When Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits decided to enter the creature-bait market, the artificial lure manufacturer really put the Kreature into it in 2004.
About three years ago, the company’s design gurus — who have set standards in the soft-plastic market with many of their creations — responded to pleas from bass tournament pros and customers for the Page, Ariz., firm to come up with a creature bait.
Zoom’s Brush Hogs popularized the concept about six years ago, admitted GYCB advertising director Russell Comeau, who has been with the company four years after moving to Arizona from New York.
The people who gave you the Senko and Hula Grub have added another weapon for bass fishermen to use from coast to coast and Canada to the South. It looks and feels like a cross between a solid tube jig with a jig skirt and a traditional creature bait, if there is such a thing.
It has two flappers, two swimming legs and 24 tail tentacles that are made of a more buoyant soft plastic so that they float higher than the rest of the bait.
For sure, it has hit the ground running since it was showcased at the International Convention of Allied Sportsfishing Tackle (ICAST) event in July in Las Vegas. It enjoyed an impressive debut as it sold out within two days, Comeau said.
The Kreature shared center stage at the last Bassmaster Classic because the winner said he alternately used a green pumpkin Kreature and a Brush Hog on a Carolina rig, as well as a Jake’s Flippin’ Jig the first 2 1/2 days of the Classic. Then Takahiro Omori switched to a crankbait to seal the deal on the last day on Lake Wylie near Charlotte, N.C.
The Kreature weighs about 1/2-ounce, Comeaux said, and can be Texas rigged, Carolina rigged, flipped, pitched, drop baited, buzzed weightless, bulged weightless and swum to trigger bites from bass that haven’t ever seen such a Kreature. And it’s very hard to beat as a jig trailer, he said from experience.
The Kreature has been very effective in the late summer in the Atchafalaya Basin, where the watermelon-based color variations were big hits among bass and some bass anglers like myself who Texas-rigged them successfully west of the Atchafalaya River. They have a good feel to them, and that apparently means a lot to the bass.
Two of my favorite colors have been watermelon/red and green, and watermelon/black and red.
The Kreature’s body was one of the most difficult parts to come up with, Comeau said. It was thicker, to start with, but then streamlined for a better hookset.
“And we tried a couple of different body lengths, a little shorter, a littler longer,” he said.
The body that stuck is approximately 2 1/2 inches long. The tentacles are 1 1/2 inches long to give the whole Kreature a length of 4 inches.
The “grub legs” and flappers also went through the paces during the design, he said. “Grub legs” were modified repeatedly, he said, in the cut research mold in January.
“It took a lot of time … a lot of expertise .. a lot of testing. It turned out good,” Comeau said.
There’s a good reason it took so long for GYCB’s Kreature to hit the market, he said.
“There’s a saying by one of the wine companies that says ‘no wine before its time.’ The same thing for Yamamoto — by the time it gets on the market, it’s the best we can make it. We will not release one bait before it’s as good as we can make it. A lot of research and development, a lot of time went into it. We’re pretty proud of it,” Comeau said.
In March, Comeau and others who came up with the shape “were pretty happy with it,” so anglers fished with it in California tournaments that spring at Clear Lake and on the California Delta (BASS and FLW). The Kreature started proving itself then as pros cashed in with it.
A feature that Comeau likes about it is that it can be fished backward or forward and with or without a weight. And, he pointed out, there is movement, either from the grub legs or flappers, or the tentacles, when it is falling or coming up.
For more information on the Kreature or Yamamoto’s other Custom Baits, contact www.yamamoto.baits.com or write to Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits, P.O. Box 1000, Page, AZ 86040.