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P R O D U C TT P R E V I E W


ProducTTpreview: Owner Breaks into Soft Plastics and Debuts New Hooks
 

Date: 1/25/2010
Tackle type: Lures
Manufacturer: Owner
Reviewer: Cal




 

 

 

 

Introduction: Owner is a company with a lot of respect and acclaim in the terminal tackle segment of the market - specifically hooks. Ask any big bait thrower their treble point of choice and many will tell you Owner. As we revealed at ICAST 2009, the company is broadening their product space for 2010 with the introduction of four new soft baits.


Introducing the new, Tasty Scent injected, soft plastic baits from Owner.


Shaky Worm: The Shaky Worm is a six and a half inch plastic worm made from a unique "foam type" material. The result is a buoyant yet supple worm that has a natural nose down, tail up position no matter how you rig it. Also featured with this worm, and all of Owner's new soft plastic baits is a built in attractant referred to as, "tasty scent". Tasty Scent is designed not only to trigger strikes, but to make fish hold on just a tad longer. The Shaky Worm is available in five different colors and sells for $6.75 per seven pack.

 

The Yuki Bug is a creature/craw hybrid bait.



With two craw-like appendages flanking the one large paddle.

  
Yuki Bug: The Yuki Bug is a four and a quarter inch long hybrid creature and craw bait featuring one, large, paddle style appendage flanked by two craw-like appendages and six, stick-like legs. The unique thing about this bait are the ticklers on its underside. The bait's paddle is molded with an air chamber so it will rise when the bait is at rest. The Yuki Bug is available in five different colors and retails for $7.00 per pack of seven.

On the underside, the Yuki Bug has these little ticklers mimicking the underside of a crawfish.

The Shiver Tail is Owner's take on the 4.5" finesse worm.

 

Shiver Tail: The Shiver Tail is a true finesse worm measuring at only four and a half inches. It is designed as a drop shot worm and can be rigged Texas, wacky, or nose hooked on a dropshot rig. The Shiver Tail is available in five different colors and retails for $5.00 per pack of ten.

The Ribeye Swimbait features ridges all around the bait similar to a zipper or ringworm.

 

Ribeye Swimbait: Owner's foray into the popular swimbait market is a five and a half inch long paddletail style bait with a split belly and ribs or rings around the outside. It can be fished with a weighted or unweighted hook (Owner naturally recommends their Beast hook) and is designed to not spin or roll over no matter the speed of your retrieve. The Ribeye Swimbait is available in three colors, Baby Bass, Trout, or Ayu and retails for $7.00 per pack of four.

The Flashy Swimmer is a new hybrid weighted hook/fish head spin type product from Owner.

 

It pairs nicely with the new Ribeye Swimbait.

 

Flashy Swimmer: Keeping on that swimbait theme, we could not complete this preview without mention of a few new hook products from Owner as well. The Flashy Swimmer is a weighted EWG hook with Owner's TwistLOCK bait keeper and a willow leaf blade attached at the bottom. The result is an easy to rig hook with an added bit of flash for fishing plastic worms or paddletail swimbaits. Price for the Flashy Swimmer is $6.00 per pack of two and comes in one eighth, three sixteenths, and quarter ounce sizes.

 

The new TwistLOCK Light finesse worm hook was developed with the help of Gary Yamamoto.

 

It is available in both unweighted and weighted versions.

 

TwistLOCK Light (Weighted & Unweighted): The TwistLOCK Light hook is a finesse worm hook with an integrated bait keeper designed with assistance from Gary Yamamoto. The hooks feature what Owner is referring to as an "Open" gap - not EWG, but a little more open than a straight or offset shank worm hook. The hooks are also available with a non-moveable, 3/32 oz weight (4/0 - 6/0 sizes only). Overall, the non-weighted version is available in sizes from 1/0 to 6/0 and sells for $5.25 to $6.25 per pack of 5 (6/0 = $6.25 per pack of 4) depending on the size. The weighted versions come in packs of 3 for $6.00.
 

Owner joins the Shaky Head craze.

 

The UltraHead Shaky Type features what Owner refers to as an "open" gap hook.


Ultrahead Shaky Type: Completing the rigging for their new Shaky Worms is a new Shaky jighead from Owner. The Ultrahead Shaky Type comes in three finishes (natural, green pumpkin, brown) and is available in five weights ranging between one sixteenth of an ounce on up to one quarter of an ounce. All sizes feature a 4/0 black chrome, needle point hook and TwistLOCK baitkeeper and come in packs of four for between $6.25 - $7.00 per pack depending on the size and finish of the jighead.

 

Not quite as new as the products above, but still relatively fresh are Owner's ST-56 3x strong treble hooks.

 

ST-56 3x Trebles: Pardon the pun, but as previously mentioned, Owner practically owns the big treble hook segment of the market - at least as far as big bait throwers are concerned. The company's ST-41s are a staple on many trophy bass hunters' baits. Just recently introduced are their new ST-56 trebles featuring 3x strength and a corrosion resistant black chrome finish. The hooks are available in small packs of six to eight in four sizes (4, 2, 1, 1/0) or for sizes 4 and 2, in pro-packs of twenty-seven and twenty-four respectively at $25.00.

 

 From left to right, the ST-41, ST-56, ST-66.

 

From left to right, the ST-66, ST-56, ST-41.

 

Is the ST-56 (right) a worthwhile upgrade from the ST-41 (left)? We have a method in mind to find out.

 

Conclusion: Look for all these products and more to be included in our review coverage for 2010, but really, out of all these products above what intrigued us the most was the new ST-56 trebles. Just how stout does a treble hook have to be and how many of you have had a fish straighten out an ST-41 to warrant wanting a heavier hook? Certainly there's even a 4x strong hook from Owner, the ST-66, although that hook is intended more for saltwater than freshwater species.

 

If you know the name of this JDM bait newly outfitted with 1/0 Owner ST-56s, you know where we're going to kick off 2010.

 

Wouldn't it be interesting to battle a species that had the potential to really do some damage to your hooks? Are the ST-56s really all that much different from the ST-41s? What of other competing treble hooks and why is Owner considered the among the very best? Well, we've been busy swapping out hooks on a bunch of new baits with the explicit intent on finding that one treble hook to cover all bases. We know just the testing ground and we will be heading there in just a few short weeks. Any guesses? Stay tuned.

 

 

   

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