New Lures, Opinions?

[A KGB Operative]

Hey everyone. I have avoided the bait monkey for quite some time "broke college kid". I was looking at the new Icast stuff that came in for preorder on TW. Few things I noticed were the new molix supernato beetle, Berkley warpig lipless cranks, and the kitech noisey flapper. I was just curious as to what you all thought about these. I have a supernato frog from molix, never caught a thing on it. The kitech looks like an expensive version of a pitboss dragged across the topwater, and the warpig seems like a cheaper version of the megabass lipless. Opinions?

[Racerx]

Thread resurrection, as I'm curious as to what others think about these new Berkley hard baits. They may or may not be a good design, but IMO, the paintjobs look like total s@#t.  Looks like some poor little blind kid in China painted these with the only hand they had left!

 

Opinions?  I love the Berkley Flicker Shads and fish them all the time, but I think I'm gonna pass on these.

[Raul]

Paintjobs catch you, not the fish.

[alzun664]

Flicker shads work too well for me to bother picking up the 'newer' versions. As an added bonus they will just be even cheaper.

[Jaw1]

Never had much luck with the flickershads but I'm hoping the new shad baits work out. I bought 4 to try out. I've always caught fish on #5 shad raps but never the flickershads 

[blckshirt98]

The way that crankbaits move in the water, I don't think the fish, or any living creature, can see the detail on the crankbaits.  General shades of light/dark to offer some contrast to the surrounding water, but it's the movement/action/depth that's most important.

[Fishes in trees]

 I always thought that those Berkley shad baits were more of a trolling crank than a casting crank.  I don't troll - so I have no personal experience with those baits.   The current line of Berkley hard baits is just another attempt to crack the hard bait market.

Does anyone remember the "Frenzy" line of crank baits?  A long the ago I got a bunch of them on close out - right around 20 cents on the dollar or something near to that.  They had jerk baits, medium divers, deep divers and lipless cranks.  Paint jobs on the divers and jerk baits were " unique"    I had NO  luck with the jerk baits, and different levels of divers.   After a few attempts, I just put them away.  Give them 30 years and they will be collectors items.

The Frenzy lipless crank was a different story.   My experience with that bait is that it gets bit more often than any other brand of that style I own.   The last couple of years that is the only one I've thrown.   I have 4 left.  It is easy to ding up the paint on those baits, but I think that they fish better with the paint a little dinged up - or in my case a LOT dinged up.

Anyway, I suspect that in 2 or 3 seasons, the marketers at Berkley will have had enough and all the hard baits will be closed out again -  the idea put on the shelf for a few years and then they will try again.

Their Flicker Shad, it seems right now,  is a solid seller for them - they probably sell more to walleye guys as trolling baits than they do to bass guys.  

[blckshirt98]

I'm curious how Yamamoto's hard baits are doing, what their sales numbers are like.  I buy a ton of baits and for some reason those don't appeal to me, I almost see it as a "Yamamoto is making them just to have a hard bait they can put their name on."  I think their brand is too far entrenched into their soft baits, and I think Berkeley is in the same boat.  When you think Berkeley you think PowerBait.

[camman]

The Molix Supernato Beetle looks like the expensive brother of the old school Jitterbug....the only difference that it appears more weedless...I bet it won't last as long as the Jitterbug.

[blckshirt98]

Also if you are indeed a "broke college kid" I'd avoid any of these new gimmicky baits!  Lots of times these get bought by fisherman looking for something new and end up being used a couple of times or never, and end up collecting dust while they go back to using what's always worked!

[Ginosocalbass]

9 hours ago, blckshirt98 said:

I'm curious how Yamamoto's hard baits are doing, what their sales numbers are like.  I buy a ton of baits and for some reason those don't appeal to me, I almost see it as a "Yamamoto is making them just to have a hard bait they can put their name on."  I think their brand is too far entrenched into their soft baits, and I think Berkeley is in the same boat.  When you think Berkeley you think PowerBait.

I was rather disappointed with the hard baits. The fish do bite them..but it's hard to get a lipless crank and a popper wrong.  The paint jobs stink..  They already had distribution due to the senko.  Producing and putting out hard baits just upped there sales to distributors.   Finding any real sales data would be a challenge unless you worked for a retailer like Dicks sporting goods. Or TW.

 

the new berkley hard baits aside from the lame paint jobs (see a theme here?)  work and are a worthwhile for the price. But I wouldn't have high expectations as any company that releases a lot of hard baits in a short time frame surely has cut some corners in the R&D. 

[Bluebasser86]

I actually really like some of the new Berkley paint schemes. The Vinatge Craw in the Wild Thang 8.5 has been a good bait for me since it came out. The Warpig and Skinny Cutter 110 have been doing a lot of work this winter, although a lot of the Warpig fish have been whites or wipers. I haven't tried the Pitbull or Digger cranks enough yet to form any opinion on them other than I think they'll catch fish. I do really like the hooks on them also. They've been very sharp and stood up to some strong fish (don't get much stronger than wipers around here).