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Shimano Unveils a Lighter More Refined Curado, the 150MGL
Shimano seems to have a habit of releasing new Curado reels every ICAST
and this year the company unveiled the sleek 150MGL which is designed to be the
lightest Curado to date. |
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Abu Garcia's Zenon Series of Reels
and Rods Raise the Bar for the Brand
Designed to be the new halo reels and rods for Abu Garcia the Zenon reel
and rods take the brand into enthusiast territory when it comes to features,
performance, and price point. |
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Daiwa Dominates Reel Categories this ICAST and the Saltist takes the Salt
Daiwa crushed it this year at ICAST taking home the Best of Show in both
the freshwater and saltwater reel categories. Our readers already know how much
we like the Zillion and on the saltwater side it was the new Saltist MQ that won
over the buyers and media. |
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Stay
Fresh or Get Salty with Yo-Zuri
Just like myself, Yo-Zuri has been
in the fresh and saltwater game for quite some time now. I’ve been using their
Hybrid copolymer line and a few of their hardbaits religiously for many years
now and have caught hundreds of fish with these products. Since their offerings
cover such a broad spectrum of environments and species, it should come as no
surprise they had a healthy batch of new products to show off at this year’s
ICAST show. |
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The Tatula SV 103 Limited Baitcaster Looks Like a Keeper
Daiwa has a long history of catering to tackle enthusiasts and while the
company has been focused on expanding their mainstream offering in the last few
seasons it is good to see they haven't forgotten their roots. This season the
company is adding some extra features and styling to their popular Tatula line
with a new limited edition. |
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Shimano
Refreshes Sustain and Nasci Spinning Reels
Shimano refreshed a number of their spinning reels this ICAST and we were
particularly excited about the new look and feel of the new Sustain which has
now been redesigned with a MGL rotor. The Nasci line also gets an update and
continues to deliver a quality design for both fresh and saltwater environments.
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Shimano Turns Up the Flash with the World Minnow and World Diver Jerkbaits
While most anglers are eagerly awaiting all of Shimano's reel and rod
launches this ICAST the company surprised anglers with the introduction of two
brand new jerkbaits with some very innovative new elements designed to improve
both casting and retrieve performance with "BOOST" features. |
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Costa
Launches Untangled 2.0 Sunglasses Made From Recycled Fishing Nets - Good for
Anglers and the Ocean
This year the company unveiled the Untangled 2.0
Collection which are performance sunglasses that are as good for fishing as they
are for the ocean, as they are made from recycled fishing nets. |
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TackleTour ICAST 2021 Video Coverage
ICAST 2021 has arrived! After a strange last year we are excited to be
once again on the water and show floor here in Orlando. This year in addition to
our article coverage we will also be providing Instagram Quick Hit Videos from
the manufacturers and pro anglers.
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The Enthusiast Oriented
Steez AGS Rods are Back and Cater to U.S. Applications
The Steez rod lineup has long been coveted by anglers on both sides of
the pond, and this year U.S. anglers get a upgraded series designed to meet our
region's unique fishing techniques and applications. |
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The G.Loomis NRX+ Bladed Jig Rod – Overkill, and Just What
Enthusiasts Want
The G.Loomis NRX+ rods are a modernization of a legend, and bring the
American-made series up to date with Spiral X technology, a new resin which
makes for a lighter overall blank, improved ergonomics, and the return of the
hybrid guide-train. In addition to the popular Mag Bass actions the company is
introducing a series of technique specific models, including a brand-new bladed
jig rod... |
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Megabass America Brings Valkyrie
Worldwide and Triza Travel Rods Stateside
For the 2021 season
Megabass America is drawing from their international arsenal and bringing a two
high-end lines stateside including the Valkyrie World Expedition and Triza Series which
are designed to provide on the go anglers with applications specific rods. |
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Rat Rumble : JSJ Baits's Pack Rat (Recoil Edition)
The current Pack Rat (dubbed the Recoil Edition) is made out of a special silicone mix St. John developed during a two year hiatus from making baits. The result is a bait with
extreme elasticity and durability. |
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Plano EDGE - The Freedom to Create
Unique Storage Solutions for Every Angler
There is no
bigger name in the tackle storage industry than Plano, and the company proved
that they were still in top form when they introduced the EDGE Series, their
most premium tackle boxes to date. Offered in a wide range of configurations
these innovative boxes are designed to be both highly adaptable, and extremely
robust, for anglers of all types.
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Cashing In on Berkley's Powerbait Ned Rig Worm
As finesse techniques grow in number, the
corresponding baits seem to get smaller and smaller. I admit, I have a tough
time with some of the smaller baits because they often lead to a lot of small
bites. Still, when fishing pressure is high, there's often no other alternative
but to downsize your bait. Skeet Reese has a bait for just such an occasion. |
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Obsolete Before Its Time? Shimano Japan's SLX BFS
While a great majority of bass
fishermen participate in the various techniques that make up the overall
classification, for whatever reason, few are willing to admit to it. It's as if
using light line and tiny lures isn't as masculine or cause for as much bravado
as yanking a defenseless fish out from beneath a thicket of vegetation or
fooling one with a life size replica of a baitfish species.
