Lures inspire discussion, but probably not strikes

Jun 29, 2023

As expected, Carlton Wing found some interesting items at the ICAST expo July 16-19 in Orlando, Fla.

ICAST stands for International Convention of Associated Sportfishing Tackle. Held by the American Sportfishing Association, ICAST is the sportfishing industry's largest trade show. It is open only to members of the fishing industry and to the media. It is where manufacturers introduce their new products for the upcoming year.

Wing, who represents District 70 in the Arkansas House of Representatives, produces and hosts the Arkansas Great Outdoors TV show, which airs on KASN in Central Arkansas and on KFSM in Northwest Arkansas. It also airs in south Arkansas, Southeast Arkansas and east Arkansas from stations in Shreveport, Memphis and Springfield, Mo. Wing attends ICAST for show material, but also to stay abreast of the latest trends and products in the sportfishing industry.

Wing sees through a slightly warped lens, so his eye tends to land on the odd and unconventional. We see through a similarly warped lens, so we are seldom surprised by the things that Wing brings home from ICAST. This year, however, Wing outdid himself.

Ray Tucker, Jeremy Risley (the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's new black bass program coordinator), and I gathered around Wing and his big bag of goodies like kids thronging a seafaring uncle returning from a long voyage. He promised that the bag's contents would amaze us. Being avid bass anglers, we were eager to see what was inside.

The first item was a new type of fish hook made by Wind-On Tackle. Instead of an eyelet, it has a corkscrew on the end. You wind the line around the corkscrew in a certain way that cinches the line fast to the hook. It eliminates the knot, which is a potential break point in the line.

I was most interested in Risley's reaction. He is the most avid bass angler of the bunch. He fishes a lot of tournaments, so he is also the most serious about his tackle. If anything in that bag was worth having, Risley's expression would say so. The clues would have to be non-verbal because Risley is very quiet and reserved. He was even more so in the presence of a legislator. We did not have to watch him as closely as we feared because he could not mask his skepticism.

"When money is on the line, I don't know if this would be my first choice," Risley said flatly.

The main demerit for this hook is that the corkscrew seems to make it impossible to use in a Texas rig. The only apparent way to do it is to wind the corkscrew through the head of a lure, which would destroy the lure.

Next out of the bag were three topwater lures in the likenesses of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They are topwater lures with a two-prong hook that hides in the lure's soft body. They are similar to soft plastic frogs.

Copy on the Trump lure box makes several outlandish claims in Trump's bombastic style.

The Biden lure claims to be the World's Oldest Fishing Lure, with some non-sensical copy on the back.

Zelenskyy is clad in camo, including a T-shirt that says, "I DON'T NEED A RIDE. I NEED AMMO"

Risley would have nothing to do with these lures, and Wing pushed back on my insistence that no fish would ever bite them.

"Don't ever take them out of their boxes," I said. "Put them away somewhere. In twenty years they'll probably be worth some money."

On that we all agreed. Except for Risley. He didn't say a word.

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