One of the best kept secrets in multi-species fishing is housed in a state-of-the-art warehouse on the outskirts of Iowa City, Iowa. It’s the home of one man’s dream to create, manufacture, and market baits that simply catch fish.
What started as a one brand enterprise for owner Bob Gillispie in the form of ice fishing tackle company, Custom Jigs & Spins, now includes several other brands, including Rippin’ Lips, Flu Flu, The Worm, VertiGlo Tackle, Ming Yang, and B-Fish-N Tackle.
That said, Gillispie and marketing director, Walt Matan, are excited to bring their products to an even larger audience — ICAST 2017 attendees in Orlando. All of Gillispie’s Coralville, Iowa-based fishing brands will be on display at booth #3667.
“This is a first for us, but we know it’s time. I feel like Ray Kinsella in the movie ‘Field of Dreams,’ which, coincidentally, was set in Iowa. I built it and they did come, but now it’s time to share our brands and products with even more buyers and dealers and help anglers catch more fish across the entire country,” says Gillispie.
To those ends, B-Fish-N Tackle will be launching two fish-catching products at ICAST 2017. The first, the AuthentX Ribb-Finn, is a unique design departure from the same ol’, same ol’ soft plastic jerkbait. The second is a deadly piece of predator fish weaponry called the MasterFlash Jig, which merges old school and new school fish-catching properties.
New AuthentX Ribb-Finn by B-Fish-N Tackle
A super finesse, specialized softbait, the new AuthentX Ribb-Finn couples the random jukes and jives of a jerkbait with the ultra-soft, slower sinking properties of a ringworm. While most soft jerks dart and sink quickly, the 4.25-inch Ribb-Finn slides through the water with a subtler, more seductive slash-glide motion. Simultaneously, the bait’s split tail gives off little tail-kicking quivers. Poured with deep, extra soft ribs, the Ribb-Finn exudes faint underwater vibrations, as well as creating tiny air bubbles when the bait shimmies through the water — each suggestive of an aquatic living thing.
Coupled with a B-Fish-N Tackle H20 Precision Jig — which holds the Ribb-Finn tight to the jig head with a specially designed “keeper” — the bait has proven itself for big walleyes, plus bonus bass of all species. The Ribb-Finn shines as a soft jerk, rigged weedless on an offset wide gap hook or as a trailer on your favorite bass or swim jig. This unique hybrid bait won over numerous Great Lakes anglers during the beta-testing phase, who now consider it a secret go-to bait for monster smallmouth bass.
And for walleyes and the monster crappies of the South, it’s hard to beat threading the Ribb-Finn on a B-Fish-N Tackle Draggin’ Jig, which allows working brush and wood when water levels are high on rivers and flowages.
Available in 8 color patterns, the Ribb-Finn is designed to elicit strikes when more aggressive softbaits fail to produce. The bait can be fished “naked” to great success, but adding a minnow, leech of half ‘crawler for scent can also pay huge dividends.
Built around B-Fish-N Tackle’s glitter finish H2O Precision jighead, the MasterFlash Jig adds a blast of flash and scale-suggestive sparkle, dressed with fine, holographic strands of premium 1/69” tinsel. The bait moves with abundant action, color and enough profile to trigger strikes by itself, but can be amplified with a soft plastic or live bait threaded onto the jig shank.
“We’ve hand-selected a specific premium tinsel material that flexes, folds back and rebounds on the pause, exceptionally well,” Matan notes. “Also critical is the quantity of strands we choose and precise placement of the material on the jighead. These factors cause the jig to undulate, breathe and pulse during different parts of the retrieve — all of which present fish with a powerfully attractive visual. At rest, the jig’s fibers expand outward, giving off the illusion of a puff of scales after a predator slashes through a school of baitfish.”
Like most jigs — but with way more bling factor — the MasterFlash is a versatile, fish-catching machine. Anglers can fish the MasterFlash Jig “as is,” or combine with any host plastic softbaits or live/dead bait. Combine it with a B FISH N Pulse-R to make a lethal swim jig, or impale a shiner or sucker minnow for long-line and pop-jigging scenarios.
The MasterFlash Jig is available in four weights: 1/8 ounce; ¼ ounce; 3/8 ounce; and 5/8 ounce, covering all fishing situations, shallow to deep. This unique jig comes in six color combinations that give off more flash, action and attraction than any other gamefish jig on the market! Each jig features over 300 multi-colored strands of 1/69” tinsel held in place with a flexible collar slid over our unique “keeper” molded into the jig head. Many anglers will add a little Super Glue gel around the collar to really grip the tinsel to the jig.
Colors include MF-RGWS (Rainbow Glitter Jig Head with White, Silver, and Transparent Tinsel mix); MF-PGR (Purple Glitter Jig Head with a Rainbow Tinsel Mix); MF-CGSG (Chartreuse Glitter Jig Head with Chartreuse Spring Green Tinsel Mix); MF-GGG (Gold Glitter Jig Head with a Gold Tinsel Mix); MF-SGS (Silver Glitter Jig Head with a Silver/Black/Blue Tinsel Mix); and MF-OGO (Orange Glitter Jig Head with an Orange Tinsel Mix).
ABOUT
Custom Jigs & Spins started almost 30 years ago producing high quality ice fishing lures. We continue today by improving our existing lures and developing new ones with input from our Pro-Staff and suggestions from serious ice anglers. We’re extremely proud that some of our newest lures, as well as many of our tried and true favorites like the Ratso, Shrimpo, Nuclear Ant and Rat Finkee, have crossed over into the open water market.
We at Custom Jigs & Spins, Inc. use only the highest quality raw materials including Owner and Mustad hooks. Most all of our lures are hand painted with a super hard finish and paint free eyes.”
Our other quality brands include B FISH N Tackle, Flu Flu®, The Worm®, Rippin Lips and Vertigo Tackle®.
By: Jim Edlund, Traditions Media, LLC