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The Sleeper Assassin of Cl8Bait's Rodent Squad : Water Vole
It feels like yesterday when we first met Clayton Bryant of CL8Bait at
Bass-A-Thon 2008.
Back then he was the new builder on the scene and
now, over a decade later, he's a seasoned veteran builder. I hate to think what
that means for me, but in any case, when Bryant caught wind of our Rat Rumble,
he immediately signed up to participate. |
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Megabass Launches the Sleeper Craw and lxl SHAD TX
This season Megabass America will be adding some additional weapons to
their arsenal of baits including new sizes and colors of existing lines, as well
as the exciting new introduction of their next “Sleeper” bait. As a follow up to
their goby styled bait the company is extending the formula to one of the most
popular forages for bass, the ever popular crawfish. |
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Far from Hollow, Off the Deep End with Seaguar's Threadlock
Though hollow
braid has been around for quite some time, the use of the product in bass or
other freshwater fishing is just beginning to take a foothold because until
recently, the line has not been available in diameters that are conducive to
smaller reels and leader sizes twenty pounds and under... |
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SLIDE into the Next Phase of CZB Equipped
Reels with the 13 Fishing Concept Z SLD
The 13 Fishing team has never been afraid to question what makes a good
reel, rod, or lure, and building their brand with bold products. Building upon
the bearing-less design of the original Concept Z, the new Gen II Z SLD (Slide)
reel is designed to take cast control even further with an additional braking
system that can be adjusted on the fly, and even between casts. |
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Evergreen International's Power Finesse Stick, the Gizmo Special
Through their exclusive partnership with Daiwa,
Evergreen continues to expand this series with technique, and even bait specific
spec's for the US angler. We got our hands on one of these new introductions,
the Gizmo Special, to not only test its effectiveness as a stick designed around
the Gizmo topwater lure, but of course to see what else this intriguing little
stick can handle. |
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Molix's Creature : A Super Sized Morsel of a Bait
My first recollection of a "creature" bait was when GYCB ran with the genre and introduced us to their
Kreature bait.
Since that time, we've referred to any soft plastic bait that has defies
description and even some we can easily describe as simply as a creature bait -
hence our Creature Fever theme. |
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Smelly Rat - It's not Spro's Fault Their Rat 50 Stanks
If there's one space a custom,
hand built, garage bait cannot compete in, it's in the area of accessibility. A
bait, no matter how effective, is really no use to an angler if said bait is not
available for purchase, period. Many anglers, and especially those who enjoy
tossing big baits, turn their collective backs on baits that are easily
accessible and mass produced... |
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Do You Believe in Magic? Gan Craft's Killers Dead Sword
Gan Craft makes a trio of rods made to handle just
about every lure size a swimbait fisherman could need. Here's our look at the
first stick in the manufacturer's powerful trio, the Killers KG-00 6-710EXH Dead
Sword. |
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Striking Gold : Seaguar's Fluorocarbon Leader for Enthusiasts
Off the spool, the
best way I can describe Gold Label is it feels buttery when you run the line
between your fingers. The surface is very smooth and seemingly consistent yet
the line doesn't feel overly stiff and wiry like I expected a fluorocarbon
leader to be. Honestly, it doesn't feel like it would handle much differently
than Tatsu... |
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Not Afraid of Contact - The
Jackall Chubble Minnow Shaped Squarebill
The Chubble stands apart from the rest of the Jackall hardbait lineup
with a squarebill lip paired with a longer body that is designed to imitate
minnows and exhibit a more natural swimming action than traditional squarebill
cranks. |
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iRod's Guitierrez Special, the G2
Ultra Finesse
iRod's founder, Matt Newman is
a reputable big bait fisherman, so even when one of the biggest names on his
staff of pros, Gregg Gutierrez, came to him with the idea and need for a
signature, finesse tuned fishing rod, Newman deferred telling Gutierrez, he'd
take the thought into consideration. |
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Daiwa Recaptures "It" with this Limited Edition Steez
Style with ease: Daiwa's celebrates the 15th
anniversary of its flagship low profile baitcaster, the Steez, this year with a
bright, shiny new model (literally), that we previewed back on Christmas day,
2020. Kind of fitting considering each time I have the opportunity to handle a
high end reel, it feels like a gift to myself... |
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Taking a Walk with Megabass's New Megadog
Measuring at just
over eight and a half inches and weighing just over four and a half ounces, the
Megadog is a big bait by any standard, but especially so for Megabass. |
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G.Loomis Unveils the NRX+
Line of Conventional Bass Rods
The G.Loomis NRX Series of rods are for many
anglers, the benchmark premium rod series. Rumors of a new NRX Series have been
circulating online for months and today the company officially unveiled the new
series. We spoke to the team to learn more about the new NRX+ rods to learn just
what accounts for the new "plus" in the coming lineup.
