New Stuff You Can Use
The Berkley PowerBait Hollow Belly Swimbait
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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Photo: Berkley
The Hollow Belly be a huge factor at next week's Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell on the Savannah River.
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Jay Yelas won the FLW Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) in 2007 in large part because of a 6-inch swimbait, which he threw in situations where he used to use a spinnerbait. He scored a 2nd-place finish at Lake Norman with a Basstrix Paddle Tail, and explained his choice to BassFan this way.
"I tried a dropshot and a shakey-worm some, but I just caught little fish," he said. "Then I tried the 6-inch Basstrix swimbait, rigged Texas-style on a weighted hook with 17-pound Trilene XT line, and I skipped it way up under the docks where the bass were suspended under the floats.
"I used the swimbait in the same application that you'd use a spinnerbait, but you just can't skip those. A swimming jig or a spinnerbait would work (if fished parallel to floating docks), but they responded better to the swimbait.
"I don't think those fish had seen a bait like that, and it generally produces bigger bites than a worm would," he noted.
Thus he put himself in the position of being a Berkley pro throwing somebody else's plastic. But he and Berkley have solved that dilemma.
Enter the Berkley PowerBait Hollow Belly swimbait.
The Specs
The Hollow Belly is a 5-inch, hollow-body, shad-shaped lure with a big, wobbly paddletail. It's made of Berkley's PowerBait plastic, and is available initially in six colors. The oversize paddletail causes the whole bait to "swim" or wobble, and the hollow body allows the bait to collapse when a fish bites to enhance the hookup.
They're packaged in kits that include a size 2 treble hook, size 5 swivel, split ring, 3/32-ounce weighted 6/0 wide-gap hook, and three 5-inch Hollow Belly bodies. That way anglers have the option of rigging for open water or weedless for fishing through cover.
Development
Yelas worked with Berkley lure designer Chris Pitsilos to create the lure. "They've been sending me a box of prototypes once a week for 2 months," Yelas said. "It's a complicated bait. A lot goes into it to get it right. We worked on the design and action at super-slow speed, so you can slow-roll it, but also wanted to be sure it has good action at a fast speed.
"It's better than any other hollow-bodied swimbait out there," he added. "The catalog says we have 5- and 6-inch sizes, but the actual sizes are more like 5 1/2- and 6 1/2-inch. Later we'll have a 4-inch one too. These are sizes that are not out there from other manufacturers. And they're packaged in a clamshell to insure the paddletail doesn't get bent. That's really important to maintain the action. It costs a little more money (in packaging) but it's worth it. And (the kit includes) the hooks, which is cool because the weighted hooks of the right size are sometimes hard to find."
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Photo: FLW Outdoors/Jennifer Simmons
Jay Yelas has said many times that a paddletail swimbait played a major role in his 2007 FLW Tour Angler of the Year title.
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Unlike the low-volume production of the Basstrix bait he used last year, the Berkley Hollow Belly will be mass-produced. "Berkley will be able to fill the pipeline so there won't be any shortage like there was for the Basstrix," he noted.
Here are some additional observations and notes from Yelas:
"Swimbaits are good in fairly clear, shallow water. That usually means early summer and in the fall. But it may work all year in Florida where the lakes are mostly shallow. When bass get deep you'll need a weighted swimbait. "
"It's a visual thing. You need clear water with at least 2 feet of visibility. If they're biting a swimbait, you'd better be throwing one, or you'll get beat by the guys who are throwing them."
"The Hollow Belly is available in six colors now, but eventually we'll have 10. My favorites are the shad colors and the translucent ones like the ayu. My job is to make sure the colors I use are perfect. I was adamant about a few colors. I wanted the right shade of pearl, and on the gizzard shad and Tennessee shad having the right softer pearl on the belly. Just getting the colors nailed down in the manufacturing process was one thing I focused on, so they come out right all the time."
Notable
> Yelas noted that FLW Forrest Wood Cup million-dollar-man Scott Suggs also had some input on the bait. "He spent time at the factory and worked with them at the casting tank," Yelas said. "But since I won FLW AOY using a swimbait so much last year, they relied mostly on my input."
> The Hollow Belly colors are: ayu, blueback herring, gizzard shad, hitch, Tennessee shad, and trout.
> Suggested retail price is $9.99 per kit. The rigging instructions are included.
> Berkley will have plenty of these swimbaits on hand to give out to the pros fishing the Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell this week and next. The company will also have its new series of Gripper Jigs and the unique SinkWorm, a level-weighted worm made of PowerBait plastic.
> All of the jigs, SinkWorms, and Hollow Bellys started shipping to retailers around Feb. 1. The BassFan Store currently has 'em in stock.
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