Duo teaser!

It's that time of year when my sponsor dips generously into their pockets and sends me a mysterious box.  I always love seeing this box arrive at the main desk, with quizzical looks from all around, especially when I pick it up and shake it to hear those tungsten weights rattle!!

This time I put in some special requests for both sea and freshwater lures, and sure enough there was a pile of beautiful fishing jewels wrapped in newspaper for me!  I quickly got my phone out, put a few on my desk and started snapping pictures...

Starting with the incredible Spearhead Ryuki in 45S and 50S.   I intended to use these for trout up in the dales, but when I saw that Ayu pattern, I have a feeling these will be dynamite for bass on those hot days when nothing seems to work!

You can really feel how compact these are in the palm of your hand.

Micro-popping PocoPoco for sea bass?  How about miniature Ikakko squid?  These are tiny (35-45mm), and the white model glows in the dark - nice!

Got some very exciting colours to compare in the LD models.  I've been wanting a dark lure to pitch against a silver one for sunny clear days for some time.  Should be an interesting trial.

Of course, you can't always get out in kayak.  For those days when you're dreaming of the distant horizon, you need the Tide Minnow Advanced line.  145mm of lure bullet!

There'll be opportunity to do a comparison between body shapes and lure lengths, as this overhead shot of the Tide Minnows LD and SLD-F show.

Finally, I borrowed another lure from Duo's freshwater collection, Deep Feat.  This is going to be one of several trolling lures behind the kayak that I'll test this year - it can be an invaluable way to find the fish.  It goes deep, as you can see by that huge bib.  Fitting with some saltwater trebles, I'm sure this will be a killer for pollack and bass in the deeper water.

So this season is some way off, but that gives me plenty of time to get a large bag of split rings and treble hooks, and pair of decent split ring pliers, and get to work fitting these up in preparation for some field tests.

Bring on those summer bass months!