Impressions: Pure Fishing has been on an absolute tear when it comes to refreshing the offerings across all their brands including Abu Garcia, Plano, Ugly Stik, Berkley and many others. The team at Berkley have introduced a vast amount of new skus over the last few seasons. Berkley has taken some flak from anglers for certain baits bearing too many similarities in design to competing lures but one big differentiator that the company has in their portfolio is their ever-popular PowerBait attractant. This proprietary attractant has become a global brand, and has been well known among generations of bass, trout, panfish, and walleye anglers since the 80’s.

After Berkley launched PowerBait jigs last season we knew it was just a matter of time before they launched bladed jigs and spinnerbaits leveraging the PowerBait infused silicon skirts

Advances in both materials and manufacturing processes combined with the Berkley engineering team’s desire to expand the use of PowerBait has led to the effective inclusion of this attractant in plastics, the uniquely textured and durable MaxScent line of baits, and the infusion of the signature flavor into the skirts of jigs.

Meet the Berkley PowerBlade

After the successful launch of the PowerBait jigs last year, we knew it was just a matter of time before the company leveraged the scented skirting in other baits, and this season Berkley introduced the Slobberknocker bladed jig and Power Blade spinnerbaits.  

Dan Spengler, Berkley Lure Designer and Product Manager, brought "a few" PowerBlade prototypes to Florida

Real World Tests: This past January I headed to Florida for a series of events to learn about and fish some pre-ICAST prototypes. One of these trips was focused on fishing Berkley’s expanding Power Bait jig lineup in Florida. What I didn’t know at the time was that Dan Spengler, Lure Designer and Senior Project Manager at Berkley was also bringing along a batch of his very first run Power Bait infused spinnerbaits to also test on some unsuspecting largemouth at the bass factory that is Bienville. This is where I first fished the Power Blade and learned about the design firsthand from Dan and other Berkley Prostaffers including Elite Series angler Shane Lehew and MLF Pro and Co-Founder Gary Klein. After my experience with the Power Blades in Florida I fished the mass production baits in my home water in Northern California.

The PowerBlade is available in a range of different blade configurations. The prototypes Dan brought were all white but had the PowerBait infused skirts

Operation: Over the last few years as I’ve delved deeper into the rabbit hole that is swimbaits I’ve neglected some of the lures and techniques that used to be my go-to baits. There was a time that I never left the house without both a spinnerbait and buzzbait tied on. While we were fishing the PowerBait jigs in Florida Dan Spangler reached into his bag and pulled out about 30 spinnerbaits, all of which were the same white pattern as they were still in prototype phase. These baits were from the pilot run and the team was still tweaking the final hardware and making decisions on blade combinations. The heads were done and the familiar PowerBait scent was already infused into the skirts of these baits. Like the Berkley jigs these baits use a combination of silicon and rubber and the different strands are designed to both flare properly in the water and hold the baked in PowerBait scent and taste.

Dan Spengler and Pro Angler Shane LeHew throw the prototype PowerBlades

At Bienville there are over 20 different bodies of water, and some of which have a lot of grass and submerged timber. Perfect conditions for employing a spinnerbait. While fishing on day one Dan turned to Shane and me, held out a few of the baits and asked, “Not a lot of color options but do you guys want to play with a few prototypes of our upcoming spinnerbaits?” He didn’t have to ask twice and within minutes all three of us were slinging the white Power Blades.

Shane draws first blood

In typical pro fashion Shane drew first blood on the Power Blades bumping the bait into the submerged timber and stick ups. A two-pound fish crushed the bait right after a bump with stickups, a textbook spinnerbait strike. Before I could even finish taking pictures of Shane’s fish Dan set the hook and by the bend of the rod and the look of Dan’s face, I knew right away this was a better fish.

Dan catches a tank on the PowerBlade and Shane one ups that fish seconds later

Dan proceeded to land a nice fish which looked like it weighed in around 4 pounds. “Way to show up the pro,” Shane joked as he proceeded to cast again and on that very next cast, he hooked up again and muscled in a 6 pounder. I was still taking pictures of Dan’s fish and said, “guess that counts as a double, looks like these prototypes work.” Dan laughed and affirmed, “I couldn’t have planned that any better!”

This exciting three fish flurry was my introduction to the Berkley Power Blades.

The fish at Bienville absolutely smoked the Power Blade spinnerbaits

Next Section: From Prototype to Mass Production...