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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Welcome to the IMA Emailer — July 2009 Issue – The IMA EMAILER brings you news from IMA pro staff members across the USA and worldwide.

Springtime is when visions of monster bass dance in the minds of bass anglers from coast-to-coast. That’s when the season is kicking off and hope springs eternal. By summer, we’re all still fishing hard, but some of the novelty has worn off as you get into that once, twice or three times a week fishing routine.

But for the tackle industry, July is in many ways the start of the New Year. That’s when the American Sportfishing Association holds its annual ICAST show. This year, for the first time in many years it won’t be in Las Vegas. Instead, the IMA crew will trek to Orlando, Florida to show off not only our existing product line, but also three tweaked or altogether new products that we expect will quickly find themselves into the boats and tackle boxes of serious anglers everywhere.

ICAST isn’t open to the public — only manufacturers, retailers, media and other industry-related folks can enter the show — and nothing is for sale on a retail basis, but rather than make you wait until the press gets hold of our newest creations, we’ve decided to give you, our loyal readers, a sneak peak.

IMA has three new lures that will make their international debuts at ICAST. Two of them are modifications of our past successes. The third is a category-defying big fish magnet that will be the “must have” purchase for any topwater aficionado.

Rattling Roumba

Bassmaster Elite Series phenom Fred Roumbanis told us that if one killer wake bait was good, a second one would make our lineup unmatched by anyone else in the fishing world, so we’ve developed a rattling version of our highly-regarded Roumba. Fred says this slightly louder model will be his go-to lure in slightly dirtier water, but in many instances he’ll have both tied on and ready to deploy. For example, on tidal waters he’ll have both models ready to go. “At low tides, when the water pulls the sediment off of the vegetation and it gets clear, I like the silent version,” he said. “But when the tide is high and it’s a little harder to see that rattling one will call them from long distances.”

Fellow IMA pro and noted river rat Bill Lowen agreed: “I love the original version but this one will be great in dirtier water, especially around grass.”

While the lure retains the same 3-inch size as the original with the same high-tech components and the same signature action, it will be available in 6 new colors specifically requested and perfected by the IMA pros.

Flit 100 (BABY Flit)

Just as we’ve created a double-barreled approach to the Roumba, IMA has also decided to give anglers — and fish — two choices with respect to the Flit Jerkbait. Here comes the Baby Flit, a slightly shallower diving jerkbait that’s not just for springtime. Savvy anglers will have one tied on all year long, any time fish are schooling or chasing diminutive prey.

South Carolina FLW Tour pro Michael Murphy, one of the driving forces behind both the smaller and the larger versions of this bait, has been testing prototypes for months and says the Baby Flit will outfish any other small jerkbait on the market. Furthermore, it fills a specific need.

“Sometimes the fish just want a snack, not a meal,” Murphy said. “And even when you’re around big fish, particularly in grass, sometimes a bait that dives 7 or 8 feet like the original Flit is just a little too deep. For example, on Guntersville you’d spend all of your time picking grass off of the lure. This one will go down to 4 feet, which is perfect.”

“Fish suspend year-round,” he continued. “When they’re in that neutral mood, for whatever reason, a jerkbait is better than just about anything and this is the best of the best.”

The Baby Flit will be available in 8 lifelike color patterns.

Big Stik

Is there any angler alive who doesn’t get thrilled by the experience of heart-stopping topwater action?

But until now, there’s been no one-size-lures-all-lunkers surface bait, a lure equally adept at catching outsized largemouths, big stripers, exotic peacock bass and a multitude of saltwater species. That will change with the release of IMA’s new Big Stik topwater lure, a high-tech lunker-killer that walks, pops and spits — and catches just about anything that swims.

Noted California bass guide and multi-species expert Randy Pringle played a critical role in developing the Big Stik, and he’s ecstatic with the way it has turned out.

“It has thru-wire construction, heavier split rings and quality hooks, just like every IMA lure,” he said. “So it will stand up to any big fish. It’ll be deadly in the bass market , in the saltwater market, and the muskie and pike guys up north are going to be thrilled.”

Pringle said that the lure’s dual sound chambers allow it to be popped subtly or worked faster to make it “the loudest plug you’ve ever heard.” It’ll spit like a magnum popper, walk like the hardest-sashaying walking bait, and anglers needn’t be experts to make it do its thing. “Just like the IMA Skimmer, it’s easy for the average Joe to walk this lure,” Pringle added.

The Big Stik will be available in 9 fish-catching colors tailored to specific situations. For the freshwater angler, there will be trout colors for the California lunker hunters, shad and herring colors that’ll be deadly in places like the Carolinas, where the blueback herring spawn is a way of life. There will also be a color that Pringle designed specifically for peacock bass and the saltwater aficionados will have mackerel and sardine imitators at their disposal.

While we continually strive to bring you new products, we don’t want anyone to forget the lures that have allowed us to quickly build the IMA name in the United States. In just a few short years, we’ve gone from being the number one manufacturer in Japan’s saltwater market to one of the top players in the US bass scene. We thank you for that support and appreciate all of the “big fish” stories involving our lures that you’ve sent along.

Just to remind you of the products that are already in our arsenal, here’s a brief synopsis, along with links to some videos of the lures in action. If our words don’t convince you, the footage should do the trick.

Roumba

When Fred Roumbanis first came to us with the idea for the Roumba, we were impressed. There are lots of dual treble hook wake baits on the market, but few if any of them could come through cover without getting hung up or bogged down with grass.

“Growing up on the Delta with the tides, I’ve always been looking for a bait that would come through the grass without snagging,” Roumbanis said. “This lure has such a wide wobble that it really deflects. You can throw it right in the middle of the grass and bring it back clean.” It’s not just a California bait, though. Two years ago he notched a top finish at the Potomac River with its help: “Between that and a frog I was catching 60 to 100 fish a day.”

