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Product Review |
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Week of November 16, 2009 |
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Optimum Baits |
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Click on Images to enlarge
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Optimum 7” Double Diamond Swimbait Same Great Action as Before, Just in a Bigger Package
Optimum has
introduced 7" Double Diamond Swimmer along
Your success with the 7" Double Diamond will be attributed to the lure’s distinct vibration. It has a tremendous tail-kicking action that sets it apart from the competition, using an 11/0 hook in it. You can use either a weighted or an un-weighted hook and it will still swim right and track true at any speed and still have the great body roll.
While the larger Double Diamond may look like its baby brothers on steroids and maintains much of the originals’ signature action, its creation wasn’t just a matter of increasing the mold size proportionately. This lure can be rigged weedless, on a jighead or with an exposed hook, as conditions dictate. That vibration is just incredible.
The new 7" Double Diamond comes in 30 colors, including the new Ghost Shad. Available at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Tackle Warehouse and other retailers and online tackle shops.
About $6.99 per twin pack
951-676-6384 info@optimumbaits.com
The Baby is all grown up
Optimum Bait
Company earlier released the Baby Line Thru
The Line Thru series of lures responds directly to a problem that plagued many swimbait anglers for years, namely how to keep fish that strike these internally-weighted lures hooked throughout the fight to the livewell. The lure has a sleeve that allows you to pass your line through and tie it directly to a laser sharp treble hook. Then you embed the hook in the bait. When the fish strikes, it usually pulls away from the plastic so you’re fighting the fish directly without tearing up the soft plastic. Not only does that mean more fish landed, but it also means that your bait will last a long time, even around toothy critters.
While the larger Line Thru may look like a BLT on steroids and maintains much of the original’s signature action, its creation wasn’t just a matter of increasing the mold size proportionately. This bait looks like its predecessor from a distance, but upon further examination it is evident that it is in many ways a totally new lure.
You can swim it at just about any speed and it’ll still run true. While a moderate to fast retrieve is ideal, even at the slowest speeds the Line Thru series baits pulsate like a frantic baitfish. This one, even at the slowest speeds you can still feel that big head shake.
Optimum released this larger Line Thru in all its regular colors, including sexy chartreuse. Available at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Tackle Warehouse and other retailers and online tackle shops.
About $10.99
951-676-6384 info@optimumbaits.com
Small Package, Big Bites
When Ima
Lures introduced the Flit 120 jerkbait two years ago,
Ima listened and now they introduce the Baby Flit 100. This lure will outfish any small jerkbait on the market. Furthermore, it fills a specific need. Sometimes fish just want a snack, not a meal, and when you’re around big fish, particularly in grass, sometimes a bait that dives 7 or 8' like the original Flit is just a little too deep. This one will go down to 4 feet, which is perfect.”
While jerkbaits are traditionally thought of as an early spring, pre-spawn lure, have one or both versions of the Flit on the deck of your boat every day you spend on the water. Fish suspend year-round. When they’re in that neutral mood, for whatever reason, a jerkbait is better than just about anything and this is the best of the best. It’s also the ultimate for catching schooling fish, whether that be around a herring spawn, a shad spawn or late in the year when the baitfish gang up.
The Baby Flit will feature the same quality components as its bigger brother and is available in 8 lifelike color patterns. This lure should fill a need for anglers from coast to coast, no matter where they fish. It’s a deadly bait for numbers of bass. Available at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Tackle Warehouse and other retailers and online tackle shops.
About $16.99
951-676-6384 info@optimumbaits.com
Leads to Heart-Stopping Strikes
TEMECULA,
California – There’s no more exciting way to catch
The Big Stik has thru-wire construction, heavier split rings and quality hooks, just like every Ima lure. It will stand up to any big fish. It’ll be deadly in the bass market , in the saltwater market, and the muskie and pike guys up north are going to be thrilled. The lure’s dual sound chambers allow it to be popped subtly or worked faster to make it the loudest plug you’ve ever heard. It’ll spit like a magnum popper, walk like the hardest-sashaying walking bait, and anglers needn’t be experts to make it do its thing.
The Big Stik is available in 9 fish-catching colors tailored to specific situations. For the freshwater angler, there will be trout colors for the California lunker hunters, shad and herring colors that’ll be deadly in places like the Carolinas, where the blueback herring spawn is a way of life.
There will also be a color that Pringle designed specifically for peacock bass and the saltwater aficionados will have mackerel and sardine imitators at their disposal. Available at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Tackle Warehouse and other retailers and online tackle shops.
About $21.99
951-676-6384 info@optimumbaits.com
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Ima Roumba, a
wide-wobbling lure now comes with rattles.
The rattling version is your go-to lure when the water is dirty, but in many instances try it in other applications. Have both models ready to go. The original version but this one will be great in dirtier water, especially around grass.
