Cool New Stuff

The bad news, from my perspective, is that I'll be in Las Vegas this week.

The good news is that I'll be there for ICAST, the trade show where the entire fishing industry gathers and the manufacturers show off all that's cool and new for the upcoming year. New lures, rods, reels, hooks, electronics, waders... Pretty much anything that has anything to do with fishing is represented. The show gets kicked off Tuesday evening with a media/buyer preview reception at the New Product Showcase.

Of course, some companies have offered peeks at some of what they'll be showing, and I've even gotten to play with it a few things. I was actually in the boat with Tommy Biffle when he first tried a Biffle Bug on the unique loose-hook football head that is being unveiled as the Gene Larew Biffle HardHead. He caught bass on the first four casts he made with the rig and commented that maybe he should have thrown it in the previous week's tournament. (He had rigged it at Smith Lake but had not thrown it.) A few weeks later Biffle won the Bassmaster Elite Series Sooner Run event on the same rig at Fort Gibson Lake.

Biffle also used his signature Biffle Bug (albeit rigged differently ) to win last week's Professional Anglers Association tournament on Tennessee's Cherokee Lake. In both cases he was using the first samples of a new color, Sooner Run, which also will debut officially at ICAST this week! Sooner Run, which is a green pumpkin red flake with a dark back, is named for first tournament Biffle won with it.