2008 has been a great year for new soft plastics for bass fisherman. It seems that every where we turn or search, there is a new soft plastic bait for bass that gets our attention. So many baits to choose from and so little time to use them, which do we try?

With the selection of so many soft plastics on the market these days, it pays to find a few companies with products we can each depend on. I have found that I only need a few different products to catch fish on a semi-regular basis even though, the “baitmonkey” is always lurking on my shoulder waiting for something new to appear. I took a little time to reflect on this past year and put together a list of the soft plastics I used this year for LM & SM Bass that really hit the spot, caught plenty of fish and basically did what they are supposed to do, CATCH FISH! The products listed below are in no particular order; each of them works equally well under advertised applications and deserve consideration in my list. When I head out fishing; you will always find a selection of the baits below in my back pack.

Case Plastics: www.caseplastics.com

• Case Plastics has an amazing amount of soft plastic baits to choose from that are affordable, durable and catch both smallmouth and largemouth bass. The Case Magic Stick, Jacks Worm & my wife’s favorite the Hellgrammite have landed more than their share of fish this year. Each of these baits will land LM and SM bass on a regular basis and save you plenty of funds for your next outing with the baitmonkey. I never leave home without my supply of Case Plastics.

Picture Description: Jacks Worm on a jig head – wacky rigged Magic Stick – Case Hellgrammite on a Parasite Stand-Up Jig

JDC Baits: www.jdcbaits.com

• JDC Baits offers bass anglers a great selection of affordable and durable soft plastics also.  The JDC line up of soft plastics are very unique in that most will only be found under the JDC name. The RockCraw is one of the most realistic craws on the market for bass and responsible for most of my early season LM Bass. It is available in multiple sizes, casts like a bullet and flat-out catches fish. JDC Baits “Creek Chub” is a simple bait that worked extremely well for me this season for smallmouth when rigged on a jig head. This same bait will make a great drop shot bait for those that like drop shotting. JDC’s most recent release is the BLR Bomber; a 10″ soft plastic “senko” type bait which I just love throwing. The BLR Bomber landed my new personal best LM bass this season and always seems to get a bigger bass in my hands. Let us not forget the JDC Skip n Pop, the only soft plastic topwater popper that I know of. The ability to fish a T/Rigged popper through pads without hanging up with a load of treble hooks is something many of us are just not accustomed too, and it’s great! Each of these baits landed plenty of fish this season and have become a staple in my ever growing selection of soft plastic tackle. I never leave home without a selection of these JDC Baits products.

Picture Description: Creek Chub on a Parasite Stand-Up Jig – Texas rigged Skip n Pop – Rock Craw rigged on a Title Shot jig head

Rage Tail Baits: www.ragetail.com

• What more can I say, this company took me buy surprise! Every one of their patented Rage Tail baits are unique and has landed loads of fish for my wife and I. The patented tail design has a way about it that just plain works and works well. The rage shad, rage toad, rage craw and rage chunk were my first exploration with this companies baits and each falls into the “amazing” category for me. The Rage Tail line of soft plastics have re-defined action, vibration and the movement with each of their soft plastic baits. The topwater fun to be had with the rage tail shad and toad can’t be duplicated and far exceeds my origianl expectations. The rage chunk is a great jig trailer and also makes a great finesse bait when rigged on a jighead while the craw steps it up on a T/rig. With the recent release of the all new Rage Tail Anaconda (7″ & 10″ worm), Rage Lobster (6″ craw), Rage Lizard and the Rage Spacemonkey (creature bait), the ragetail lineup of baits almost seems complete. We have been lucky enough to aquire many of these new baits and have great luck with them over the last couple months. Rage Tail baits are a steady producer and will always have a place in my pack on every outing to fish.

Picture Description: (Above) Rage Tail Shad, Rage Craw, Rage Chunk & Rage Toad
(Below) Rage Tail Anaconda, Rage Lizard, Rage Lobster & Rage Tail Spacemonkey

Reaction Strike Swimbaits: www.reactionstrike.com

• I had to jump on this band wagon this year and see what the swimbait craze is all about. Finding a paddletail swimbait these days isn’t very hard. Finding just the right swimbait in the size and color your after is a different story. A friend suggested Reaction Strike swimbaits to me and let me tell you, they have just what I was looking for. Reaction Strike has plenty of colors and sizes to suit all the paddletail applications I have considered. This is still a new area of soft plastic exploration for me but, if you look in my bag, you will find a decent selection of these baits for when the need arises.

Picture Description: The Fathead, Jr. shown in 3″, 3.5″, 4″…. also available in 5″, 6″ and 8″ lengths

I hope you enjoyed my list of proven soft plastic baits. Feel free to comment or add a few of your new favorite soft plastic baits used this past year. You can add a comment below or visit the forum to dicuss it more here: Top Soft Plastic Tackle 2008

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As an angler that is field or pro-staff for a company, there comes a time when you should ask yourself, am I believable?

