The VMC® Bladed Hybrid Treble will tweak your favorite baits that making fish freak. The VMC Bladed Hybrid was awarded “Best Terminal Tackle” by the American Sportfishing Association at ICAST 2019, the world’s largest sportfishing expo. This win marks the second in a row for VMC in this category, since the Skirted Neko Weight took home the Tackle title in 2018. The flashy VMC Bladed Hybrid Treble will become available at sporting goods retailers nationwide and online at Rapala.com in August 2019.
One of 1,000+ new products submitted by nearly 300 companies in the annual expo’s New Product Showcase, the VMC Bladed Hybrid Treble stood out from the competition in the Terminal Tackle category as an extra-flashy addition to all of your favorite baits. The treble promises to become one of this year’s must-have new products not only for bass fishing, but also multiple species in both freshwater and saltwater.
“In this day and age, it’s never been more important to make your bait stand out from the norm,” says VMC Pro and Bassmaster Elite Series competitor Mike “Ike” Iaconelli.
The Bladed Hybrid Treble is made up of a small silver willow blade attached by a resin-sealed split ring to the back of a 1X-strong, wide-gap, short-shank, high-carbon steel VMC Hybrid Treble. On the split-ring, the willow-leaf trailer can rotate 360 degrees so a bait’s built-in action can make it kick out in any direction. Each time it does, it will catch any light penetrating the water column and flash. A video demonstration of the Bladed Hybrid Treble in action can be found on Rapala’s YouTube channel.
“That little extra flash in that bait is a triggering mechanism,” Iaconelli says. “Every type of bait fish I know of, if it’s a forager swimming in the water, guess what? It flashes.”
Adding a Bladed Hybrid Treble to your favorite bait can be “such a big thing to catch fish and get extra bites,” Iaconelli says. Adding one to crankbaits like Rapala® DTs and BX Brats “combines the appeal of a spinnerbait or a bladed jig with that flash,” he explains. “As that thing’s rooting along, that blade is flashing and rotating. It’ll stop, and that blade will kick, taking a bait that’s already good and making it better.”
Jerkbaits like Rapala Shadow Raps and Shadow Rap Shads will also get the Bladed Hybrid Treble treatment from Iaconelli. “Those fish will trigger when they see that bait doing the regular side-to-side, they see it stop and suspend, and then that blade kicks,” he says. “The ability to add more flash – without changing the action – becomes key.”
“There are no rules – you can modify or change any bait that uses a treble,” Iaconelli says.
And Bladed Hybrid Trebles are “not just for bass,” Iaconelli says. You’ll enjoy success with them
targeting multiple species in both freshwater and saltwater.
“The bottom line is that extra flash, that little bit of extra vibration, is going to get you more bites and put more fish in the boat,” Iaconelli says.
Pro tip: On large hard-baits with three treble hooks, switch out the middle hook rather than the tail hook with a Bladed Hybrid Treble. This will improve your hook-up ratio by minimizing short strikes. Fish will instinctively attack the flash in the center of the bait.
VMC Hybrid Treble hooks are available in four sizes: 2, 4, 6 and 8. VMC is a Rapala Respected
Brand.