Most importantly, he said, “all you have to do is cast it, hold your rod at 11 o’clock and retrieve it. The bait does all the work.”

One of his favorite tricks is to run his boat through the grass, creating lanes, and then come back hours or day later to crank the Roumba through the resulting ditches. The subsequent strikes can be arm-shattering.

While on tour, Fred worked with Bill Lowen (and ultIMAtely brought Bill onto the IMA staff). Lowen agreed with Fred’s analysis. While he’s seen every crankbait under the sun, from mass-produced models down to the garage baits that his home state of Ohio is famous for producing, he said the Roumba is particularly effective because “It comes through cover like no other crankbait. Particularly aquatic vegetation, like water willow and lily pads. It still amazes me.”

Flit

As IMA’s prIMAry representative on the FLW Tour, National Guard pro Michael Murphy needed a jerkbait to cover clear water, particularly in early spring tournaments when money’s on the line and fish are pressured. There are lots of thin-bodied diving jerkbaits on the market, but none are built with the level of precision that Murphy demanded, so we set out to make the Flit.

It’s 120mm of suspending dynamite.

Watch how quickly the precision bill gets the lure down to its intended depth of 6 to 8 feet and then keeps it there with a minimum of effort. It no longer takes forearms like Popeye’s to work a jerkbait consistently for a whole day, or three days, or, in the case of top pros, up to seven straight days of practice and competition. Speaking of consistency, every Flit will be exactly the same out of the package — the pitch and frequency of the rattles are maximized and made uniform by the lure’s triangular internal chamber. You no longer have to search for that “magic bait” — every one of them is ready to do damage straight out of the package.

Shaker

Kentucky pro and tackle expert Bill Smith worked with us to develop this flat-sided crankbait that would have the intricacies and tweaks that the garage-hewn models feature, but without any of their inconsistency. Furthermore, rather than getting on a waiting list for a chance at one like those local secrets, they’re now available to all anglers.

While cranking isn’t the easiest technique to put in the hands of novices, the Shaker has opened up the world of diving baits to guides who want to put their clients on fish quickly.

California instructor Randy Pringle says that the thin lure’s wide gait allows even beginners to understand the cover and structure he puts them on. “It really has a unique wobble,” Pringle said. “It deflects off of hard objects like rock and wood. When you pause it, it floats up rapidly out of the weeds. It has such a wide wobble that you know instantly if you’re getting down into the weeds. Your rod tip will tell you. With a lot of other crankbaits, you can’t really tell what you’ve hit.”

Like Pringle, Captain Karl Bunch on the east coast puts the Shaker in his clients’ hands to put keeper fish in the boat when others are catching only shorts or nothing at all. He still uses the Rock N Vibe to cover large expanses of grass flats, but when he finds heavy timber or channel edges, sometimes the Shaker is all he can get them to bite.

“It works. That’s all there is to say,” Pringle exclaimed. “It has such a wide wobble that sometimes my clients will ask me if it’s running right. But these fish have so much area to move around in, it’s almost like a secondary search bait.”

Skimmer

When his schedule takes him to Clarks Hill, home of one of the best blueback herring bites in the country, Michael Murphy expects to have an IMA Skimmer in the water “99% of the time.”

But whether bluebacks live in your local lake or not, this is a topwater that needs to be on your deck just as much as Murphy has it on his. It combines the best of both worlds — five-inch length and a slender profile — so it’s both a numbers bait and a big bass attractor.

The Skimmer is tail-weighted and exceptionally easy to walk. Furthermore, it has unique action characteristics that separate it from the competition. Specifically, every time it zigs or zags left or right, the final movement of the weighted tail stirs the surface into a large boil, and the Skimmer slips out barely ahead of the boil, just like a desperate baitfish narrowly escaping a bass’s lunge. As a result, it fires up the competitive juices among the fish and literally makes it a race to the bait. You can get an entire inactive school frenzied with just a few hard pulls of the rod tip.

Rock N Vibe

Last season, IMA introduced the Rock N Vibe to the US market, building upon two years of testing and a lengthy history as Japan’s leader in hard bait technology. It was created by esteemed lure designer Hide Iimura and a careful examination of the bait itself reveals that this is “not your father’s lipless crankbait.” It’s a modern marvel, a work of art, something so intensely lifelike and vibrant in your hand that you’ll swear you’ve captured a living creature.

The lipless crankbait bite is a staple on one of the waterways Fred Roumbanis is most familiar with, the massive California Delta. It’s deadly in the spring and fall, he reported. “The fish like to get in that grass for warmth. …the males are on some of the deeper beds and they’ll snap at it out of reaction. Some of the biggest females are migrating in and it’s great for them, too.”

But just because the bodies of water like Dardanelle and the Delta can produce numbers of fish, and some big ones, doesn’t mean those fish are easy to catch. That’s why Roumbanis prefers the Rock N Vibe over the competition — he says the smaller profile produces better, and it can be fished at any speed from a super-slow crawl to a flat-out burn without losing its signature action.

Lowen said that the Rock N Vibe is the “hardest thumping vibrating bait (he has) ever fished. I was blown away at how hard it vibrated at speeds where others are dead.”

On his home body of water, Lake Murray, Murphy uses the Rock N Vibe for structure fishing: “I pop ’em off the breaks and do some snap jigging,” he said. “It’s great for a reaction bite.”

Karl Bunch takes it one step further. He has caught the tidal river grand slam — largemouths, smallmouths and stripers — on the Rock N Vibe in a single day and shared one other key technique with us — “You can fish it as a blade bait and yo-yo it,” he said. “It drops straight down.”

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