New Lures for Creeks, Rivers & Ponds

Heddon Spin'n Image Jr

Late summer often delivers new lures to my tackle selection. The ICAST show takes place in mid-July, and that’s when many fishing tackle brands introduce new products for the upcoming year. Because I work in marketing for a lure company that owns multiple brands , that means I typically have new lures that I need to get photos of and gain familiarity with for writing projects.

What stands out this year is that several of the new offerings from our brands really hit home with the way I like to fish the most and are perfectly suited for the waters I fish the most. I expect at least a few of these to remain a key part of my arsenal for years.

Heddon, Bandit and Rebel Lures all released new baits this summer that are extra well suited for the creeks and small rivers I love to wade and for walking the banks of ponds. All are small in size, but my expectations are big. That sounds like marketing talk, but I’m not wearing the marketing hat when I’m writing this blog. It’s just fortunate for me that some of the lures I currently need photos of the most are really good fits for my personal fishing preferences.

I won’t detail the features of each. Again, marketing isn’t the objective here. However, I will run through the stuff I’m excited to use. In truth, I’ve been catching fish on a few of them for a few months. One nice thing in my job is that I get some stuff early for photography needs.

Heddon Lures added a couple of topwater lures I know will excel in smaller waters. The Spin’n Image Jr is a downsized version of a proven rotating-tail topwater lure. The Spook Stick is a slender profiles small-sized surface walker. There is also a Spook Stick Crawler that I know will be an excellent lure, but it fits a little different niche.

Bandit Lures, meanwhile, added the Bandit 50 and 50D, which look and act a lot like the iconic Bandit 100 and 200 but are substantially smaller. They were designed for small water and for finesse situations and match perfectly with the light travel rod and spinning reel that live in my car all the time.

Finally, Rebel Lures added a couple of great new shapes to their LIVEflex soft plastic series. One is a hellgrammite, and every stream angler knows that hellgrammites are candy to creek fish. The other is a tadpole, another important forage species in ponds and creeks that surprisingly is not often imitated with fishing lures. The LIVE Hellgrammite and Tadpole are the two I’ve already used to catch a lot of fish!

You’ll likely be hearing more from me about some of these new lures. I need to go sit at the computer this morning, bit I really just want to go fishing!

Bandit 50

Heddon Spook Stick

 

Rebel LIVEflex Tadpole