ICAST 2011 | Ima Goes Deep with Cranks
Posted by Jason Sealock on Fri, Jul 15, 2011 @ 11:38 AM
Ima introduced two new baits, the Beast Hunter deep diving crankbait and the Foxy Fry, more finesse but deep crankbait or jerkbait hybrid. Both baits look very well made with highest quality components but the thought process behind the designs was really impressive.
The Beast Hunter was designed by legendary Japanese pro Jun Shoji. He guides on Lake Biwa and has a great test ground there to get baits exactly right. There are a lot of unique aspects that went into the bait. First the plastic is 2mm thick which is extremely thick for a plastic bait. The reason for this is they wanted the weight in the bait to have a narrower channel so the crankbait wouldn't roll and helicopter on long casts because the weight was moving around in such a wide cavity.
The angle of the lip was studied for a long time to make it dive at the right angle that would allow it to get down but not get bogged up in grass. If you make the dive angle to steep on a crankbait, it will get down and under the grass and the bait will hang a lot more. But with the Beast Hunter the bait comes in at a more gradual angle and Shoji told us that if you just slight raise the rod up quickly, the bait will free itself easily from grass when you feel it which triggers a lot of strikes for him.
The Beast Hunter will come in 6 colors, 2.64 inches and weighs 3/4 ounce.
The Foxy Fry is a finesse crankbait with more of a shad or minnow profile. The bait is designed to be twiched or burned at high speeds and still offer great action in both techniques. It's a deep diving crankbait that can be thrown on light line or it can be fished like a deep jerkbait.
The Foxy Fry comes in 5 colors, 2.36 inches long, and weighs 3/16 ounce.