Welcome to the IMA Emailer — Spring 2010 Issue

The IMA EMAILER brings you news from IMA pro staff members across the USA and worldwide.

Ima spent their winter promoting at various shows around the country!!

For most of us, it couldn’t end soon enough. Much of the country was blanketed by unreasonable amounts of snow and even where the white stuff didn’t fall waves of cold fronts and nasty weather persisted week after week after week.

But if you blinked the last time you put on your foul weather gear, you may have missed the start of the BASS Elite Series season, the traditional signal that spring is on the way. With the two-event California jaunt completed, the regular season is now one-fourth over.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who follows the bass scene that IMA’s Bill Lowen shot out of the gate smoking hot, with a 27th place finish at the California Delta followed by a runner-up finish at Clear Lake. Combined, those two results have him in 4th in the Angler of the Year race, in great position to make a run at the title.

“It’s pretty awesome to start off so high,” said the understated Lowen. “I’m going to keep my head down and fish my strengths.” The self-described “river rat” is looking forward to June’s shallow water slugfest on the Arkansas River in Muskogee, Oklahoma, but before then he’ll have five opportunities to maintain or improve his standing on some of the best bass waters in the country. He’s excited about the opportunities that will bring. At Smith Mountain Lake, which the Elites are hitting a bit earlier this year than they did in 2009, the fish should be pre-spawn, which calls out for an IMA Flit jerkbait. When the tour moves south and the spawn is done, he’s counting on the IMA Skimmer to entice the big sows to bite.

Before we get into the meat of the tour season, it’s necessary to talk about what went on during the long winter. It may have been dreary for some of you at home, but we here at IMA took great pride in the excitement that’s hovering around our company.

This winter was spent building the brands image and baits at various trade shows.

“Our goal for the show season was to expand brand awareness,” said IMA USA’s Matt Paino. In order to achieve that goal, he undertook a coast-to-coast and intercontinental tour of consumer shows to explain and demonstrate what these lures can do. The IMA pro staff came along, too.

“Going to the shows is the best way to get feedback about what anglers think of our baits,” Paino added.

Paino and Randy Pringle showed off the new Big Stik and the Flit 100 at the Northern California ISE shows to great acclaim. Then Paino took off on a tour of the country, including more West Coast ISE Shows, the Fred Hall Shows, the Claremont Shows, the Richmond, Virginia extravaganza, and of course the Bassmaster Classic. In between, IMA Japan was represented at annual trade shows in Osaka and Yokohama, where pro Jun Shoji, one of Japan’s most feared anglers, showed adoring fans how to use these baits in freshwater for the first time.

Fred Roumbanis, whose IMA-wrapped Triton is the company’s rolling billboard, was excited that the economy seems to have picked up.

“I feel like it’s starting to move,” Roumbanis said. “Now instead of guys buying one bait we’re seeing them buy multiples. But what’ll really break it open for IMA is when somebody wins a big tournament on one. Then guys won’t just want to buy them…they’ll have to buy them!”

Like Lowen , Roumbanis believes that the Flit jerkbaits and the IMA Shaker should be deadly as the water remains colder than it’s been in recent springs. But he, like Pringle, can’t wait until it gets to Big Stik season.

“It should happen at Clarks Hill,” he said. “The pencil popper is huge in the Carolinas and Georgia, but I don’t think the fish have seen or heard anything like this. I’ve always had good success there and now it should be even better.”

IMA is proud to announce that our Elite Series pro staff has been bolstered by the addition of Mark Tyler. Mark, you may remember, holds the record for the largest bass ever caught in BASS competition, a 14-pound plus brute from the California Delta, but he’s experienced success all over the country.

“I was introduced to IMA through my relationship with Optimum Baits,” he explained. “I’m a west coast guy. Gradually, Matt (Paino) introduced me to the IMA lineup. He’d give me one here and there and as I began to use them and develop confidence in them, it seemed like a natural fit.”

