ICAST 2011 : Skeet Reese and Kelly Jordan roll out new baits with Lucky Craft USA

Introduction: Following quickly on the heels of our now completed review of the Lucky Craft Real Supreme 200 swimbait, the folks over at Lucky Craft greeted us enthusiastically. On hand to take us through what was new and exciting with the company this year were bass pros Kelly Jordan and Skeet Reese.

Kelly Jordan shows us his brand new, finesse sized Kelly J Jr.

The Kelly J baits are now offered in two sizes.

Kelly J Jr.: Following on the success Kelly Jordan has had with his Kelly J prop bait, Lucky Craft is now offering the exact same bait in a new, finesse sized body. The Kelly J Jr is ten millimeters smaller than the original Kelly J (roughly half an inch), and about three sixteenths of an ounce (3/16 oz) lighter too. It will be offered initially, in 12 different colors, but knowing Lucky Craft, that won't last for long.

Kelly Jordan shows us Takahiro Omori's new LV-R TO

A new lipless crank for Lucky Craft USA's lineup.

The LV-R TO was designed by Takahiro Omori.

LV-R TO: Anyone even remotely familiar with Takahiro Omori's bass fishing career will know, this professional bass angler loves crankbaits. In fact, "Tak", also likes tweaking baits and has even been known to carve a few of his own for the ultimate in customization. Lucky Craft decided to celebrate Tak's dedication to creating with cranks to make a production model out of one of his pet projects. The LV-R TO is a lipless crank with a lipped crank's attitude. It is built with a wider head giving it more resistance in the water and motivation for a crazy than normal vibration during retrieve.

Take a look at the brand new Lucky Craft 3.5XD deep diving crank

 The new LC 3.5XD is part of Lucky Craft's square billed crank family...

LC 3.5XD: Lucky Craft introduces a new, square bill series of baits known as the "LC Series". Within this line of baits, they take deep diving cranks to lower levels with the LC 3.5XD, a bait that features a forward weighted bill. But unlike some of the competitors' weighted bill cranks, Lucky Craft accomplishes this task with a small, single rectangle of tungsten impregnated within the clear plastic bill.

Although this bait's bill is not really that square..

The net effect is supposed to be a bait that will still float up when caught in a potentially snaggy situation, but that's weighted just enough so that with the help of that forward weighted bill, it can go pretty far. The LC 3.5X will retail for $15.99 each.

Skeet shares with us what's new in his series of baits

Skeet's Baits: We even managed to catch up with Skeet Reese who was lamenting the fact Lucky Craft was unable to complete his brand new rattle enabled SKT cranks in time for the show. Nevertheless, he still had plenty to show us.

The Fat Smasher is a compact, fat version of Lucky Craft's Smasher bait.

The popular Smasher is now available in a middle size.

Fat Smasher: A hybrid crank and swimbait product, the Fat Smasher is intended to be fished like any other shallow running crank and that's with your rod tip down. Fished in this manner, the Fat Smasher will swim with a wide wobbling action but fished with your rod tip up, it will supposedly swim just under the surface like a wake bait. It will be available in four sizes from 2.25 inches to 3.5 inches.

Three new crack colors extend Skeet's custom finishes and potentially the collections thousands of anglers worldwide.

Even the Redemption Spinnerbait gets treated to the new finish (crack blue).

New Crack Colors: Extending the popularity of Skeet's "crack" series of finishes, Lucky Craft is offering three new crack colors for off colored water. Look for Crack Black, Crack Blue, and Table Rock Crack to be available on all LC baits soon.

Skeet Reese hamming it up for the camera.