Road Runners for Trout

I'm a huge fan of Road Runner Original Marabous for trout, and apparently I'm not alone. Although the folks at Blakemore, who make Road Runners, have never specifically marketed this a trout lure, trout fishermen all over the country make extensive use of the smaller sized Marabou Road Runners.

In response to a big demand from the trout crowd and more than a few requests for more trout offerings, Road Runner is releasing a new panfish/trout series of Natural Science Road Runner Heads matched with tiny tube bodies in terrific trout fishing colors, including Grasshopper, Mayfly Glow and even Copper Corn. Beyond playing on a popular trout bait, "corn yellow" is a popular color in fly patterns because many aquatic insects have yellow coloration.

I got a good look at the final versions of these new baits at ICAST and can't wait to take them to a stream.

YUM F2

There's been a buzz since the Bassmaster Classic, when YUM Bait Company revealed early glimpses (whiffs?) of their new F2 scent, with bass anglers north and south eager for these potent new plastics and the spray version of the same scent to hit the market. This week, at the ICAST show, YUM will show F2 to much more of the industry. Widespread availability is forecast for later this month.

Four new baits, the YUM Woolee Bullee, Mighty Bug, Salleemander (in photo above) and Shakealicious, will be made exclusively with the new F2 Formula, and other popular baits, including Dingers, Tubes and Money Craws will be available in F2. The formula will also come in a spray so it can be added to any bait.

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.

Herring School

I spent a couple of days in "herring school" this week, bass fishing on Lake Murray with FLW pros Michael Murphy and Anthony Galiardi. The bass behave differently in lakes that have blueback herring in them than in all other bass lakes, and during the summer much of the best fishing is for offshore schooling fish. A couple unique things about these fish is that the best topwater fishing occurs through the middle part of the day, especially when the sun is shining, and that they like BIG baits with plenty of flashy chrome. Murphy's best bait this week was an Ima Big Stik, a bait designed for saltwater use.