I lead you into this topic to re-assure everyone of the importance of understanding the products you promote and represent. Ask yourself; do we know all we can know about each product? Have we done all our homework about the product line before presenting a given product to another angler or retail establishment? Do we just blow smoke and ad lib when we don’t know the answer?

My point here is that although most of us have regular “moronic” moments, 9 out of 10 times, we can tell when someone is trying to blow some smoke up our butts.
And lets face it, anglers are known for stretching the facts, exaggerating the moment and sometimes down-right lying to others about things.

If you can talk about a product, answer questions based upon personal experience with a real confidence with that product, you will be believable.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to promote baits you have never used, to describe an action you have never seen and/or just heard about, you will probably convey an uncertainty about what you are promoting more often than not.

A great example I came across along these lines:
It was a couple months ago when I was searching around the Internet for tackle reviews & testimonials etc at forums and blogs for products I deal with.

Suddenly, there it is, one of the products I deal with. I’m not going to name that product or where I came across this information but, I just had to laugh out loud. This nameless person was obviously intrigued with the product and saw a great piece of content. As I read through his article about this product, I’m thinking this is great, has the benefits, the other key points about this unique bait and it sure is easy to plagiarized someone else’s creative writing to get content and seem well educated about a given product. (I say plagiarized and know this because it just so happens, I wrote 95% of his article and created the web page the plagiarized information came from. It’s just switched around a bit. I’m actually quite happy to see that information spread around to more places on the internet. Anyway, lets get back to the example and the laughing)

The very first comment below this article is a question about the bait and its action, and I bet you can guess the answer that followed it. You’re right. “ahh, I haven’t fished it yet but, I have some”. If you were reading this, I ask you, how believable is this guy now? All I could do is laugh. He would have been 100% ahead of the game if he gave credit where it was due and didn’t assume he wouldn’t get questioned.

How do we overcome things like this?
When you come onboard with a new company, be sure you use and explore all of their products to the fullest, make a list of any personal advantages, selling points, benefits you have found through personal experience. These are what you preach.

Along the same lines, make another list of any weaknesses, dislikes you may have found or possible rejections you may need to overcome when presenting the product to someone or a retailer.

Now, take a moment and think about how you will overcome those same dislikes, weaknesses or objections if the need arises. Think about how you turn that “non-selling” point into a “selling point” and move past the objection and on to better things. Don’t stop and give up, you need to overcome these things if you are going to succeed in this business and promote the companies you represent, to the fullest!

This doesn’t mean walk in and hand someone a list of the benefits and weaknesses and the price of a product, it’s just a way to program your mind to react and answer truthfully when the need arises. Taking that extra time to think and write about these things will make those things second nature and believable.

Beyond the Baits:
Besides knowing everything about a given product, you’re not done there. You also need to know about the company and how they do business.
Things like; know the ordering procedure for the given company, their payment terms, payment methods, what information is needed to order, do they have minimum requirements when ordering, who pays shipping, product pricing, profit margins and the list goes on.
Retailers will ask lots of questions and if you can’t answer them and build a rapport with them, things will get a lot tougher dealing with that person.

Three Answers to live by:
Yes (I can answer the question, truthfully based upon my personal experience with the product because I did my homework)

No (I can’t answer that question – this one is a bummer when you need to say it truthfully – point being, don’t just wing it and make something up, it will come back and bite you with the rapport you just blew if he reads right through your B/S)

I’ll find out (this is your best escape answer ever, it leaves that door open, you answered truthfully, and if you get that answer right away and call them with an honest answer, you just scored big-time in the rapport department. Most anyone alive would rather wait for an answer than to here some more B/S from a fisherman)

In Closing:
As a rep in the industry, I have been there and I remember the first few calls, breaking the ice and having the store owners listening intently to everything I said, looking for that one question to trip me up, and it happens. Some people will look for that weak spot, just to expose your weakness, sometimes for fun and sometimes just as a way to shut the door on you. Believe me when I say, when it happens, you will probably feel as foolish as I did, and maybe you should, because maybe you didn’t do your homework. Take it from me and learn the ins and outs of every product and the way that company does their business so you can speak with confidence and honestly when promoting their products. It will get you a lot further than trying to B/S someone because you didn’t know what you thought you knew, and they found your weakness.

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Like any other kind of advertisement or promotion on the web, Member Profiles at forums, blogs and other social meeting places serve a purpose where & when ever they are available to you. The more information about yourself you can make available to be read somewhere on the web, the better.
Just about every fishing site you visit is an outlet to promote and get yourself noticied. You can’t imagine how many people scan through people’s profiles reading what is there, where they from etc. The bigger the site, the more people looking at profiles and some sites can mean alot of views, maybe even being contacted by someone after their reading your profile. Many people have nothing at all written in their personal profile while others make real good use of it.

Start filling in the information found in your personal profiles and gain more exposure at the fishing sites you visit. Angler promotion is a numbers game and the people who think and work at it, can win. I admit, most web sites have pretty basic profiles but, every view helps in the end.

If you’re an angler seeking more pro-staff tips like this, join us at The Angling Center and take advantage of the benifits being a member has to offer.

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