High-Tech Plastic May Revolutionize Your Fishing!!
The bait I held in my hand looked and felt like an ordinary 6-inch plastic lizard, however, according to Bliss Murski tackle representative Will Murski … looks can be VERY deceiving. ‘This is the most incredible product to hit the fishing lure market in the past 20 years’, offered Murski. ‘The material is called ‘Cyber-Flexxx’, and it will literally stretch without breaking and float a worm hook better than any plastic on the market today.’ According to Murski, only Strike King, Outdoor Innovations and R. J. Tackle (saltwater) will have this remarkable product available for fishermen. Strike King will market it’s line of products under the name “3-X Soft Baits”. The 3X interprets to Xtra Soft for Xtra Bites, Xtra Strong for Xtra Durability and Xtra Buoyant for Xtra Action! Z-Man Fishing Products of Charleston, S.C has the exclusive rights to manufacture and sell fishing lures made from Cyber-Flexxx. The patent for Cyber-Flexxx is controlled by Applied Elastomerics in California. Cyber-Flexxx is a substance known in the automotive industry as crystal gel polymer. It is softer than most traditional plastics and contains no toxic substances. The material is extremely durable and should be great bait to have handy when those ‘short striker’ are nipping the tail off your plastic worms. The new lures were recently introduced to retailers at the Las Vegas ICAST show and then to the public at the BASS Master Classic in Birmingham, Alabama. Needless to say the product was an instant success. Kevin VanDam, one of Strike King’s elite group of tackle representatives (and probably one of the best anglers in the world), recently finished second at the CITGO BASSMASTER Tour event on Lake Guntersville. On of the baits he relied on was Strike King’s prototype 3X Lizard. VanDam stated that he caught more that fifty bass on twelve of the durable 3X Lizards, and estimated that if he had been using traditional plastic he would probably have gone through three times as many lizards. I mentioned durable, but the 3X Lizards we were using were REALLY durable! Murski and I tested the bait by each grabbing an end of the plastic lizard and pulling. The six-inch lizard stretched to more than 5 feet and didn’t break. The lizard finally broke when stretched to almost six feet, but only after we had stretched the lure more than a dozen times. ‘Strike King President John Barns tells a story about a couple of Dallas anglers that tried to break one of the proto-types worms’, offered Murski. ‘It took them three tries, and quite a bit of tugging and stretching, before they broke the bait’. ‘Phil Marks, Strike King Product Manager and a good tournament angler, did quite a few tests with Cyber-Flexxx before it was released’, stated Murski. ‘Since Cyber-Flexxx baits are 20 percent lighter than water, they float like a charm. Marks compared a standard Carolina-rigged plastic lizard rig against the 3X Lizard and saw that the buoyancy of the Cyber-Flexxx was incredible. The standard Carolina rig would sink to the bottom but the 3X lizard would not only rise but it also floated a 4/0 wormhook. Anglers will finally be confident that the bait they are using is staying off the bottom and in front of Mr Bass’ face where it will get the most attention.’ Well enough of this talk, let’s see what happens when the rubber meets the road .. or in this case the rubber meets the water. The first thing highly noticeable is the softness of the plastic. As mentioned above, it is advertised to be three times softer than normal plastics. The hook went into the bait quite easily and stayed rigged much better than the traditional plastic I normally use. In fact, we stretched the rigged bait out to about four feet and the hook stayed securely in place. This will definitely eliminate those ‘slide downs’ or ‘pop outs’ commonly experienced by anglers. The elasticity of the material is self-healing and hook holes just seem to disappear. Our next test was with a Texas-rigged worm. Once the 3X lizard hit the bottom it stood on its nose with tail wiggling in a tantalizing manner to any gamefish that might be in the area. I added a rattle to the bait and it easily popped into the plastic and stayed put. Next we tested the Carolina-rig, and the 3X Lizard easily floated any of the wormhooks I normally use. It was amazing. But will these new baits catch fish? The answer is a resounding yes, and you won’t be re-rigging nearly as often. I used one lizard to catch more that two dozen scrappy bass and only changed because I wanted to try a different color. According to Murski, one of these baits will last as long as 90-100 soft-plastic baits. So what’s the downside to these new baits? ‘You can’t mix the Cyber-Flexxx baits with traditional soft-plastic lures,’ offered Murski. ‘Doing so will cause a chemical reaction that will deform both baits. And it’s also not a good idea to put Cyber-Flexxx baits in a plastic lure tray that has previously held standard soft plastic baits. Currently, the baits won’t accept some of the dipping dyes, although Strike King is working this issue. In the near future we expect to announce a new Strike King dye that will work with the 3X products.’ ‘Another minor issue is that salt cannot be impregnated into the baits due to the reaction of the salt on the highly sophisticated Cyber-Flexxx injection molding equipment,’ stated Murski. ‘However, fish attractant scents will be added to all 3X baits. As you open a package of 3X products you will also notice that granular salt is added to each bag. Odds are that in time a different way will be found to add salt to the baits without any negative effect to the injection molding equipment.’ Strike King currently offers the 3X Soft Baits in a 7 1/2-inch ribbontail worm, a 6-inch lizard, a 6 3/4-inch trick worm, a 5-inch finesse worm, a 4 1/2-inch crawworm, a 4-inch grub and French fry and a 6-inch soft jerkbait. Initial colors will consist of the most popular solids such as black, black-blue, smoke, hot chartreuse, watermelon and black flake. If you are like most other anglers I know you are always looking for that ‘secret’ bait that will give you an advantage when you hit the water. Look no further. The new 3X Cyber-Flexxx baits are going to revolutionize your fishing. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a tacklebox made out of Cyber-Flexxx material. Like the 3X products, it would just keep s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g as I add more and more baits. Give the 3X products a try .. You won’t be disappointed. JB.
