ICAST Special (Lures) - Pure Fishing trucks in a boat-load of baits (continued)
 

Berkley Gulp! Baits: We've already gone through a slew of baits and we aren't done yet... this brings us to the Berkley Gulp! series. You will see similar or actually the same bait from PowerBait in the Gulp lineup, but each features its unique scent/attractant and minor design differences. The Gulp! baits are 100% biodegradable and are made from all natural ingredients. It has 400 times more scent dispersion than ordinary plastics and the attractant will create a bleeding trail for fish to hone in on.

The Punch Craw is designed to be simple to it can break through heavy vegetation

Because some are similar to the PowerBait series we won't feature them all again and instead only concentrate on new baits that really caught our attention. Let's start with the Gulp Punch Craw. This bait is plain and simple, that's all there's to it. It's designed like this so that anglers can fish it in heavy cover. The Punch Craw is used to penetrate through mats and vegetation of all types without getting caught up, yet the short paddles are at the end will give it enough action to entice strikes from hidden bass. The bait can be jigged, dropshotted, or flipped and pitched. The 3" Gulp! Punch Craw is available in 11 different popular colors and has a MSRP of $5.99 to $6.49 for a pack of eight.

There is a huge amount of new Berkley Gulp! Saltwater baits for the 2007 season. This is only some of it

Berkley Gulp! Saltwater Baits: The Gulp! series isn't complete without an entire line of saltwater baits. This year Berkley introduces many saltwater offerings but the one that we would like to feature is the Saltwater Gulp! Squid. Like shrimp, squid is heavily used in saltwater fishing. The Gulp! Squid is actually remarkably life-like and comes in realistic sizes as well; 3", 5", 8", and 10". There are a few benefits of using these saltwater Squid instead of frozen ones. The Saltwater Gulp! Squid will disperse a lot more scent, 400X more than plastics. Also, instead of going home with spoiled bait, the Berkley Squid can be reused thanks to the resealable package that has scented oil inside of it to help keep the lure in like-new condition. A total of 7 colors are available in which some are glow in the dark colors. MSRP for the 3" (8 per pack)  and 5" (3 per pack) is $6.49 to $6.99; MSRP for the 8" (2 per pack) and 10" (1 per pack) is $13.99.

We really liked the Gulp! Squid especially after we felt so soft and lifelike it was

Berkley Frenzy Flicker Shad: When you get Pro Anglers involved in designing a lure, they will tell you exactly what they want and test it until the right action is achieved. That's exactly what Berkley did with their Pro staff members Gary Parsons and Keith Kavajecz. The result was the introduction of a new lure called the Frenzy Flicker Shad.

Designed by two Berkley Pro Staff members, the Frenzy Flicker Shad is as perfect as it gets

"Anglers who are into trolling or casting will love the Berkley Frenzy Flicker Shad," said Kavajecz. "We designed the Flicker Shad to be the ultimate shad bait - and I think we've succeeded."

The Flicker Shad is designed to have a fast and tight side-to-side roll, and can be cast and retrieved or trolled. It also features a sweet rattle system that makes use of small glass beads that produce a natural and high-pitch attractive sound. The new Flicker Shad series comes in 14 exciting colors in 5cm and 7cm sizes, and will retail from $4.59 to $4.99.

This soon to be popular Shad comes in two sizes, 5 and 7cm

SevenStrand (formerly 7Strand): We almost didn't recognize this brand when we walked up to the shelf-full of big game trolling lures. It has been three years since Pure Fishing acquired 7Strand, and we think the company is now putting the right emphasis on these big game lures. 7Strand is well known for its big game trolling lures such as the Tuna Clone, but they also make high-quality terminal tackle for saltwater use. From now on 7Strand will now be called Berkley SevenStrand and it'll have a new logo and more vibrant packaging along with a new line of products.

SevenStrand, formerly 7Strand, now comes in a more exciting package and the company now has a new series of big game trolling lures called the Pro Series

Most impressive of these new lures are the Berkley SevenStrand Pro Series lures. These lures have been completely redesigned to boast the latest and greatest technologies at an affordable price. Each lure is handcrafted to have the perfect appearance and action, and includes features first seen on the SevenStrand EAL lures such as Mylar prism tape eyes for flashy visual attraction. These Pro Series trolling lures will come in 12 proven colored skirts, and each Hawaiian style skirt has extreme durability and great action. The pusher head is designed so that when trolled it'll run up and then below, creating a bubble trail as it moves about the water. The Berkley SevenStrand Pro Series lures will have four different models - Pro 1 (9.5 inch Pusher), Pro 3 (11 inch Pusher), Pro 3 (11 inch Plunger), and Pro 7 (12 inch Plunger). MSRP for these trolling lures are $26 (Pro 1), $33 (Pro 3), and $40 (Pro 7).

At the Pure Fishing booth there were many demonstrations to show how some of their new products perform, here ink dispersion demonstrates the greater scent dispersion with Gulp! baits

Conclusion: Before ICAST Pure Fishing already had a lot of baits/lures but this year they tipped the scales by bringing us even more under their well known brands, Berkley PowerBait (freshwater and saltwater), Berkley Gulp!(freshwater and saltwater), and Berkley SevenStrand (Big game). In all there were 1000 new SKUs trucked into their ICAST booth and we were there to see them all. The Pure Fishing family has grown with each season, and each year more and more exciting new products are introduced to help anglers catch fish. For those anglers looking for something new to try this coming season, I'm sure Pure Fishing will have something for you. When it comes to blending fish catching technology with innovative lure design Pure Fishing is truly second to none, and nowhere was this more evident than at ICAST 2006.