Been doing some tackle ho'ing lately, thought I'd give some updates

River2Sea Dahlberg Clackin Crawfish: Bought it, got it, made 5 casts with it, cut it off and figured I'd revisit next year in spring. This bait LOOKS great. The paint job aspect, the realism, etc.

Fishability is a factor here though. To make this lure look remotely good you have to fish it super slow. It sinks slowly, your boat drifts off to the side in the wind, you're still waiting for it to hit the bottom, your mind wanders and you start thinking you could be using something else more effective.

I think they made this bait too big as well. Bass don't like to go after adult crawdads this size IMO. They like the delicious 3 inch models, or the larger sized craws that are molting and defenseless. This bait is like the 5" mad-man craw. The 4" mad-man was a great lure. The 5" was really hard to get bit on except in your Feb/March time frame.

Could be a good bed fishing lure.

Biffle Hard Head: Bought a pile of these, then bought some more. They have a good hook and the heads are quality. These are going to get copied like crazy I have a feeling. They're kind of pricey for a leadhead. OK, they're real expensive. But whatever. This is a totally fishable rig that is going to catch tons of fish.

Will it be the next chatterbait, I don't know. It's not as versatile (for example weed bed fishing is not going to be the funnest with this). But If you're on a mix of rock/sand bank or fishing around rocks that aren't too snaggy, this is going to be a good lure. I recommend.

Rago 7" Live Trout Softbait - single joint: Just bought it. Quality looks good. The new head design looks good structurally. The pour was very clean and the lure was straight in the clamshell. Haven't cast it yet but I like it by the looks of it.

Only gripe with the new head design is that when the sun shines through it, it gives the head portion of the bait a different look than the tail. I've never been a fan of swimbaits that change color abruptly along the length of the bait. It's a color scheme you would never see in nature. The only bait like that that has ever been good for me during the day is the castaic softbait trout, but the tail section on that lure is a solid color so it matches the head reasonably.

No matter, I think this lure will catch fish and I'm excited to try it more.

Rago SKT Swimmer: Picked up two of these. One had a kinked tail, the other was nice and clean. Baits like this need to cure before being packaged and I think this one could have waited longer. JMO.

The colors are nice and the lures swim good. This bait is a very catchy size. Translation - catching a lot of 2 to 4 pounders without missing too many is very possible. I can see how this lure has been winning a lot of tournament $.

Koppers Live Target Frog hasn't come yet, still waiting.

Next month I'm going to clear lake for 6 days to fish tournaments, woo hoo. Now I just can't wait for my spec. order of 10" triple trout to come. Wait until you see this color I'm having done :)

Saw these just showed up. http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Paycheck_Transporter_Frog/descpage-PCTF.html#multiview

The colors look good and the names are catchy too.

That clackin' crawfish seems interesting. Hopefully it's successful enough to see different versions come out.

Gotta hand it to Bub on the Paycheck baits stuff he's been coming out with. A lot of interesting designs, good colors, and little detail items on the lures. Getting the Vixen mold for the Repo man was a great move as well.

I was going to buy some of those but... they're all sold out already. This is the one I want, it just looks cool.

http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/new_product/PCTF-SG-1.jpg