“The first bait he gave me was the IMA Skimmer,” Tyler continued. “I was going to Oneida to fish for those schooling smallmouths and I was looking for a topwater walking bait with a slimmer profile. That’s typical of several of the IMA baits, not just the Skimmer but the Flit, too. They’re slimmer and more natural, which makes them appealing in clear water situations, at places like Clarks Hill and other topwater venues. I was absolutely blown away by the Flit. It’s different than anything else on the market. It’s so easy to use.”

While he’s a native of the west, Tyler now calls Vian, Oklahoma home, and that means he, like Lowen, is chomping at the bit to get to the Oklahoma River, which sits only 10 minutes from his house. Accordingly, he’s putting in tons of river hours prior to the water going off limits.

“I’m diligently working to try to make the Arkansas River event an advantage,” he said. “There’s no doubt I’m excited about it. I love fishing rivers and it’ll be the first Elite Series event where I’ll be able to sleep in my own bed at night.”

Even three months prior to the tournament, one lure that Tyler is certain he’ll have on his deck at Muskogee is the IMA Shaker. “That river is a square-bill throwing machine,” he said. “I’m really impressed with the action of that lure and the way it deflects off cover. Also, it’s easy to cast. A lot of other flat-sided crankbaits are tough to throw but with the weight transfer system this one is easy.”

While Tyler is looking down the line a bit, he’s also focused on the next event, at Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake. He’s had two of his best Elite Series finishes there, 13th in 2007 and 17th last year. In the meantime, he was coy about whether he and the IMA engineers are working on any signature series lures for the future, but stay tuned — you’ll hear about any developments here first.

In the meantime, if you’re having success with IMA products, tell a friend about them. Our dealer network is expanding rapidly, but if your local shop doesn’t carry them, ask for them by name. And be sure to look out for our stylish IMA apparel, also available wherever high-end tackle is sold.

BE SURE TO BECOME AN IMA LURES FRIEND ON THEIR NEW FACEBOOK PAGE!

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Welcome to the IMA Emailer — August 2009 Issue – The IMA EMAILER brings you news from IMA pro staff members across the USA and worldwide. For more on these lures, www.imalures.com

Is it hot where you live? If it’s not, please, please tell us where you reside so we can travel there.

Whether you live in Florida, California, Alabama or Minnesota, hot weather is the norm this time of year. A few weeks ago the IMA Elite Series pros traveled to Lake Oneida in upstate New York and encountered 90-plus temperatures every day. South Carolina pro-staffer Michael Murphy went to Dardanelle in Arkansas and sweated non-stop for his entire stay. This week he’s at Clarks Hill closer to home and it’s more of the same.

While you’re sweating, so are the bass. Well, not literally — they live in water, after all — but the summer heat affects them the same way it does you. They can’t go sit in the shade with a tall glass of sweet tea or lemonade, but they still want to take it easy nonetheless.

Fortunately for us, fish still have to feed in the summer, even during the hottest periods. Just as a hot bowl of soup might not tempt you right now, their taste buds are fickle. With that in mind, we went to some of the IMA pros to learn what they’re doing to turn the summer doldrums into big catches.

Ohio’s Bill Lowen may be the ultimate shallow water fanatic. If his trolling motor isn’t kicking up mud, he’s not happy. So when he hits the major impoundments and the mercury is nearing triple digits, you probably won’t find him sitting on a hump or ledge unless he absolutely has to do it.

“This time of year I like to go up the rivers,” he said. “Those fish are current-oriented and I target laydowns and log jams.”

He’s not particular about which wood he fishes. It’s all golden to him as long as it’s close to deep water, which in this case can mean as little as a few inches at the base of the logs and 4 or 5 feet at the end of the portion that extends furthest. But he is particular about the lures that he uses, and in many instances his number one tool is an IMA Shaker crankbait.

“Being from Ohio, I grew up fishing all the handmade balsas and this is pretty much identical,” he said. “You want to deflect it off any cover you can find.” Sometimes a worm or a jig won’t trigger the strikes and a spinnerbait isn’t as natural, so the Shaker gets the job done.

“When it’s 90 degrees the baitfish are still up there, so I go with a shad pattern,” he continued. “It’s more natural so you get a better reaction.”

