Berkley Labs - Science Symposium: Five days ago Berkley Labs held a science symposium at the Space Center Houston NASA Science Museum where Berkley's scientists and product development team highlighted a number of new projects and baits that they were unveiling. Set against the backdrop of the Space Center the team focused on the science behind their bait designs, delving deep into how they use science to understand how fish perceive their environment using their sense of smell, sight and taste, and how advances like live sonar are forever changing the fishing landscape.

“Berkley is the leader in science-based bait development, and we take pride in providing anglers with the best solution to help them catch fish in any environment,” said Berkley’s Chief Brand and Product Officer Jon Schlosser. “We’ve known that forward-facing sonar was coming and have spent the past few years learning about the trend in anticipation of it catching on. Its impact on how anglers are approaching fisheries is advancing each day, and we at Berkley have made a conscious effort to take on the responsibility of providing those anglers with the best baits possible to interact with fish on forward-facing sonar. By taking our science-based approach to bait development and applying it to FFS the team at Berkley Labs has been able to create some truly special baits that are proven to catch more fish with FFS. It’s exciting to see how revolutionary these baits are, not only in their design, but in how they enable anglers to manipulate their baits in ways that have never been done before.”

Krej: Of the three new baits the Krej is the most distinctive looking with a upturned bill design. Berkley designed this hard bait to mimic the natural, upwards fleeing reaction of a baitfish from predatory strike. The name Krej comes from “Jerk” spelled backwards and is a lead in to how this bait is fished. Contrary to conventional methods of fishing a jerkbait, the upturned bill of the Berkley Krej  enables it to work its way upwards in the water column, only to fall backwards towards the fish chasing the bait.

The Krej was designed in Berkley Labs to excel with forward-facing sonar, this new style of fishing, or “krejing” as Berkley calls it, allows the angler to take advantage of being able to see how the fish reacts and work the bait up and away from the fish to better imitate a natural fleeing motion, or even back towards the fish to trigger reaction strikes.
 

The Krej features a clear upturned lip to deliver a ascending and darting action when worked and a backslide on the fall

“The Krej is a bait that performs like no other hard bait, especially when paired with forward-facing sonar,” said Berkley’s Senior Project Engineer of Bait and Terminal Tackle, Dan Spengler. “It’s a bait that took over two years to develop, integrating key bait fish movements and predator-induced prey reactions like darting, erratic motion behavior, and changes in motion. Whether it’s on the rise or fall, the Krej is always in action. We implemented an upturned bill which allows this bait to conquer the water column in a way a standard jerkbait cannot, but yet it can do so much more than that. There are several ways to manipulate this bait to interact with fish and it gives anglers a solution to the current gaps when using forward-facing sonar.”

The Krej delivers a nice smallie for Dan

Power Switch: We first saw the Berkley Power Switch at the last ICAST and it is now shipping to retailers. Built to interact with fish on forward-facing sonar, the Berkley PowerBait Power Switch is designed to give anglers the control to “switch” methods or react to how the fish are behaving or the structure they see.

When a fish is located using forward-facing sonar, the window to catch the fish begins, and that window will close quickly. To help anglers present their bait as quickly and precisely as possible the weight-forward design of the PowerBait Power Switch is designed for precision casts, fast fall rates and a wide range of actions to entice fish to strike.

The Power Switch is a PowerBait series mini swimbait

The soft body swimbait design allows anglers to interact with any fish at any depth in the water column utilizing a variety of “hover” and “stroll” techniques. This bait is packed with PowerBait flavor and armed with a pre-rigged with a Fusion19 hook.

“The Berkley PowerBait Power Switch is one of the first baits that incorporates several different actions and techniques into one bait,” said Berkley’s Project Engineer of Bait, Kyle Peterson. “This bait can sink fast, hover at the angler’s desired water column, with each action working together in one profile. It gives anglers everything they need to best interact with fish, especially when paired with forward-facing sonar.”
 

The Finisher is designed to be a fin-less glide and jerkbait

Berkley Finisher: The third bait in Berkley's FFS Optimized lineup is the Finisher. The purpose-built Finisher hardbait is designed to maximize the bait’s time in the strike zone by “hovering” and moving laterally in the water column with minimal retrieve progression. This behavior provides the angler with increased control when using live sonar to effectively maneuver the bait based on how the fish are reacting to it.

The Finisher is intended to be fished both like a fin-less glidebait for walleye or like a jerkbait for bass and the lure’s weight-forward design allows for precision casts, fast drop-ins and a wide range of actions, all in an effort to draw strikes from stubborn fish.

“The Finisher is the first of its kind, a hovering hard bait we call it,” said Spengler. “It truly gives anglers ultimate control of their bait. Being able to manipulate it in several ways based on what fish are responding to, especially when pairing this bait with forward-facing sonar. What makes this bait unique is that it has no fin structure, which can allow it to do a multitude of actions. From erratic darting to natural minnow-like tail movement, what makes the Finisher deadly is its flat bottom which allows it to hover or hang in the water column. A bait with such diversity truly allows anglers to have control of how they’re interacting with fish on forward-facing sonar.”
 

Finicky bass? With the Finisher subtle wrist snaps generate a medium glide. Long, harder strokes will produce longer darting and gliding actions