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New Products March 2013

By Chris Woodward

Updated: March 27, 2013

All the Rage

Accurate Fishing Products has entered the single-drag market with the Boss Fury. Offered in single-speed sizes — with gear ratios of 4.1‑to‑1 or 6.1‑to‑1 — and in two-speed models, featuring 3.1‑to‑1 and 6.1‑to‑1 ratios (400 and 500 sizes) and 2.2‑to‑1 and 5.1‑to‑1 (600 size), Furys are made from aircraft aluminum. They feature stainless-steel gears and a wet-drag system. The 400s hold 400 yards of 40-pound braid; 500s carry 425 yards of 50-pound braid; 600s hold 450 yards of 65-pound braid. Prices range from $279 to $399. Call 888-222-8372 or visit accuratefishing.com.

Dynamic Trio

Costa has started its 30th-anniversary year -introducing the first three of 13 new sunglass styles for 2013: Tuna Alley, Saltbreak and Cat Cay. Tuna Alley ($169), a large, wraparound frame, features front vents and comes in tortoise, matte black, white, crystal, and blackout. Saltbreak ($179) features a large frame and comes in tortoise, matte black, silver, white, and blackout. Cat Cay ($129; tortoise, shiny black, blackout, sky) has an open slot in the frame arms to attach a retainer cord. All can be fitted with any of Costa’s 580 glass or polycarbonate lenses. Call 800‑447‑3700 or visit costadelmar.com.

Bait Hotel

For those who own small boats without built-in livewells or just need to transport bait from truck to vessel, Engel offers the new Live Bait Cooler. The cooler pairs an Engel insulated, polypropylene dry box with a 2×2 air pump (two speed, two-way power). The pump forces air through a 24-inch tube to a weighted air stone to aerate the water. An EVA lid gasket keeps water from splashing out while under way. Available in 13-, 19-, and 30-quart models, the livewell/coolers cost $64.99, $69.99, and $79.99. Call 561‑743‑7419 or visit **engel-usa.com.

Portable Planner

Garmin‘s BlueChart Mobile app allows current-generation iPad and iPhone users to view shaded depth contours and intertidal zones with spot soundings, see weather conditions overlaid on the charts, and search through BlueChart and ActiveCaptain services. Use the radial menu to mark waypoints or establish a route. Aboard your vessel, the Garmin Wi-Fi adapter connects your iPad to your networked Garmin plotter to transfer routes, waypoints and tracks. After downloading the free app from iTunes, purchase BlueChart maps from within the settings for $29.99 (U.S. coastal) to $69.99; the weather data costs $3.99. The Wi-Fi adapter kit costs $199.99. Call 800‑800‑1020 or visit garmin.com.

Plastics’ Bags

Hogy now offers three sizes of Soft-Bait Storage Bags designed to hold longer eels and tubes from 12 to 32 inches. The five-pocket fold-up bags are made from marine-grade mesh, without the clear-nylon pouches that can react with soft plastics. Hogy says up to 20 unpackaged baits fit in each pocket, though the bags also accommodate baits in original packaging. The bags can be rolled up and secured with the attached hook-and-loop straps. Available in red, green or black, the bags start at $24.95. Call 508‑444‑8764 or visit hogylures.com.

Dual View

Lowrance has added the Elite-7 Hybrid Dual Imaging series to its Elite lineup. Available as a fish-finder/chart‑plotter combo or as a stand-alone finder or plotter, the Elite-7 features a 7-inch, widescreen LED-backlit display. The screen can be divided into three panels simultaneously. Hybrid Dual Imaging combines Broadband Sounder and Downscan Imaging; anglers can overlay Downscan onto the sounder (with adjustable -transparency). Plotter models include a built-in GPS antenna and coastal mapping; they also feature a micro-SD slot for -compatible cartography. Prices range from $449 to $869. Call 800‑628‑4487 or visit lowrance.com.

Main Menu

On and off during this winter’s trout season on my home waters of coastal Georgia, I had tremendous success using Berkley‘s new 3-inch Gulp! Mantis Shrimp. Often the trout refused a live shrimp to crash these baits. The dual, split-tail design works great with a ¼‑ounce Gulp! Head. The shrimp come in resealable packages of six baits ($6.99) or in Gulp! Alive! oval ($19.99) and quart ($35.99) buckets. The packaged baits are available in 14 colors; the Alive! versions come in six colors. Call 800‑237‑5539 or visit berkley-fishing.com.

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Echo Locate

The new SI-TEX SVS-750 Digital Echo Sounder combines fish-finding and chart-plotting capabilities in a 7½-inch, 480-by-800-pixel sunlight-viewable LCD display. SI-TEX says the 600-watt, dual-frequency machine marks bottom to 4,800 feet. The SVS-750 also offers a setting that presents variable fish symbols, based on the size and type of fish marked. With an optional 50-channel GPS receiver and C-MAP MAX cartography, the unit provides full-featured plotting. A slot for an optional SD card lets fishermen record and back up important data. The unit costs $899. Call 631‑996‑2690 or visit si-tex.com.

Highly Conventional

Okuma built its new Cortez saltwater rods to deliver affordable performance. The carbon/fiberglass blanks feature a moderate/fast taper for fluid casting. Guides feature stainless-steel frames and titanium-oxide inserts. EVA fore and rear grips flank a cushioned stainless-steel-hooded reel seat. The Cortez lineup includes four models: two 6-foot-6-inch and two 7-foot rods for conventional reels. The models include medium (20- to 30-pound class) and medium-heavy (30- to 50-pound class) one-piece designs and cost $54.99. Call 800‑466‑5862 or visit[ ](http:// okumafishing.com)[okumafishing.com](http:// okumafishing.com).

Flats Power

Bombardier Recreational Products has introduced the Evinrude E-TEC 135 H.O., an outboard that should have strong application for the flats-boat market. BRP says its two-stroke design gives the 135 H.O. as much as 36 percent more torque than competitors’ 150 hp four-strokes. Essentially a detuned E-TEC 150, the 2.6‑liter V-6, oil-injected 135 H.O. weighs 418 pounds — 28 pounds more than the current E-TEC 130 V-4 outboard. The 135 H.O. comes in 20- and 25-inch models, with counterrotation on the 25-inch version for twin-engine -installations. MSRP is not available. Call 715‑848‑4957 or visit brp.com.