BY MIKE STEVENS
SAN CLEMENTE – Tournament bass anglers have been leaning on Berkley products for decades, and the innovation coming out of the Berkley Mothership in Spirit Lake, Iowa, has never slowed down. Berkley products including but not limited to stuff from the PowerBait and Max Scent line get a ton of run in the in Lake Mead, Mohave, Havasu the Colorado River and all over the West, and these four have been emerging of late as top Berkley baits for western bass anglers.
Drop a Dime
The Berkley Dime hits that sweet spot between shallow-running squarebills and deep diving stuff. It runs between 4 to 6 feet deep where a bass angler might otherwise reach for a chatterbait, blade or swimbait. The ability to run a tight-wobbling crank in that same zone just adds another tactical layer, and in many cases, it can draw strikes from lethargic bass when nothing else will. The Dime features the action of balsa and the durability of plastic, a weight-transfer system for longer casts and a subtle “knock” on the retrieve, and Berkley’s “sticky sharp” Fusion 19 treble hooks.
Check the Drip
The Berkley PowerBait Drip Swimmer is a finesse swimbait that sports arguably the most realistic baitfish patterns Berkley has ever come out with. The “micro boot tail” is significantly narrower than the rest of the bait which allows it to create action at the slowest retrieves, or even when dead-sticked on a drop-shot rig. It can also be worked on a jighead, strolled, or used as a trailer for jigs and bladed baits, and it’s available in three sizes for matching the hatch. FFS guys quickly fell in love with this one.
Ah Crud
How many bait manufacturers do you think exist that have their own lab staffed with scientists who are constantly looking for new ways for anglers to catch more fish with their products? Berkley does, and if anyone else does they sure aren’t very loud about it. On the PowerBait side of things, the Berkley brain trust spends a lot of time on scent and how specific fish react to it. That’s where the PowerBait MaxScent Crud Craw was born, and bass anglers have been taking advantage of the ramped up scent dispersal the bait flaunts by deploying scent from every pore on the body of the bait. Fish also hold on to the bait for the same reason resulting in more hook sets, and the larger profile with large, high-action claws creates a stunning visual underwater.
Max Flat
All that MaxScent magic is also built into Berkley’s PowerBait MaxScent Flat Worms which are absolute bass crushers on drop-shot rigs. They’re great to lean on when searching for biters or compiling the first five keepers on clear, pressured Western lakes, and they can legitimately be put in play on a year-round basis. The Flat Worm has a slender profile and a thin tail that combines for a unique action, and it noses down on the sink adding another level of natural action. The PowerBait MaxScent Flat Worm is also popular with FFS users and BFS adopters, and it’s also well known as a skunk buster.
