Glide Bait Enthusiasm Continues at ICAST

Introduction: There are two types of product that really move the impressions meter when we publish a new article - enthusiast gear and big baits. Put the two together and wow. Glide Week back in April of this past year was a great success, thank you for all who tuned in. The two baits that proved most popular were both from overseas. This year at ICAST, we caught a glimpse of running changes to both baits that should please big bait throwers and fans all around.

The Slide Swimmer is going through some changes.

DEPS Slide Swimmer: When we caught up with Matt Paino, licensed distributor of DEPS product here in North America, he made a point to pull out from secured storage, his samples of the new DEPS Slide Swimmer set to be released this coming fall. Why change what is obviously a very successful bait? Well, believe it or not, the Slide Swimmer as a mass production bait is close to 10 years old. The original molds for this bait are in need of replacement. Kazumasa Okumura, owner of DEPS Japan and designer of the Slide Swimmer saw this as an opportunity to improve the bait even further and worked with Butch Brown to do so. The changes in store include:

The original mold is almost 10 years old, so it's time to make a change, and while they're at it, some improvements.

- New, ABS injected molding process

- New, removable silicone skin allowing for custom modification of weights. The standard rate of fall (5 feet per 10 seconds) can now be easily modified faster or slower.

- New color options including ghost and clear color patterns

- Spring loaded weight in the front of the body that emits fish attracting vibration during the descent and at medium to high speed retrieves and jerks. The spring will not activate during slow, steady retrieves.

Ready for a new glide bait from DEPS?

The Slide Swimmer will continue to be offered in 175 and 250 sizes and retail price will remain the same as well. Look for V2 to hit store shelves this coming September or October.

The Bull Shooter 160 is coming this October!

DEPS Bull Shooter: New for this coming year is the DEPS Bull Shooter. Similar construction and action as to the Slide Swimmer, but in a sunfish body profile. The Bull Shooter will be offered in a 160 size with an estimated MSRP of $100. Look for the Bull Shooter 160 late October to early November.

With the demand for these baits still very high, Matt Paino has kept a very close eye on his sample.

GanCraft Jointed Claw: As we were publishing each article during Glide Week, rumors of running changes to several of the baits in our feature week continued to surface. One of these baits was GanCraft's Jointed Claw. We talked to Kotaro Kake, Sales Manager, GanCraft Japan regarding these supposed changes and he clarified that the Jointed Claw itself is not changing, but they will be offering later this Fall or next Spring, a new, waking version of this same bait.

The Jointed Claw was among the very first glide baits in Japan.

Otherwise, the Jointed Claw, designed by Takanori Hiraiwa will remain unchanged and this is a good thing as this bait is among the original S-swimmers from Japan. Available in 148, 178, and 230 sizes, Kotaro did have something new to show us at the show and that was a brand new 300 millimeter size!

The new, 300 size absolutely dwarfs the 230 and 178!

The new, 300 millimeter Jointed Claw is available in very limited quantities through 2014 (only 100 were made), but GanCraft is discussing plans for more baits and colors in 2015 which means more are eventually coming! Retail price is set for $249.

Look for production of this monster bait to increase in 2015.