By Joe Cermele

In past years, I've shown you some of the new lures from ICAST in photo gallery form. This year I thought it was time to step up the game. Starting today, I'm going to post a pool test video every week, highlighting seven of what I considered the most unique, innovative or eye-catching lures you'll see on the shelves this fall or in early 2012. I think the action of a lure tells you a lot more about a its potential than a photo. First up, ABT's new Banshee Swimbait, which John Merwin posted about this week. Click here to read what John had to say, then watch the video and tell me if you think the Banshee is as sexy as I do. In the coming weeks you'll see everything from new ice jigs to creatures to topwaters.

By John Merwin

The guy in the photo is ABT Lures founder Allen Borden, shown at the recent ICAST fishing-industry trade show. The lure he’s holding is a four-sectioned hard-body swimbait called “Banshee.” It’s a good lure, but for veteran lure-designer Borden, it’s an even bigger bet.

I got the story behind the story through a quick interview. Borden was a California roofing contractor for 21 years. Also a fisherman, he had ideas for new lures as so many fishermen do. About 10 years ago, he started fooling around with carving and then molding hard-plastic baits. Eventually he made some jointed hard-bodied swimmers that he showed at ICAST in 2003.

Strike King, one of the major lure brands, picked up both the lure and Borden shortly thereafter. For the next 7 years, Borden was a Strike King lure designer creating such well-known jointed hardbaits as the King Shad.

By Joe Cermele

Though we've seen plenty of topwaters, flies and spinners in our ongoing vintage tackle contest, trolling lures are few and far between. This Fishmaster, sent in by Doug Tichenor, caught my eye because though old, it has a striking resemblance to some offshore trolling lures still being produced today. Doug wrote:

This is a Fishmaster lure from the Fishmaster Sporting Goods Co. in Wollaston, Massachusetts. It is plastic with a 36 inch monofilament leader attached to a plastic attractor. The lure fills with water and turns while being trolled. I actually caught a lake trout on it once! I acquired the lure from an uncle years ago.

By Joe Cermele

Not long ago I posted about VMC's new and very innovative SpinShot hooks, which make rigging and presenting a drop-shot rig much faster, easier and more effective. The SpinShots, by the way, won the "Best New Terminal Tackle" category at ICAST. But there were other examples of really smart, yet simple, tackle tweaks on the show floor. Take Bullet Weights' new Tungsten Carolina Rig (below). The whole package weighs the same as the 3/4-ounce brass weight in the photo, yet is more streamlined, lands more softly, and let's you switch plastics and leader lengths a heck of a lot faster.