The lure’s most notable characteristic, the one that distinguishes it from the competition, is its ultra-wide wobble. It comes through water willow and lay down logs with ease. It comes through grass, pads and wood clean every time. While heavy cover is where it shines, you should also uses it next to docks, on bluff banks and even in open water.
The Ima Roumba Rattler is now available in 6 new colors. Available at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Tackle Warehouse and other retailers and online tackle shops.
About $16.99
951-676-6384 info@optimumbaits.com
This bait really shakes it up! It’s designed for early spring and late fall when water temps are 50-65 degrees and runs 3 to 5' deep. The Ima Shaker works best when shad are on the move in the shallows. With a medium speed retrieve the bait will produce a wide wobbling action starting in the head of the bait and working its way through the entire bait.
The Ima Shaker features a weight transfer system allowing the bait to travel up to distances of 60 ft on the cast. Coupled with greater accuracy this bait is no match for its counterpart, the balsa bait. Best results are in the back of the creeks and up in the rivers thrown around wood, stumps and rocks.
This is a great bait for getting reaction strikes when nothing else seems to be working. Use it on a medium to medium-light crank bait rod with a 5:1 or 6:1 gear ratio reel, whichever you prefer and use it on 8 - 12 lb line, and watch it fill your live well up. Available at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Tackle Warehouse and other retailers and online tackle shops.
Specifications: Weight: 3/8 oz
Length: 70mm
2.75"
Classification: Shallow Crankbait Profile: Flat sided, Thin Lip Hook: Owner ST-36#6 (2 Hooks) Color Ring: 12 Colors
About $16.00
951-676-6384 info@optimumbaits.com
Stirs up a Surface Feeding Frenzy The Ima Skimmer is unique among hard plastic topwater stickbaits in that only the Ima Skimmer has the slender body shape of a 5″ soft plastic stickbait. This slender profile and silhouette has proven to be one of the most appealing bass lure shapes ever.
A large part of the Skimmer’s action is caused on the ending movement of each zig or zag as the tail-weighted back end of the Ima Skimmer stirs the water wildly causing a large boil. So every time that the Skimmer zigs or zags left or right, the final movement of the weighted tail stirs the surface into a large boil, and the Skimmer slips out barely ahead of the boil, just like a desperate baitfish narrowly escaping a bass’s lunge.
The Skimmer’s action then becomes a non-stop series of ever-widening boils emanating behind it. It’s like having a school of surface-feeding bass on the scene, all boiling the surface behind the Ima Skimmer’s tail. If there’s ever anything that gets a non-committal bass to bite, it is other bass feeding in front of it - and that’s the competitive feeding cue that the Skimmer’s tail-stirring movement sends out to all bass within range of sensing the surface-feeding boils trailing out behind the Skimmer.
Available at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Tackle Warehouse and other retailers and online tackle shops.
Specifications:
Length:
110mm, 4.5"
Weight: 10g, 3/8 oz Top Water Hooks: Owner ST-36 #6 9 Colors
About $19.99
951-676-6384 info@optimumbaits.com
Titan swimbaits feature a wider body profile enabling a front to back body roll and the capability of a faster retrieve speed. Titan kept the same trademarked Optimum knob tail so it properly displaces water and emitting the particular vibration as it swims through the water column.
The 5" and 6" Titan is designed with an Eagle Claw weedless wireguard so these swimbaits can be fished in the thickest of cover without the fear of getting hung up! The Tiny Titan may look small in appearance but the tight vibrating tail kick is equivalent to its bigger brothers.
The Tiny Titan comes equipped with a 2/0 Gamakatsu hook that features a wire brush guard enabling the bait to be thrown into thicker cover. The down sized Titan is ideal when working around docks and tight structure and when the baitfish is in its earliest stages.
Available at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Tackle Warehouse and other retailers and online tackle shops.
Specifications: Length: 3”, 5″, 6″,
Weight: ½, 1,
2¾ oz
Depth: Mid water - Bottom Action: Wobbling & Kicking Hook: 2/0 Gamakatsu Hook: 5″ -3/0, 6″ -5/0 Eagle Claw Colors: 25 standard colors
About $9.90 – 23.00
951-676-6384 info@optimumbaits.com
Established in 1996, Optimum Baits, located in Temecula, California, is one of the originals in the swimbait business. They're still one of the best today for both fresh and saltwater swimbaits. Optimum swimbaits are known and used worldwide for trophy fish of every species.
You can look at many other swimbait brands and you'll spot familiar design features whereby you may say that the swimbait body style as defined by Optimum is the forerunner or granddaddy of many other models on the market today. It's nice to have a place in swimbait history, a lasting legacy like that, and still continue to be an industry leader for so many years. |
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