As a second captain and media representative of the Romanian Team at the Trout World Championship from Shore in Croatia in 2010 I just couldn’t be passive and not notice the lure that brought Alexey Shanin to the podium. It took me a while to find the exact lure, but with persistence I managed.

From the look of it I knew it was 100% Japan Domestic Market stuff, so I narrowed my search a lil’ bit. I had to go through whatever Japanese tackle manufacturers i could find. After searching for a few hours  I remembered one in particular, from my 2008 visit at EFTTEX in Rome. It’s SMITH lures we’re talking about. They probably have the most complete set of trout lures amongst all lure manufacturers not only in Japan, but probably in the entire world.

The actual winner lure is SMITH Luna(R), a 47mm suspending jerkbait, that creates a lot of flash when twiched in the water.  I supposed it was suspending, as i didn’t see it fall when stopped. I watched Alexey closely in the last 2 rounds of the competition.

I really have to say Smith lures are among the rarest lures ever. I’ve already been searching for a few years for some exact models, that even today i wasn’t able to find, so this was definitely not the easiest search to buy one exact model. I couldn’t believe my luck when I stumbled upon 2 of these lures, after 3-4 days of searching. Even these were stated as used.  Just my luck! I couldn’t take a chance and ordered them instantly. Payed 34$ for 2 lures, transport included. Not the priciest so far, but certainly the rarest.

After a 2 week wait I finally got them. They were the most exquisite small jerkbaits i’ve ever seen. What I loved about them was their size. A tad smaller than the 48SP Pointers, and less bulkier, and felt much much smaller than Yo-Zuri’s 50mm Pin’s Magnet. Two more lures I couldn’t leave home without.

First impressions. There’s not much to say about the packaging of the lures, as they had none. They were stated as used. Very well finished, not  even the slightest scratch on the paint job, so I don’t really get what “used” was supposed to mean in this case. These are plastic jerkbaits. You will definitely not get trout wooden jerkbaits at this price. For realism they all have holographic 3D eyes, but this aspect is more for the fisherman than for the fish.  They are equipped with high quality components as far as I can tel. One of them has Owner Cultiva barbless trebles, while the other has regular trebles (barbed). I can’t really tell who their manufacturer is, but they seem the same as on the 48SP Lucky Craft Pointers. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Application. I intend to use it especially in rivers for both chub and trout. I prefer trout, but chub is what I got closer by. I especially like to throw these type of lures in the shade, under tree branches, and start with short twiches, reeling in very slowly (mainly to get the slack of the line). It gives the fish more time to notice the flashes of my lure.

When fishing on fast flowing trout streams I may use a steady retrieve with short twiches from time to time when casting directly down stream, and when casting upstream or sideways I do a lot of twiching to make sure my lure gets noticed from a distance.

We’re eager to get them tested, but the weather is against us this weekend. We’ll have to see what happens when the waters clear.

About Andrei

Professional angler, rodbuilder, lurebuilder, if it's about fishing you name it, he does it. He hates "relaxing", and takes each day as a challange. Whenever he's got a spare moment he's either fishing, cycling, hiking or training his ass at the gym. He's fishing for more than 20 years now. Strictly on artifficial baits from the age of 7, he's always on the look out for the newest stuff and techniques out there.

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