Elite Series Pro Angler David
Mullins shows us the World Diver FLASHBOOST Jerkbait
Impressions: Shimano may be best known for their reels
and rods, but the company has been continually adding to their lure lineup, and
this season the tackle giant is aggressively growing their bass offering here in
the U.S. with both the World and Macbeth hardbaits. The Macbeth Series of lures
has a long history in Japan and are more traditionally styled crankbaits while
the World Series features a few new and patented technologies.
Shimano is making a big push into
freshwater hardbaits and in addition to new World Series lures is bringing the
Macbeth line of crankbaits to the U.S. this season as well
The first two
World Series lures, the World Minnow and World Diver, launched last ICAST 2021.
The World Minnow 115SP is a suspending jerkbait while the World Diver 99SP is a
deeper diving jerkbait that also suspends when paused. Both lures come with
three core technologies that make them stand out from the competition. These are
FLASHBOOST, JETBOOST and SCALEBOOST. Yes, these are fancy marketing names but
the first step to understanding these baits is exploring each of these features
further.
The World Minnow, and World Diver,
feature three core technologies. The first is FLASHBOOST, a spring suspended
foil in the front section of the baits
FLASHBOOST: The FLASHBOOST is a patented technology
that is designed to mimic the movements and flashing behavior of an injured
baitfish. This system consists of a finely polished reflective foil that is
suspended on micro springs within the body of the lure to deliver a bass
attracting flash that continues to pulse aggressively even during the pause.
The Salangidae pattern is the most
translucent and provides a good look at the spring loaded JETBOOST apparatus
JETBOOST: Many higher end jerkbaits feature a shifting
weight to the rear of the lure to help increase casting distance. JETBOOST is
Shimano’s proprietary system and is designed to capitalize on the force of each
cast by sliding an internal weight during the backcast that springs forward as
the lure is in the air. When the bait lands in the water the weight rebalances
itself and serves a dual purpose as a balancer to help generate the right
movement and suspending action during retrieves.
SCALEBOOST adds holographic scales
which add even more flash to the bait as it moves through the water
SCALEBOOST: Sometimes it comes down to the little
things and to better mimic baitfish scales Shimano has designed composite-pitch
hologram that increases the amount and complexity of light that is reflected off
the lure as it moves through the water. This design is not a paint finish but
rather a hologram applied directly to the injected body, and this combined with
the FLASHBOOST gives the lure a constantly shimmering appearance when both
moving and at rest.
Preparing to go fish the World
Minnow and Diver with Elite Series Pro Anglers Josh Douglas and Jeff "Gussy"
Gustafson
