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

Walleye Shad Lure for Cool-Water Bass

 

The Bandit Walleye Shad was created primarily for targeting walleye, which is evident by its name. That said, I’m convinced that this relatively new crankbait has diverse value for a variety of fish species and fishing situations. Most notably, I expect the Walleye Shad to excel as a bass crankbait from late fall through early spring.

The Walleye Shad has all the characteristics of an excellent winter bass crankbait. Flat sides create a narrow profile that make it look like an easy meal, and a very tight wiggle suggests the movements of winter chilled forage.

Another feature that provides huge winter appeal — and one that is uncommon in crankbaits — is that the Walleye Shad was designed to suspend when it’s not in motion. Like with a suspended jerkbait, you can pause it at any point in a retrieve, and it will hold irresistibly in the zone.

Winter chilled bass won’t waste calories chasing, and baitfish naturally hold in place when the water is cold, so the having the capacity to pause a crankbait in key areas provides a huge advantage for winter bass fishing.

The Walleye Shad cones in four sizes, meeting a big range of situations, and a good mix of colors. A handful are the ultra-bright colors that walleye trollers favor and that I don’t really see as bass colors. However, about half the colors are natural forage imitations that I’d consider very good options for bass fishing.

I haven’t been in the right setting to prove my Walleye Shad theory yet, but I have little doubt that I’ll do so again and again. Maybe once I’ve tallied that real experience, I’ll post a fresh blog that shares models, colors, locations and presentations that have worked best for me.

Kind of makes me want to go fishing!

The Ride

"You did it again!" Nathaniel said with a big laugh as he pointed to the lures on the bumper of my Expedition.

Sure enough. Twice in a single day of hopping from access point to access point along the White River I'd taken lures off rods, set them on the bumper and failed to move them to a more secure place before driving. Twice the lures survived rides along several miles of winding Ozarks roads.

I don't think I do that very often, but I suppose if those baits had fallen off along the way I'd have never known what had happened to them -- so maybe I do it more frequently than I realize! I'm just glad I didn't leave my wallet or my phone on the bumper!