ICAST & Summer Releases
By Tackle Warehouse | updated August 2022
This year manufacturers delighted us with some impressively innovative, new topwater baits, frog baits, and swimbaits for the 2022 fishing season. There were some interesting additions we are excited to try out like the Z-Man Hellraizer that took down the Topwater category, and SPRO's KGB Chad Shad 180 Glide Bait took down the Swimbait category by a healthy margin. Check out all the head-to-head battles down below, as well as all of the top finishers for the best new topwater bait, best new frog bait, and best new swimbait in this year’s awards.
The Z-Man Hellraizer represents a new and original design that generates a completely unique action all its own. Featuring an elongated body and tail-propelled blade, it rises to the surface and creates a tremendous commotion as it skitters across the surface. It’s also tail-weighted, which makes it fly through the air like a missile for ultra long distance casting, giving anglers versatility and the ability to cover water quickly. Finished with a feathered tail hook that matches each brilliant color scheme, the Z-Man Hellraizer is the next evolution of topwater baits.
Built in collaboration between SPRO and KGB Swimbaits, the SPRO KGB Chad Shad 180 Glide Bait is built to deliver the performance and appearance of a custom handmade glidebait, but without the hefty price tag and scarce availability. After endless rounds of testing and design, the construction has been perfected to give anglers absolute control of depth, direction, and retrieve speed to target multiple levels of the water column and be able to adjust to the mood of the fish. The SPRO KGB Chad Shad 180 Glide Bait also integrates an oversized eye, raised gill rakers, molded pectoral fins, 3D scale patterning, and custom paint schemes that match a variety of common baitfish found throughout the Country. Deadly when targeting scale-busting bass, the SPRO KGB Chad Shad 180 Glide Bait will undoubtedly be your new secret weapon for big fish.
The little brother to the highly successful Launch Frog, the Scum Frog Launch Frog XS is a smaller more compact hollow body frog that will be deadly during those times when you need a little bit smaller profile. Whether you’re trying to mimic smaller forage, fishing ponds with small bass, or there is increased pressured from other anglers, the Scum Frog Launch Frog XS is the perfect option. Still extremely castable and heavy relative to its size thanks to its proprietary tungsten “parasite” weight system and brass button weight, it casts like a bullet and sits in a perfect nose up position. Balanced to walk-the-dog with ease and armed with an oversized double frog hook, the Scum Frog Launch Frog XS is available in lifelike, digitally-printed colors that provide an incredibly realistic presentation.