ima Newsletter – March 2009

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

March reportedly comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, so consistency in the weather is not reliable. But one thing that can be depended upon this time of year is that a lipless crankbait will be a key tool in tournament anglers’ arsenals. From lakes like Rayburn and Toledo Bend, where the red lipless crank craze started – to Guntersville, where pre-spawn sows suck ‘em up like candy – to the Potomac River, our nation’s waterway – all the way out to the California Delta and Clear Lake – if you don’t have a lipless crankbait tied on every time you hit the water this month, you’re doing something wrong.

But stroll down the aisles of any tackle store and there are dozens of lipless crankbaits there for purchase. Some look primitive, others have more advanced stylings like that of the Rock N Vibe, but in the package it can be hard to tell what to buy.

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.

But rather than have the folks here at Ima corporate tell you about what makes the Rock N Vibe great, we’ll leave that job to the experts who depend on it to win major national tournaments and put less-knowledgeable guide clients on the fish of a lifetime.

		Compact but Hefty – 2.5” Long & 1/2oz

For Ima superstar Fred Roumbanis, fresh off another appearance in the Bassmaster Classic, the Elite Series season couldn’t come soon enough. He finished in the money at Amistad and now he’s geared up for Dardanelle, where he hopes the grass will be advanced enough to make a lipless crankbait a viable option.

“At this time of year, if you detect any grass at all, you can rip that Rock N Vibe through it,” he said. “It’s the best way to catch a big bag.”

He should know. The lipless crankbait bite is a staple on one of the waterways he’s most familiar with: the massive California Delta. “Right now, and again in the fall, it’s one of the biggest deals there is out there,” he reported. “The fish like to get in that grass for warmth. Right now 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.

He fishes the Rock N Vibe on a 7’4” RoumBASStik rod (available at www.elitebass.com), which has ample backbone to subdue a ten-pounder but the “perfect soft tip” needed to launch the lure a country mile. That’s one of his keys to covering a lot of water. He makes super-long casts and hopes to intercept the fish somewhere on the way back. Once they’re pinpointed, he slows down and seines an area more thoroughly. The rod’s soft tip also prevents him from ripping the razor sharp hooks free in close quarters. He pairs it with an Ardent 1000 reel.

Most of Fred’s fishing with the Rock N Vibe is in three to six feet of water, and he typically starts with 15 pound test P-Line fluorocarbon, which has little stretch, but he admitted to fiddling around with different line types and strengths in order to maximize the bite. For example, when fishing is water less than three feet, he’ll go to a heavier P-Line copolymer line (17 lb. test or even higher) to keep the bait up in the water column. And that in itself is another key to this bait. While it’s effective yo-yoed deep or retrieved steadily at mid-depths, some of the most arm-breaking strikes you’ll ever experience come when it’s burned in water so thin it barely covers a big fish’s back.

The newest member of Ima’s elite pro staff is Ohio river expert Bill Lowen, who in his short career on the BASS Elite Series has already racked up two Bassmaster Classic appearances. He came to the company through Fred Roumbanis.

“I’ve been bouncing ideas off Fred for a couple of years and he’s given me some baits to try,” Lowen said. “And every Ima bait produced good quality fish. It’s amazing how much research goes into these lures.”

Lowen should know – his home body of water, the Ohio River, is one of the toughest fisheries in the country and the surrounding area has produced dozens of “garage baits,” highly specialized crankbaits aimed at getting more and bigger bites when everyone else is struggling. That’s why he’s so excited about the Ima Shaker, a flat sided crank with produces the action of balsa along with the durability and castability of plastic.”

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.”

He’ll throw it on a 7’ All Pro cranking rod or medium-heavy casting rod paired with a Revo Reel. In grass, he’ll use 20 lb. Stren Super Braid to rip it out of the cover, while on mud and stump flats he’ll use 12 or 15 lb. test Trilene Big Game.

Between the Rock N Vibe, the Shaker and the Roumba, Lowen foresees another profitable year on tour and a third Bassmaster Classic appearance. We see the start of a long and productive partnership.

As South Carolina pro Michael Murphy travels the FLW Tour, the Rock N Vibe is his constant companion. He may be better known for his jerkbaiting skills with the more subtle Flit, but Murphy can go Bubba-fishing with the best his tour has to offer, and this year’s schedule will give him ample opportunities to chunk and wind this more-than-the-sum-of-its-parts lipless crankbait.

“Springtime is hard bait time for me,” the affable Murphy said.

He already used it at the season-opening event on Guntersville, where windy conditions made castability a key concern.

“It casts real well in the wind,” he said. “It’s also easy to fish high and low in the water column. It has a unique vibration even when you slow roll it and fish it like a worm. Then, when the water warms up and the fish move shallower, you can burn it and it’ll always run true.”

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.”

When his schedule takes him to Clarks Hill, home of one of the best blueback herring bites in the country, Murphy expects to have an Ima Skimmer in the water “99% of the time,” but the Rock N Vibe will also be on the deck – it’s compact size makes it abundantly castable and easy to get to breaking fish. Don’t be surprised if he has one tied on at Champlain, Kentucky Lake and Eufaula as well – it has already become one of his key tournament tools. Typically, he throws it on a 7’ medium-heavy Fenwick Techna AV rod paired with an Abu-Garcia Revo baitcasting reel (6.3:1 gear ratio). In grass, he’ll spool up with 30 lb. Spiderwire Braid and in open water he prefers 15 lb. Trilene 100% fluorocarbon.

One other note on Murphy: He’s the newest member of the most highly esteemed team on the FLW Tour, the National Guard Team. Members are chosen not only on the basis of their fishing and promotional abilities, but also for their good character. “It has already been a phenomenal experience,” he said. So if you see his Ranger Z520 and matching wrapped Chevy 2500HD pickup on a road near you, give him the thumbs up and tell him he Rocks (and Vibes).

There may be no one alive who understands the changing moods of the Upper Chesapeake Bay’s bass better than angling educator extraordinaire Karl Bunch. On the rivers of the mid-Atlantic, he wouldn’t dare go out in the spring without a Rock N Vibe tied on.

“It does two neat things,” he said. “First, you can retrieve it at any speed and it’ll have the same action and run true. With a 5.3:1 reel, you can retrieve it slow, medium or fast and not compromise the action of the bait.”

“The second thing is that it has a lot of weight in a smaller package. You can cast it and control it on those colder windier days and still use a smaller profile.”

He’s 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.”

Capt. Karl knows that as the grass emerges in April on the famed Susquehanna Flats, the Rock N Vibe will be a key search bait for the 150 or so competitors in the BASS Northern Open on the Bay. “We might only be getting to where we normally are by the 1st of April,” he said. “They should be able to use it on the drops and ledges on the flats and up into the mouth of the river. It’s also deadly around dock pilings and marina walls.”

He expects that variable spring weather will have the fish on the points leading into the major spawning creeks and bays at that point and advised anglers to concentrate on the movements of their prey in order to understand the predators: “If you figure out the baitfish you’ve got 99% of fishing figured out.”

He expects it to take 21 pounds a day to win and if forced to choose three color patterns he’d go with Firetiger, Chrome/Blue Back and Chartreuse Shad. It’s as simple as that – “There’s not a whole lot of tricks you need to do. It’s ready to go right out of the box.”