Ike Inks LaserLure Deal Month Before Classic

In what seems the most dour off-season of the past few decades, there have been few bright spots. Some pros have inked minor deals, mostly with bait manufacturers, but the big deals that garner significant attention have largely been a no-show.

An interesting development occurred a few weeks ago, though, when news broke that former Bassmaster Classic

champion Boyd Duckett had signed a rather large endorsement deal with LaserLure – a virtually unknown lure company out of Louisiana.

The news became even more interesting when BassFan learned this week that LaserLure had also signed former Bassmaster Classic champion and BASS Angler of the Year Mike Iaconelli to an endorsement contract. Again, the deal appeared to be large in nature.

It's no coincidence that LaserLure suddenly seems aggressive in a struggling tackle market. The company's based in Shreveport, La. – the same town that'll be the focal point of the entire fishing industry next month when it plays host to the Bassmaster Classic.

According to LaserLure national sales manager Mike Lopez, there's very much an effort within the company to capitalize on the Classic, and perhaps even achieve a coveted Classic win with one of its baits.

"The Red River is very much a crankbait bite," Lopez noted. "We believe Mike and Boyd have the chance of winning the Classic with the Laser. I believe those guys believe that also."

See the Light

Lighted lures are nothing new. Each year, new baits appear with various light sources inside. Invariably though, they're LED lights. The big difference with LaserLure, Lopez said, is the lures emit an actual laser, not an LED.

"LED light makes the lure visible at night – it's dispersed light – so if a fish attacks an LED lure at night, it's not attacking the light, it's attacking the lure because it can see it," Lopez said. "A laser's a solid-particle beam – it's a refined light. Maybe you've watched a cat or dog attack a laser pointer. Fish do the same thing. It's their predatory instinct to attack a laser, and a laser is visible during the day, so the fish attack the light source."

Need some evidence? Check out the aquarium video at the end of this story.

LaserLure hardbaits cost $15.99 each. Battery life is 80 hours of fishing time (it only lights when in contact with water), and all the baits, Lopez said, are premium, hand-painted builds with red Mustad hooks.

But why the choice of Iaconelli, alongside Duckett, to help launch the upstart company?

"What attracts me to Mike is that his excitement and enthusiasm when he's fishing is what we're going for with LaserLure," Lopez said. "Since it's such a unique and futuristic bait, we think Mike's charisma and flair is what we need with this lure."

Seeds to Sprouts

According to Iaconelli, the beginnings of the deal occurred last year in a casual conversation. Those seeds then germinated to become the deal he struck this week with LaserLure.

"It's not one that just came out of left field," Ike said. "I met Mike (Lopez) a little over a year ago at a seminar I was doing. He came up, introduced himself, talked about his bait and gave me a few of them. It was very casual, and wasn't one of those deals where he was trying to sell me on a sponsorship. There was none of that. It was just, 'Hey look, I've got this product, check it out.'"

It wasn't until a few months later that Ike got a chance to try the bait, and he threw it on one of his local lakes in New Jersey. Ike told BassFan that's he's an "extremely skeptical" person when it comes to new things – whether it's something like Gulp!, or new line, or yes, a bait with a laser inside of it.

"But I'm telling you they've got something here," he added. "The first time I used it was in New Jersey on a lake I fish all the time, and in my mind it did a better job than a traditional crankbait. The shallow-runner way outfished any normal crankbait I was throwing at the time. Even though I was skeptical, I saw those results and was like, 'Holy cow!'

After the season ended, Ike reconnected with Lopez and provided some feedback, and the deal started to move forward.

Ike noted that he can't speak much to the exact science behind the bait, other than to say it works. He did, though, harken back to something he witnessed several years ago that involved a laser pointer.

"I can remember fishing in a bedfishing tournament and a guy I drew had a red laser pointer. He'd throw a bait onto a bed, then point the laser on the bed and it would drive the fish nuts. It's the same thing with this bait. When you look at a hardbait, there's action, vibration, wobble, color, sound, scent, but I feel like here we're kind of tackling the last frontier in the senses of a fish. That red light triggers more bites."

Onto the Classic

With his LaserLure deal now inked, Ike said the company will be in prominent display on his uniform, boat and truck.

It's not an associate sponsorship. "It's a big deal. It's right up near the top for me. And this isn't something LaserLure's dabbling at. These guys are serious. They know what they've got, and they're coming in in a big way, and my jersey, boat and truck are going to reflect that."

Of course, the ultimate payoff for any lure deal is a Classic win. Could it happen this year?

The early word from the Red River points to a jig or plastics win. But as Lopez noted, cranking's big on the Red too.

What's Ike think?

"Going into the Classic, in my mind, I'm thinking jig/plastics, spinnerbait/ChatterBait, then crankbait," he said. "One bait in those three categories is going to win this Classic. From the standpoint of the shallow-cranking deal, if the fish get on that deflection bite, where you have to bump a crank around wood, the LaserLure will be a factor.

"And I will say that potentially, in a lot of places we're going to fish, there are going to be other boats. So you'll have two or three boats sharing an area. What I have now is the confidence that if it's a shallow-cranking bite, even if there's five or six other boats around, nobody's got this bait that Boyd and I've got.

"If it means just a couple of extra fish a day, that's big. It can mean the difference between winning and coming in 2nd."

Notable

> The use of lighted lures is not illegal in either BASS or FLW Outdoors competition.

> LaserLure offers five (soon to be six) styles of hardbaits. For more info, visit LaserLure.com. Note that the lures cost $19.99 when purchased through the company's site, but $15.99 when purchased through a dealer. The site includes a dealer locator.