C'est bonne, Monsieur Sebile! Patrick Sebile, owner of Sebile Innovative Lures, captured another New Product Showcase win at ASA's Chairman's Industry Awards reception Wednesday evening for his Soft Weight System in the Terminal Tackle category. Sebile has taken home awards from the competition, sponsored by Fishing Tackle Retailer magazine, for three consecutive years. So what's next from the French angler who has over 600 world records and 220 lure prototypes to his personal credit? "I'm finally ready to refine the first lure concept I had when I was nine years old," said Sebile. "It's a combination of weight and soft plastic. You fish it vertically." Sebile expects to launch the bait in 2011 or 2012.
Superstar bass angler Mike Iaconelli used ICAST 2010 as an opportunity to renew his vows to wife Becky, whom he met four years ago to this date in Las Vegas. "You can never expect to meet the right woman on the road, especially in a place like Vegas," mused Mike. "But we had an instant connection." As fate would have it, Becky lived in Washington, D.C., the site of his very next Elite Series event on the Potomac River two weeks after their meeting. They kept in touch and dated in D.C. "And the rest is history," said Iaconelli. Some of his Elite Series contemporaries blame Becky for the loss of Mellow Mike's "Bad Boy" image.
Ron Giudice enticed BASS Times Editor Dave Precht to the Pure Fishing booth. The object? To execute a backlash on the new Shakespeare EZ Cast reel. The three-bearing reel is a "trainer" baitcasting reel that automatically engages a brake system on casts that would generally evoke a birds nest and a string of profanities. Despite Dave's boast that he could backlash any reel, the EZ Cast (suggested retail price $40) performed according to the company's claim.
Hot item… or maybe lukewarm. Tom Howell of Team Marine USA reports that the phone is ringing off the hook with orders for Team Marine's cleaner/lubricant. The product's name? Frog Pee.
Speaking of pee… It seems Chris Leonard left no detail unaddressed in his design of the Frabill FXE ("For Extreme Elements") Stormsuit. Leonard estimates that 50 pros tested his prototypes of the FXE, providing feedback and design input that led to such features as a vented, four-way adjustable hood and a unique waist cinch mechanism borrowed from frame packs. However, his most innovative feature by far is "the Spillway," a three-layer foldout fabric "pipeline," so to speak, for, well, you know, without having to open the rest of the rainsuit in a storm. The flexible pipeline folds back, too, like a dry bag. "Most guys are okay with sharing rainsuits," says Leonard. "But with this one, it's kind of 'You wear it, you own it!"
Fire the Torpedoes! The Echo Tracking Bait from Hunchun Datong Import & Export Trade Co. features a waterproof microvibrator inserted into the product. The angler can change the frequency of the device, which resembles a torpedo in shape, "to adjust the vibration frequency to the padding frequency of different true live baits." The fish uses its "echo locator capability" to home in on the bait. Then, BAM!
