Soft Plastics Enter the Twenty-First Century
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The “Nature of Competition” in soft plastics design drives LIVETARGET to develop industry-first process: Injected Core Technology (ICT)
Niagara-on-the-Lake (November 8, 2018) – Let there be no doubt, soft plastic lures are effective fish tempters. Available in profiles ranging from simple to gaudy and colors that vary from muted to other-worldly, soft plastics are well-established staples in the arsenals of bass, walleye, and panfish anglers in fresh water, as well as those chasing a wide range of finned predators in the salt. Yet, the majority of soft lures that we thread on hooks and dress on jigs have changed little since the advent of grubs and worms in the 1950s. Warm polymer stews, steeped with colored dyes and glitter, are injected or poured into metal molds; when the whole operation cools, soft lures emerge.
While the sizes and shapes of soft plastic lures are limited only by the bounds of anglers’ imaginations, they all suffer from precisely the same shortcomings: stated simply, most soft baits don’t look anything like the natural forage that predator fish eat, and few behave like a vulnerable prey item that is about to play its part in Nature’s food web.
But that’s changing, thanks to Injected Core Technology (ICT) from LIVETARGET, the leader in lure design and forage replication.
Injected Core Technology welcomes soft plastic baits into the twenty-first century, uniting artistry with engineering to deliver unprecedented levels of soft plastic form and function. Lures manufactured with Injected Core Technology are effectively a bait-within-a-bait, featuring a vibrant, biomimetic, forage-profile interior that is fully encapsulated and intimately linked to a clear, soft polymer exo-skin. Matching anatomical features are aligned on both the interior core and its protective shell, producing unique three-dimensional, flash-generating textures that are both robust and ultra-realistic.
ICT Skip Shad in Silver Pearl (134)
By carefully controlling the density of both the interior core and the outer shell during the molding process, Injected Core Technology lures are instilled with perfectly-balanced, strike triggering actions – right out of the package.
Nose hook a lure and fish ICT baits unweighted, and witness a soft plastic with a remarkably slow descent, its body on a horizontal plane as it falls, perfectly mimicking the behavior of an injured baitfish descending to its demise. Injected Core Technology lures don’t tumble or spiral, they simply drift tantalizingly downward with a gentle shimmy along their length until they come to rest on the bottom – or are consumed by a predator.
ICT Twitch Minnow in Silver Green (952)
But that simple unweighted rig is just the beginning. Soft lures manufactured using Injected Core Technology are extraordinarily versatile, and can be rigged and presented in every way imaginable. From traditional Texas and Carolina rigs, to drop shots and Neko rigs and everything in-between. For example, while ICT was tested, schooling, shad-based bass slurped up Skip Shads when other classic baits put up zeros. In another case, shallow, inshore ranging trout and redfish pounced on weightless, freefalling ICT baits…and in aquarium clear water!
Unveiled at ICAST 2018 and soon appearing in tackle shops across North America, Injected Core Technology lures from LIVETARGET will be first available in two bio-inspired profiles: the slender Twitch Minnow and the full-bodied Skip Shad. Each of these two lure families stands ready to tempt and trigger your favorite predator fish, whether it feasts on a diet of shiners, smelt, sardines, or shad
Let the era of realistic soft plastics begin…thanks to LIVETARGET’s Injection Core Technology.
