Something a bit different from the usual Zonks

Well it's winter months, and as usual at this time of year I spend the evenings wandering through exotic foreign lure maker catalogues and tackle websites.  I buy slowly, one or two a month, until I've this season's quota.   I've found a nice website that sells Megabass and Tackle House lures, so thought I'd share with you a couple of plugs that are a bit different from the usual Zonks and Feed Shallows. 

First up is the Megabass Vision SW 100 Miyabi GG Iwashi.  It's got the same diving vane as the standard 120 zonk, so I'm expecting it to run quite deep.  But what's that strange appendage I hear you say?

A flapping plastic fin!  You can see the hinge more clearly below.

Megabass make all kinds of frankly ludicrous claims about the appendage, but I think it will still be fun to try something different - here is what they say:

"The third vision has finally arrived. The Vision 100 is a new generation of real flat sided shallow cranking. This lure also works well in shallow water via real cranking. Its unique flat sided body and internal gyro-balancer system (PAT.P) gives a butterfly wobbling effect in an impressive staggered dancing movement. This proves especially effective in shallow cranking since the lure has a palm slap effect. The movable fin (PAT.P) utilizes memory shape plastic that serves to agitate the water with a rolling motion. Twitching yields a highly responsive panic action. Vision 100 is great for bass, but is also yeilds unbeatable performance for catching sea bass. It has the best points of both minnow and crank baits... blah blah" 

It goes on a bit more.  I think you get the message.    Notice the bib is identical to the standard Zonk.

Next up is a plug from one of my favourite plug manufacturers, Tackle House.  Last year I had several bass on xraps that had swallowed the plug deep down their throats, resulting in a dead fish.  Not that I mind killing fish, I just like to choose which ones go for the pot.     

Tackle House claim that by moving the rear treble up the back of the plug, you get less badly hooked fish through "inhalation" of the plug.  You can see the how the back treble sits in a little groove and is held in place by magnet.  When the fish is hooked, it swings free as usual.  The plug is the Tackle House RDC       Fix Bait 80 - Clear Sardine.

Finally, the Tackle House K-TEN TKLM “9/11” Lipless Minnow – SH-Sardine.  Not too dissimilar from other flat face plugs, except the K-Ten lipless has a groove down the centre of the face of the plug.  It's another very shallow running plug (0-40cm). 

This plug came with lots of instructions about how to fish it in Japanese.  Unfortunately no translations this time, but from what I can gather from the English words they chose to use on the packet, this is a slow fished plug that you  (soft?!) twitch, bit like dead sticking.  Anyone care to guess what "warp slide" means?   

Anyhow, hope that has whetted your appetites for the coming season!

I'll let you know how the new plugs get on.