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Saltwater Made Simple |
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A pair of can’t-miss LIVETARGET saltwater lures that need to be part of your collection. |
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Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. (April 10, 2020) – Inshore fishing doesn’t really have a “season,” per se. Surely, certain species come and go during the calendar year. And there are closed seasons and periods with special limit and size regulations. But we know not of a single inshore fishery that is wholly devoid of gamefish at any given time. Your challenge is determining which species are finning in the shallows and targeting them specifically. The good news for fishing in April and May is that inshore flats, channels and cuts are filling with fish faster than cheaply priced gas in your tank. These mobilizing gamefish come with hearty appetites, too. They come to forage on nature’s bounty of incoming baitfish and shrimp, making the catching part simpler. To that end, LIVETARGET highlights a pair of core saltwater lures that are equally as easy to fish, and money in the bank. |
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Big, hapless targets Saltwater anglers say to double the speed of anything you’re accustomed to working in freshwater. By and large, it’s true. You can burn a lipless rattlebait like it’s running from the cops. Make a topwater bait summersault out of its intended action. But when it comes to paddletail swimbaits, slow and steady always wins the race. There’s just some magic in that innocent, carefree swim. Almost like fish want to teach it a lesson for being so naïve. Well, LIVETARGET has a swimbait that needs a good paddling. The 2019 ICAST award-winning ICT Slow-Roll Shiner defines perfection in an easy-to-operate, remarkably accurate swimbait that saltwater species love to punish. LIVETARGET’s new Slow-Roll Shiner is designed to mimic a thin-profiled baitfish, such as a herring, sardine or juvenile mullet. Featuring Injected Core Technology™, it turns the paddletail category on its head with a life-like baitfish profile and an action-inducing clear shell that competing baits simply can’t emulate. |
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Most paddletail swimbaits are manufactured using a standard injection process. The front end of the bait can be somewhat realistic; however, in order to generate the signature rolling action, the tail shape needs to be long and boot-like, which creates an overall unnatural profile. LIVETARGET’S solution is Injected Core Technology™ (ICT). A life-like Inner-Core is constructed with a realistic baitfish profile, detailed anatomy and vibrant metallic colors. The core is then encapsulated in a crystal clear, durable Exo-Skin, which generates the bait’s realistic action. Gamefish focus on the natural profile of the forage and are not alarmed by the transparent mechanics. Anatomically superior in appearance with its dark eyes, scaled body, and perfectly placed pectoral fins and gill slits, the ICT Slow-Roll Shiner features a graduated, natural-looking color scheme. Add in its hard-thumping action and you can instantly tell gamefish will be on high alert the second it hits the water. |
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Up close detail of LIVETARGET’s ICT Slow-Roll Shiner. |
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One of the key advantages of ICT is the ratio of plastic between the Inner-Core and Exo-Skin. The Inner-Core is much smaller than the overall mass of the entire lure. That means anglers can present a smaller bait size but still have the advantages of throwing something larger. The Exo-Skin adds 30% more clear plastic which increases its overall weight, enabling anglers to cast farther, use a larger hook and feel more direct contact with the lure. For the first time ever, anglers can fish smaller hatches for bigger strikes. Slow-Roll Shiners can be rigged with a spring-lock hook for targeting suspended fish, worked weedless Texas-style in shallow water, or impaled on a jig head to precisely probe bottom structure, making them extremely versatile. A convenient hook channel keeps them weedless and improves hook-up ratios when rigged in a snag-free fashion. LIVETARGET Slow-Roll Shiners are available in 3”, 4” and 5” sizes and six natural-themed metallic color patterns with a MSRP of $9.99 USD (three or four baits depending on size). They come in clamshell packaging to protect against warping and distortion. The ICT Slow-Roll Shiner is effective on seatrout, redfish, flounder and snook, as well as all those other rod pumpers like ladyfish, Spanish mackerel and jack crevalle. |
