A new injection of technology
Four years in the making, LiveTarget Lures’ Skip Shad with Injected Core Technology debuts this spring and will start hooking up with bass and many other species, freshwater and saltwater, time and time again.
The versatile, flat-sided soft plastic jerkbait’s unique three-dimensional textures are realistic anatomically as well as intricately balanced to give anglers a deadly artificial lure that matches the hatch — ever-present shad, alewives, young sunfish and crappie, threadfin herring, pinfish and herring. The common denominator is each of those flat-sided forage species are favorite and fair game for hungry fish.
The Skip Shad is the latest in ultra-natural, lifelike products from the president and founder of Koppers Fishing and Tackle Corp. and the LiveTarget brand, Grant Koppers.
A small number of anglers and industry partners had access to sample Skip Shads before the finished models hit the market, Koppers said the second week of February, which is when Skip Shads were being shipped to retail locations across Canada and the U.S.
Patent pending
Koppers is impressed with the soft plastic’s newest injection of technology, LiveTarget’s exclusive, patent-pending ICT.
“Soft plastic lures all suffer from precisely the same shortcomings: stated simply, most soft baits don’t look anything like the natural forage base that predator fish eat and few behave like a vulnerable prey item that is about to play its part in nature’s food web.
Lures manufactured with our 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,” Koppers said Feb. 13.
After fishing 10 years as a guide starting in his late 20s, analyzing baitfish patterns all the while, his vision for the artificial lure manufacturing company he started 11 years ago continues to grow.
The first “serious progress toward the development” of Skip Shad began in late 2015, he said, noting the idea expanded over time, and the designers went full steam ahead on product development leading up to its planned release in 2018.
LiveTarget’s Research and Development team went to work with the direction and input of pro staff anglers.
The Skip Shad was unveiled at ICAST 2018 in three lengths and weights — 3 ½-inch, ½-ounce, 4 ¼-inch, 5/8-ounce and 5 ¼-inch, ¾-ounce. It also was introduced in six colors — silver/pearl, silver/smoke, silver/brown, silver/green, silver/blue and silver/purple.
Koppers noted the new soft plastic jerkbait features vibrant color patterns on an interior core, which is fully encased in and protected by a clear, soft polymer shell. ICT, he said, also makes the Skip Shad extremely versatile to rig and present in freshwater and saltwater environments. It can be fished weightless or weighted on a Texas Rig, or along the bottom on a Carolina Rig, he said, or rigged to crawl nose down along the bottom on a stand-up jig, or used as a trailer on a conventional jig-and-plastic combo.
Skip this bait
As its name implies, Koppers said, the Skip Shad can be skipped easily under docks and overhangs because of its flat sides.
And the smaller models are perfect to use as a drop shot bait, he said.
It’s the balance that appeals to anglers, he said, adding that it has a remarkably slow descent horizontally as it falls and it doesn’t spiral or tumble.
“The technology allows for the most precise balance of interior core and outer shell. The process creates a weight distribution and balance that can’t be replicated with existing soft plastics, especially when you have the challenge of producing a lifelike appearance with the lure,” he said.
For more information about the Skip Shad and other LiveTarget Lures products, call (888) 231-4449 or go to www.livetargetlures.com.
This story first appeared on LouisianaSportsman.com.
