Best Sellers of 2020: LIVETARGET award-winners fulfill their promise
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When LIVETARGET introduced the Slow-Roll Shiner (below) at the 2019 ICAST show it believed it was onto something big.
And the Canadian company wasn’t wrong. Three days later the soft plastic paddletail swimbait had won a New Product Showcase award – and as 2020 draws to a close it has emerged as the company’s best-selling bait of the year. Company founder Grant Koppers credits the lure’s success in large part to ICT, or Injected Core Technology. “ICT has helped us make the most realistic bait of its kind on the market,” he says.
“For years, soft plastic lure manufacturers have struggled to create baits that are realistic in profile while also maintaining the desired action. ICT is a specialised injection process that we developed to merge realism and function like never before. The life-like Inner-Core is constructed with realistic forage profiles and vibrant colours. The core is then encapsulated in a clear, durable Exo-Skin, which generates the signature action.”
Part of the bait’s success is attributed to it versatility. Anglers are able to target fish from top to bottom of the water column, depending on how they rig it. It can also be fished year-round in both fresh and saltwater.
Other big sellers for LIVETARGET this year include the BaitBall Spinner Rig (wire frame) and the Hollow Body Frog (topwater). The BaitBall (main image) incorporates soft plastic ‘teaser’ fish on three arms, a single spinner blade for flash in the centre and a ‘target’ fish armed with a black nickel hook. Think spinnerbait, yet better. Think Alabama Rig, but refined and castable. “What makes it so successful is that we have taken the bite triggering characteristics from many anglers’ favourite lures and incorporated them into a single design,” explains Koppers.
An interchange system allows the speedy change of colour combinations for changing water and light conditions. The Hollow Body Frog (right) has been a staple in the LIVETARGET line-up since it won at ICAST in 2010. Engineered to catch big fish, its weedless design makes it ideal for thick brush and heavy cover. The frog’s soft body collapses on the strike and the double hooks deliver a high hook-up ratio.