While cranking often involves light line to maximize diving depths, that’s not a concern in this case, so Lowen gets rid of his 10 or 12 pound line and spools up with 15 or 17 pound well rope. “I’m not concerned with getting it on the bottom,” he said. “And once they’re buttoned, you can get them out of the nasty stuff real fast.” You may end up surprised at how shallow some of the biggest fish in the lake can live.

With his background in fisheries biology, Michael Murphy can explain how depleted summer oxygen levels slow down the metabolism of the bass, but it’s enough to know that they, like you, just want things a little cooler. Often, on lakes throughout the mid-south, that forces them down about 10 feet.

But just because you have them pegged doesn’t mean they’re catchable. Those suspended fish are some of the toughest of the year to catch. Murphy found that to be the case at Dardanelle earlier this month, where he figured out a little something and sacked a monstrous (for that event) 11 pound limit on the third day to vault into the money.

“It was super-tough and the fish were suspending,” he recalled. “That happens a lot this time of year. They sometimes get to suspending out on deep points or in the guts of coves.” The key then, he added, is to find the shad. They too are growing quickly so they can’t hide in the shallows any more. They bunch up and the fish keep tabs on them.

Murphy uses two IMA baits to keep tabs on them himself. The first is the Rock N Vibe lipless crankbait. He uses it to cover a lot of water and trigger reaction strikes. “Despite what people may thing, that tight wobble is not just for spring,” he said. “It’s good any time their metabolism is low.”

His second tool is the IMA Skimmer topwater bait. After all, what could be better for the Dog Days than a lure that makes it easier to “walk the dog” than anything that comes before it. It too is a great fish locator, but it particularly excels when fish are breaking the surface during their brief spasms of activity. The Skimmer casts a country mile and nothing on the market today resembles an injured shad more closely.

With both lures Murphy favors patterns that resemble baitfish and have “as much flash as possible.” He typically throws them on a 7 foot medium-heavy baitcasting rod and 12 lb. Big Game monofilament. “I keep it simple,” he said.

As the mercury near his home rarely dips below 80 this time of year, with 90s more the norm, Captain Karl Bunch has stayed busy with the red hot bassing of the Upper Chesapeake Bay. The bay’s grasses are thick, lush and green this time of year, and like most anglers Capt. Karl spends plenty of time frogging with his favorite Optimum Furbit and punching the mats with big weights and small soft plastics. But he said that anyone who puts his hard baits away right now is committing fishing suicide.

“We released the Rattlin’ Roumba at the perfect time,” he said. Has his brain gotten a little baked in the hot Maryland sun? Hardly. He’s probing the outer grass edges on the Upper Bay and its tributaries with the hottest wake bait on the market.

“I’m looking for eelgrass mixed with hydrilla and milfoil,” he continued. “It’s like a nice umbrella for the bass to cool down under. You want to run that bait down the edges as close to the grass without getting caught in it. That outside edge is closer to deep water and on a lower tide that’s where they’re more comfortable.”

The results have been nothing less than remarkable. As others have complained about tough fishing, Capt. Karl and his clients have caught, photographed and released a parade of 4-, 5- and 6-pounders.

He retrieves the lure on the surface, “just fast enough to make a nice steady wake.” How does he know when it’s time to go to this presentation? Typically it’s when he starts getting a lot of short strikes on the frog. “They have the heart but they don’t have the energy,” he said.

When it’s comparatively clear, he’ll start with Blue Shad, but if there’s a bit of run-off he can’t wait to throw out his special “Double Cheeseburger,” which resembles a bluegill or yellow perch. “That produces by far the most and biggest fish,” he said. When he wants to create even more ruckus, he’ll add a hitchhiker and a Double Diamond swimbait to the rear hook hanger.

On days when you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, when just a trip to the mailbox requires two Gatorades, it’s easy to stay inside in the air-conditioned comfort of home. But just because you and the fish are lethargic doesn’t mean that you can’t fool them into biting. Pack up some cold drinks, a lot of sunscreen and some key IMA baits and head to the water — there will be time for comfort, and fish stories, later on.
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