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Is This Seaguar's Most Popular Fluorocarbon? AbrazX
Seaguar is a bit of an
anomaly in the fishing line market. Their specialty is fluorocarbon. Their
parent company, Kureha, is one of the very few companies in the world with
the resources to manipulate the raw fluorocarbon resins. |
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RatRumble : The RioRat by Hill Country Swimbaits
Based in San Antonia, Texas, Hill Country
Swimbaits offers a wide selection of baits from multi-piece swimmers, to
two-piece glides in gill, shad, and trout profiles. The subject of today's
article is in a classification that has infested TackleTour HQ. We have a plan
to root them out, but the invasion promises to endure through the Summer and
likely into the Fall. Introducing the Hill Country Swimbaits Rio Rat. |
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A Feature Packed Travel Stick from Monstar Fishing
Whether you're planning your
next exotic angling adventure or you just enjoy having a combo on standby in
your trunk for those "just in case" scenarios, functional, multi-piece, travel
rods that are truly compact are difficult to come by. I'm not talking about two
or three piece sticks that still require their own spot in the overhead
compartment but something you can literally fit into your carry on.
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Brian Schmidt Baits's One Love : The Ned Dred
With the popularity of bait products like jigs,
punch skirts, and skirted bullet and nail weights, it was only a matter of time
before we started to see something similar for the latest finesse craze, the Ned
Rig. After sharing our discovery of Brian Schmidt Bait's Hybrid Football Jig, we
learned of a new product Schmidt is tying that promises to take the finesse
crowd to another level. |
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Daiwa's Rebellion Against the Dark Side of Enthusiasm
A manufacturer that until
recently, was not often associated with the term "good value" is Daiwa, but they
have a line of bass rods that, after reviewing the specifications, have the
potential to be just that. We got our hands on one of their sticks for a closer
look. Introducing Daiwa's Rebellion 7111HFB-SB swimbait stick. |
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Gan Craft's Jointed Claw Zepro : A Surface Glide with the Little Kicks
In 2015, Gan Craft introduced a
variant to the Jointed Claw 178. It swims on a slightly upward trajectory versus
the downward trajectory of the original making it ideal in shallow water
situations where the 178 Type F might eventually get hung up. Here's our look at
Gan Craft's Jointed Claw Zepro 178. |
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A Serious Exterior with a Lively
Personality, the Douglas XMatrix Swimbait Rod
Douglas Outdoors, a company known for their fly rods, has branched out
into conventional spin and casting rods designed to address the complete
spectrum of bass fishing techniques. The company's flagship conventional line is
the XMatrix Series which features a proprietary carbon construction and comes
armed with Fuji components. |
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Kistler Enters the Reel Market with Their Series 1 Casting Reels
Validating the dilemma anglers face trying to match the correct brand of reel to their fishing rods, a handful of the reel manufacturers actually started out as rod manufacturers. If you think about it, just about every reel manufacturer makes rods, so why not vice versa? |
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Z-Man & Evergreen International's Jack Hammer Stealth
The collaboration of Z-Man and Evergreen International that resulted in the creation of the renowned Jack Hammer Chatterbait literally shook the bladed jig market. That lure is to its classification of baits as the Vision OneTen is to its own. That unprecedented popularity and effectiveness often leads to two eventualities - a rash of similar product by other manufacturers, and a catalog of variants from the originator. |
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The Thoroughly Capable, If
Somewhat Uninspiring New Alphas
At the end of January 2021, we shared a preview of
Daiwa Japan's new, Alphas SV TW 800. In that article, we took a detailed look in
to the differences between this latest refresh and the original, purple
powerhouse. Since that preview, I've had time to fish this reel to discover just
how well the updated platform holds up and whether it answers the call to its
legacy as the original Scorpion killer. |
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Plenty of Options to Explore... The Baitsanity Gen 2
Glidebait with Hatch Match Tails
It has been nearly three years since our review of the
original Baitsanity Explorer and over the last two seasons we have been fishing
the company's updated version, the Explorer Gen2, which features a clever
interchangeable tail design as well as multiple new patterns to better match the
hatch. |
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Okuma's Budget Friendly Carbon Spinning Reel, the ITX
Believe it or not, despite my
enthusiast leanings, there are times when I cannot resist a good value -
especially if that value has a more expensive look and feel. Okuma's latest
spinning reel is an example of this condition. |
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A Classic Vintage in the Making? Kistler's '21 Helium
While there are other product
lines above and below this one, in my mind, Helium is still the series that
defines Kistler Custom Rods. We recently caught wind of some changes within the
company surrounding their source for blanks, so we acquired a stick from the
current Helium series to check out. Here's our look at the 2021 Kistler Custom
Rods Helium. |
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