within the company. These changes have done little to stop their drive to produce new and effective fishing tools, and as we've come to find, e21 is joining the micro-guide craze. They are the second rod manufacturer to get in our hands rods with these new guides. |
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CB Rod Wars part 18: Megabass's New GTZ Series
After having already reviewed product from each of their two series of crankbait rods, the GT3 and GTC series, we thought for sure our Year of the Crank Crankbait Rod Shootout was going to go on without a participant from Megabass... |
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PRODUCTTPREVIEW:
Dobyns Rods New Savvy Series
Last year, when Gary Dobyns debuted the second
generation version of his bass rods, they were received with great fanfare from
tournament anglers all around. For 2010, Dobyns is addressing this criticism
with the reintroduction of an alconite outfitted rod at an even lower price
point than the original Champion Series. |
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The Search For One... Setting the Baseline With Not Just Any G.Loomis
Kicking off our “Search for One”, it’s time to discuss that one
fishing rod. Imagine decades ago when fishing meant heading to your local
waterway with nothing more than one rod, one reel, some hooks, weights, and your
bait of choice. |
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Year of the Crank Bait Review : Custom Lures Unlimited Ikon/Ikon M2
Our introduction to
Kelly Barefoot and Custom Lures Unlimited came in 2006, right on the cusp of his
launch into a full time business model. I contacted Kelly for some custom
painting services and it was at that time he shared with us his plans to build
more hand carved wood baits. |
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Here is to the next ten years...
Letter from
the Editor: It
is hard to believe that ten years have gone by so quickly, what started out as
nothing more than an hobby site has turned into a huge community of anglers from
across the globe that share a passion for fishing and the tackle we employ in
that pursuit.
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Fly Fishing for Smallmouth with the
G.Loomis Shorestalker
G.Loomis has a long
history of producing quality fly rods and over the last few seasons has expanded
their offerings well beyond their original classic series. As fly fishing for bass has grown in popularity the company now
introduces the ShoreStalker which is designed to target warm
water species. |
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Chasing Winter Steelhead on the Smith River
When winter rolls around
the warm water fishing often dies down but species like Steelhead on the West
Coast just begin heating up. We travel North to the free flowing emerald green
waters of the Smith River in search of early season steelhead that are just
beginning to enter the system behind the Fall run Salmon. |
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TackleTour's 2010, The Search For One ...
To help celebrate our 10th year anniversary, we
figured it’s time to get back to basics and embark on a year long journey. Our
focus will be to find that one rod, that one reel, that one lure, maybe even
that one fishing destination that if all we could have is that singular item,
“this” is what we would choose. |
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The Leader of Rago's Rat Pack : The Original Generic Rat
The original Rago Generic Rat
debuted roughly ten years ago and immediately became one of those “you gotta
have this” baits. The legend of this bait only grew when production seemed to
have ended a few short years ago, but according to Rago himself, production
never really ended, it just slowed... |
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Get Real, Koppers Live-Target
Smallmouth Cranks
With an incredible attention
to detail the company has expanded their offerings beyond crawfish and shad to
both smallmouth and largemouth cranks. We study the smallmouth crankbaits which
were introduced early this year, and see just how well this lifelike bait can
deceive predators. |
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Gary Loomis Interview Part 2 - The Legend Lives (much to our relief)
In Part One of this article
Gary talked about how he got into the blank building business, his involvement
in the graphite blank industry and how G.Loomis was started – on a handshake and
the backing from a friend. |
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The 2Handee Multi-Tool by Buck'n Beel Enterprises
The aptly named 2Handee
had everything from line
clippers, to a hook
sharpener, to a jig eye
buster, to a crankbait tuning feature. After using this tool for
over a year now, it’s time for that feedback. Presenting our review of the 2Handee multi-tool. |
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CB Rod Wars Part 17: American Rodsmiths' Titanium Reinforced H3T-DFCR70
The H3T-DFCR70 comes with a blank built from the
combination of three different materials, graphite, fiberglass, and titanium.
That’s right, we said titanium. Not since Lamiglas’s Ti2000 blanks had we seen a
US rod company build a full line of bass rods with titanium infused into the
blank |
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John Sherman of Simms talks about what the company has
in store for both Fly and Conventional Anglers
John Sherman is a man of many talents, not only is he the
West Coast Sales Representative for Simms but also an avid fly fisherman and
outdoor photographer. |
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Finesse Fishing with Damiki's Dark Angel S701ML Spinning Rod
Earlier this year, and as part of our
Crankbait Rod Wars, we took at look at Damiki’s Dark Angel C761M-CR. While this
stick scored respectably in our review, we were really hoping for a bit more
from this new-to-North America company. So we thought we’d take our
investigation a bit further |
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Relevant once again, the new Shimano Stradic CI4
Gone are the days of the
memorable pearl white or mundane silver Stradic spinning reels, the series gets
a major makeover in every way with the debut of the new carbon based CI4 model.
Designed to be both light and rigid the Stradic CI4 is Shimano’s newest spinning
reel intended for light line fishing... |
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The e21 21 Gold Carrot Stix, an interesting blend to say the
least
Rarely do we see such a meteoric rise in
popularity after a company’s introduction even with ICAST Best of Show awards to
their credit. Touted as the first manufacturer to use bio materials in their
blank (actual carrot fibers)... |
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