Opening my tackle box had become a monotonous, redundant search for my old favorite lure. The long, slender bodied topwater had battle scars from one end to the other. Just last month I had to replace the once razor sharp, counter rotating hooks that had long passed the point of ever retaining their original shape and sharpness.

Now it was a sad looking lure which was once my prize possession, proudly showing it off to other anglers, knowing how jealous they would be. I had nicknamed the lure Fish Trap because any fish that got close would get caught.

All that is history now. Almost every lure company has released new baits for this year. I believe there's a new Fish Trap coming to my tackle box. Unless you have been under a rock, or out golfing, the latest craze in soft plastic baits is a swimbait. YUM Lures has come out with a swimbait with a realistic profile, natural swimming action, and super soft body. The YUM Money Minnow has a unique feature for a swimbait, a hook slot in the belly of the bait. This allows for better hook sets and makes it easier to properly rig so the bait will run true. This eliminated a number of problems that soft swimbaits have encountered in the past. To fish a Money Minnow, an angler can just simply cast it out and retrieve it back in slowly, or cast around boat docks. Even I can do that! The YUM Fat Money Minnow (www.yumlures.com) is another lure added to their swimbait line. It comes packaged with four nail weights, two 7/0-hooks, and in comes in eleven natural color patterns. Another new product from YUM is the Money Craw which has been hand painted for an extremely realistic look. Finally, YUM has also made a smaller size, same action in their Baby Dancin' Eel, Dooze, and two new colors in their TroutKrilla.

Next up is BOOYAH Bait Company (www.booyahbaits.com), who is making the one and only Jimmy Houston's Vibra-FLX Spinnerbait. The spinnerbait frame is built on Vibra-FLX wire causing an incredible amount of vibration. It comes in 2 sizes and if Jimmy kisses all the bass he catches on it, he will need some Chap-Stick for his lips. Not wanting to miss out on the action, Zell Rowland, designed the Zell's Pip-Zqueek with a flat head, a Leverage Flexible Hook System, and comes in 2 sizes.

If having 2 legendary professional anglers was not enough, BOOYAH Bait Company united with Bassmaster Classic Champion and Bassmaster Elite angler, Alton Jones to duplicate his Classic winning prototype jigs that were a major part of his winning lure arsenal. The Pigskin Jig and A-Jig is available in various sizes and colors. Along with the jigs, Jones also used a spoon to catch a limit of bass on during the tournament, so a 1/2-ounce, 2 1/8-inch C.C. Spoon in both sliver and gold has been added.

Knowing big fish like big baits, XCalibur Lures (www.xcaliburlures.com) has brought back the One Knocker and introduced a 1-ounce rattle bait. Both lures are designed to be ripped through the grass or yo-yoed off the bottom. Anglers will be expecting some big bites on these lures.

Of course, I saved the best new for last, some of my favorite crankbaits will come in a new color, Foxy Shad, a natural looking shad with a streak of chartreuse color pattern has been added to a select group of popular crankbaits: 3 models of Bomber Model A crankbaits, all 4 Bomber Fat Free Shad crankbaits, as well as all XCalibur Xr Series lipless crankbaits.

After adding in all the new baits, I can now go fishing. I'm no longer hiding my tackle box from my friends; in fact, look at these new colors of crankbaits I have. Oh, and that old beat up lure? I only keep it in my tackle box for sentimental reasons!