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Real shrimp are no realer What doesn’t eat shrimp? Well, nothing. Shrimp are the french fries of inshore waters – fish just can’t eat one. White, brown and pink shrimp are the predominant shrimp species’ in Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coastal waters, with a few others like rock, royal red and north Florida hoppers inhabiting certain regional fisheries. Honestly, it’s tough to beat the real thing. Fresh, live shrimp are universally welcomed by foraging fish, especially if they were netted in the same waters you’re fishing. There are, however, undeniable challenges for the angler using live shrimp. Availability is number one. When the shrimp are in, every bait store on the block sells them by the gallon. But when the pickings are slimmer, good luck. You’ll likely end up with a bag of fresh frozen. Still authentic, but without all the natural twitches and pulses that drive fish batty. Maintenance is the other looming issue. By and large, live shrimp aren’t easily kept, well, alive. Water temp changes and oxygenation issues in a bait bucket are a death sentence. Add to it the inherent mess of handling, trimming and hooking actual shrimp, and the fact that unwanted bait-stealers like pinfish, croakers and perch peck them to pieces, and you’re often left with more frustration than fish. |
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For decades, lure manufacturers have strived to design shrimp lures to look and act like live ones, and there are many exemplary models on the market. But until now, no one has developed an artificial shrimp that captures all the life-like qualities, to include “fleeing motion,” as well as anatomy, coloration and profile. Say hello to LIVETARGET’s 2018 ICAST award-winning Fleeing Shrimp. The LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp seamlessly combines a biologically precise shrimp profile and anatomy, a dynamic color palette, biomimetic action and robust saltwater components to synthesize a soft lure that uniquely replicates the appearance, action, sound, and even the scent of a living shrimp. The action-packed LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp is, at its heart, a soft lure, but one that uniquely replicates a natural shrimp’s appearance. A portion of this biomimetic perfection stems from having a body size and shape that accurately recalls a living shrimp, bristling with three-dimensional anatomical features including tail and thorax segmentation, eyes, antennae, and more. A custom-designed jighead sporting an extra-strong corrosion-resistant hook blends seamlessly with the Fleeing Shrimp’s soft body, accentuating the lure’s ultra-natural profile. A broad spectrum of eight color patterns completes the visual deception. The LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp truly comes to life when the angler imparts action, either popping it along the bottom or swimming it beneath the surface. The Fleeing Shrimp’s proprietary skirt masterfully emulates the motions of a living shrimp’s front legs, both in motion and at rest. When the shrimp is “fleeing” in a natural, backwards direction, the skirt folds together like the front legs of a living shrimp. When the shrimp comes to rest on the bottom, it stands perfectly upright with the head tipped slightly upward, while the skirt material fans outward and gently flows up and down, creating a subtle life-like action that will entice a bite and not spook wary fish. |
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This LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp is particularly effective in skinny waters when targeting redfish, snook, seatrout and flounder. It can be cast exceptionally long distances, hopped over potholes, bounced across the bottom, or fished in the midportion of the water column with intermittent twitches. With a quick jerk of the rod tip, it flees backwards like an escaping shrimp, its internal glass rattle creating a “ticking” sound on the retrieve – replicating the chatter of a living shrimp. The Fleeing Shrimp is also impregnated with a long-lasting, natural shrimp scent that helps attract nearby predators, and promotes extended retention of the lure in an attacking fish’s mouth – a powerful factor that delivers more fish to hand. LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp are available in two lengths and weights (2-3/4” and ¼ oz, or 3-1/2” and 3/8 oz) and eight ultra-realistic color patterns (910 Sand Shrimp, 911 Glass Shrimp, 912 White Shrimp, 913 Glow, 914 Brown Shrimp, 915 Pink, 918 Grass Shrimp, and 919 Clear), allowing anglers to Match-the-HatchTM in any water condition. Artistry meets engineering in the LIVETARGET Fleeing Shrimp. Make this season your best ever by lining the tackle box with this tandem of surefire LIVETARGET lures. |
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ABOUT LIVETARGET Since its launch in 2008, LIVETARGET has grown into a full family of life-like fishing lures that Match-the-Hatch® to specific game fish forage, with an expansive library of lure styles and colors for both fresh and saltwater fishing. The lures feature industry-leading designs in realism and workmanship that closely mimic nature’s different prey species. Headquartered in Ontario, Canada, LIVETARGET won ICAST Best of Show awards in the hard and soft lure categories in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019. |