A trip to Cote Blanche bay this time of year will have you telling stories over and over again.
A different look and a different feel are the selling points of a new crankbait on the market.
The Yo-Zuri Live Bait Crank came from Japan to the U.S., where the very first models were tested and tweaked by Dave Bertolozzi with Yo-Zuri America Inc. and others up in the Northeast.
They asked for a little more weight, and other modifications, and subsequently the finished product gave them what they wanted — a soft, durable body and unique swimming action.
The crankbaits feel alive to the touch and even have a distinctively different entry when they land on the water, according to Bertolozzi.
Oklahoman Jeff Reynolds, who has qualified for this year’s Bassmasters Classic, is one of the pros throwing the new Yo-Zuris, which have been on the market for about five months.
“It’s a good crank bait. It’s something a little bit different,” Reynolds said recently.
As of the last week of April, it really hadn’t been crankbait time big time on any of the waters he had fished, Reynolds said.
“I haven’t been able to throw it a whole lot,” he admitted, “but when I have thrown it I like it a lot. It’s got a lot of action. It resembles a baitfish real well. That’s probably the biggest thing about it.”
Reynolds, a 31-year-old pro bass angler from Platter, Okla., said he fished it a while at Smith Lake in Alabama on the CITGO Bassmaster Tournament in April, where he finished 20th with 19.10 pounds. He caught four or five fish then on the Live Bait Crank, he said, but the keepers he was after at that time of year were really deep.
He sincerely believes it’s an up-and-coming artificial lure. It’s going to get a reputation as a consistent producer, particularly in the shallow waters of Louisiana, he said a few minutes after prefishing for an FLW event on Lake Texoma in southern Oklahoma.
“Yeah, it definitely is,” he said. “Like any new bait, it takes a while for people to get to see it. People are just going to have to throw it after they hear about it. Once they throw it, they’ll keep throwing it.”
And Reynolds said he does plan to tie it on and use it during the Bassmasters Classic this summer up in Pennsylvania. Quite a bit, in fact, he said.
But he was skeptical at first when he got some of the prototypes. Then he got the tweaked version.
“To be honest with you, I didn’t understand the benefit of it. But these baits are soft. Usually, when a fish bites a crankbait, it’ll know right away it isn’t real,” he said.
But there’s a big difference in the soft, pliable body of the Live Bait Crank. A bass finds it hard to get leverage against it as it bends with the weight and movement of the fish, according to Bertolozzi.
“I haven’t lost a fish on it yet,” he said.
Whatever the body’s makeup is, it’s a secret.
“None of the others have this material. They (Yo-Zuri) won’t even tell us,” he said.
The material is practically indestructible, and won’t break or crack, Bertolozzi said. That might help explain the suggested retail price of $8.95.
“They’re harder to beat up. They might last for years, unless you lose them in the stumps,” he said.
At a fishing tackle show recently, he said, he and other Yo-Zuri staffers took the Live Bait Cranks out into the hallways and let people step on them. One man, who weighed about 350 pounds and was wearing cowboy boots, didn’t see one of the crankbaits and stepped on its head. The bait stayed intact, Bertolozzi said.
Through-wire construction allows for hook-setting power, he said.
The Live Bait Crank 1 is a medium diver that weighs 1/4 ounce and is 2 1/8 inches long. The Live Bait Crank 2 is a shallow diver that weighs 1/4 ounce and is 2 3/8 inches long.
What sells the crankbait for Reynolds is the paint job, he said.
“Probably the biggest deal it’s got going is the colors. You can look at the colors and see the difference,” Reynolds said.
Color combinations include RC (Red Craw), SBS (Silver Blue Splatter), BDSH (Blood Shad), HT (Hot Tiger), SWM (Pearl Shad) and TSH (Tenn Shad).
For more information on the Live Bait Cranks and other Live Bait artificial lures by Yo-Zuri call 1-888-336-9775 or visit the website www.yo-zuri-com.
