Tackle giant puts new baits in hands of anglers months ahead of ICAST show
BY MIKE STEVENS
HOUSTON— Berkley Labs Science Symposium was held late last week at NASA Space Center in Houston, Texas as Berkley Fishing took the lead on engineering new baits geared specifically for forward-facing sonar (FFS) fishing which has become a legit game-changer among competitive bass anglers. These “FFS Optimized” baits are designed to stay in the strike zone longer than anything on the market and show up clearly on this style of electronics.
The three baits introduced to the group of 20 or so members of the outdoor media (including Western Outdoor News) included the Berkley Krej (“jerk” backwards), Finisher, and Power Switch. Each give the angler a wide range of options covering all depths, seasons and situations that can be adjusted on the fly while watching how fish are reacting to the baits in real time on front-facing sonar.
Typically, tackle companies unveil new products at the ICAST Show held every July in Orlando, and even then most of those products are still months away from hitting the market. In this very unique event, Berkley got the jump on the competition by simultaneously debuting their new baits to members of the outdoor media and releasing them to the public.
The specifics of each of the three baits can be found at Berkley-Fishing.com, and some great underwater videos of the lures in action are available at instagram.com/BerkleyFishing.
Stay tuned for a deeper dive on the new Berkley Krej, Finisher and Power Switch in future issues of WON.