Who all is on the Pro Staff with you? And have you spoken with them about the Laser Lure technology?

Matt Newman: They guys I know on staff are Mike Iaconelli, Boyd Duckett and some regional guys. I haven’t had a chance to sit down with either of them yet, but I saw them in passing at the Classic and we all get that look when it comes up, like we are on to something.  I am a very skeptical person and I am generally very quick to knock things down but, this proved itself to me pretty quick.

I know you pretty well and you’ve always preached that color wasn’t that big of a deal.  You’ve always told me it was action and presentation and color was the least important thing. Is the laser above and beyond just a different or new color?

Matt Newman: Its not a color deal, there’s really-really something to it. Under certain conditions, I truly believe the laser triggers a bite when otherwise the fish might not want to eat the lure. It just triggers something in the bass, heck it triggers something in cats, dogs and pretty much all predators that I’ve played with it on.  I know our eyes, as humans, seem to catch a lot of strains of light but, when you talk about cats, dogs, fish I think its something that their eyes really pick up on. Without a doubt, anyone can just shoot a laser pointer in any aquarium with fish and you will see that the fish will go after it, relentlessly.

Matt may be known for big baits but he now never leaves home without an arsenal of Laserlure crankbaits

Tell me about the battery in these baits?

Matt Newman: The batteries are built in to the baits. They are not changeable. Each lure has a different strength battery with the deep diving crankbait with the largest battery of the baits on the market right now.  They are saying that the battery in the deep diver lasts between 80 to 100 hours of flashing.  The shortest battery life might be the shallow diver with about 60 hours of flashing.  That’s a long time since the bait shuts off about 2 seconds after being removed from the water and only turns on when it hits the water on the next cast. Keep in mind, these baits are still fantastic baits even long after the laser batteries die.

Do the baits run true right out of the package?

Matt Newman: Each individual bait that comes out of the factory is tank tested before its packaged. Originally, that was not the case but, it’s a pretty safe bet that every bait on a tackle shop shelf today has been tested and will run perfect right out of the package.

What hooks are standard on the Laser Lures?

Matt Newman: The baits comes standard with really good black nickel or red Mustad hooks. I haven’t found a reason to change them and they are super sharp! I may switch them out for the really big tournaments because I have a favorite hook for reaction baits, but habits aside I would say I could fish the Mustad hooks confidently if I had to.

Mike Iaconelli weighs in alongside Boyd Duckett, both are prostaff for Laserlure

Talking Laser Lures with Mike Iaconelli:

I read online that you used the Laser Lure at the Classic?

Mike Iaconelli: On day one and on day two I caught 2 of my key fish each day on a Laser Lure. I actually fished the shallow diving crankbait and I got them to do a custom color for me for that tournament. They are going to make it now, they only made me about a half a dozen of them for that event, but it worked so well they are going to put it into production. It’s basically a black and blue crankbait.  It’s a muddy water crankbait, the area that I fished during the classic was a really muddy area, pretty ugly. I wanted more contrast in the bait and it really popped with that color and the laser.

A closer look at the long lipped deep diver

How did you first experience the laser and what do you think of the laser technology?

Mike Iaconelli: The first time I heard about this plug, I met Mike (Lopez) while I was doing a seminar at Bass Pro Shops in Atlanta. We started talking and he gave me some of the plugs and told me about the bait. I’ll be honest with you, in the beginning I was pretty skeptical, because anything new that is radically different you are skeptical about in the beginning. 

I really wasn’t sure what to make of it when he first gave me some and started talking about. But, I’ve got a little private lake back home that is kinda like my testing grounds and later that summer I got a chance to play with them there.  I tell ya, I was pretty shocked and there are a couple things I have noticed about them right off the ‘giddy’.   First, they’ve got a super shallow runner that is similar to a Mann’s minus-1 and it runs in like a foot or less. The first day I fished it I threw the Laser Lure and I had my buddy throw the minus-1 and I can tell you that on that day I caught 2 fish to every 1 that he caught, that impressed me right there.  The other thing that impressed me was the kind of bites that I was getting with it and this is even now, six or eight months after that first time using the bait, the bites are different. Here’s the best way I can describe it.  You know how a lot of the crankbait bites you get the fish are all of a sudden just there, its just mushy. Well the bites on this plug are different, they are not like just soft mushy bites, they whack it, its like a jig bite, it’s a harder bite.  It’s hard to describe but, its different. 

After fishing these plugs for a while I started reaching back out to Mike (Lopez). It was the second time I saw Mike at another Bass Pro Shops where he had a laser pointer and he took it to the tank and what I saw blew me away.  He was taking this laser pointer and shooting it on a tree limb in the tank and you had like five and six pounder biting at the bark to go after the light, it was the most unbelievable thing. All this stuff just started adding up and makes me believe this is the real deal.

Mike Iaconelli inspects a Laser Lure

You pretty much summed up the lure there.  Is there anything else you’d like to say about Laser Lures?

Mike Iaconelli: Here’s the bottom line, they built good baits first. A deep diver, a shallow diver, a popper, a jerk bait all these baits. They though about the finish, they thought about the wobble, the sound, the hooks, the paint, they thought about all that first. The made a bait that would work without laser light technology and then they went and added this thing, which is the laser technology. 

I am going to tell you, it’s the real deal.  The best way I can describe it is I feel it’s the last frontier that we haven’t tackled yet. We’ve been playing with scent for years and sound and wobble and roll and all those things and now we are playing with light technology and its honestly the last frontier of hard baits. I think it’s the deal. Like other things its not a magic cure but, if it gets you more fish in the boat or it gets the fish deeper or more solidly hooked then that’s the thing you want to be throwing.

Looking for LaserLures?
Check out MonsterFishingTackle.com and the BaitBarn