Megabass of America's New Bait Introductions for 2014

Introduction: As the dust settles in what has been a whirlwind of the past two years since the establishment of Megabass of America, the company is slowly settling into their intended path of creating a more global lineup. Luckily for North American consumers this means products that are less Japan-centric and a lot US-Angling centric. Of course, this year at ICAST, the company teased us with some limited edition, Japan only baits (we did say slowly), but also officially joined the glide bait craze, and finalized their new soft plastics designs for North America.

I-Slide 185: The LimberLamber fared ok in our first ever Glide Week a couple of months ago, but one of the failings of that bait was its smaller size. Trophy hunters want glide baits that are traditional, big bait sized. Megabass takes a step in the right direction with the introduction of their new I-Slide 175 - a 7 1/4" glide bait that features magnets on the belly to hold the bottom hooks in place. This bait is already available in limited quantities and retails for $59.99.

Meet Megabass' latest bait, the I-Slide 185

New colors for the Deep Six... GP Biwako Clear Gill and

Biwako Seethrough Chart

Limited Japan Only Baits: This wouldn't be an article about Megabass if we didn't talk about some new, uber-exclusive, unattainable outside of Japan, new exclusive product. In reality, while the following baits are indeed intended for the Japan market only, we know too well that where there's a will there is always a way.

Introducing the SM-X Spriggan

SM-X Spriggan: This crank is probably best described, at least by those familiar with the Megabass line, as the offspring of the Griffin and DeepX 300. It shares the Griffin's profile for the most part, but is much closer to a standard sized crank than the Griffon ever was. This bait features a new, "Active Positioning Balancer System" which consists of a single, large tungsten weight that moves front to back on the cast, but then settles in the belly region of the bait during retrieve moving side to side to give the bait a very erratic action in the water. Retail price is expected to be $19.99 and it will be available in North America on special order only.

DX-Free 2.0 & 3.0: One of the popular methods of fishing the Deep-X 300 and Deep-Six cranks on Lake Biwa, Japan, is to slowly crank these baits over the deep weed beds on that lake. Extending this technique to shallower waters has been problematic- until now. The new DX Free 2.0 and 3.0 baits share the same profiles as the previous Deep series baits but are made to be fished in four (DX Free 2.0) to nine feet (DX Free 3.0) of water. These baits again will be available in North America on special order only and will retail for $19.99.

The DX-Free is a shallower running version of the Deep-X baits

Softbaits: Though Megabass as a whole has quite a vast array of soft plastic offerings, Megabass of America will be making two of these baits available on a regular basis as part of their core US offering.

Bottle Shrimp: The 4" Bottle Shrimp is a trailer type bait that can be used on the back end of a jig, Texas or Carolina rigged on its own, as part of a punch rig, or any variety of ways. It will be sold in packs of 6 for $8.99 and is expected to be available beginning in October of 2014.

Dot Crawler: The Dot Crawler is designed as a specialized wacky worm and will be available in two sizes, 4.8 and 5.8 inches. The "dot" in the product's name refers to the dot like markers along its body that are actually channels for your hook to pass through when wacky rigging your bait. This not only allows you precise re-rigging measurements, but it should also aid in the durability of the bait itself. The Dot Crawler will be sold in packs of 8 for $6.99 beginning in October of 2014.