I tried to do my research before Saturday to give myself bait options - obviously found Berkley Soft Bait, Berkley Powerbait, Berkley Havoc�, Berkley Gulp!, and Gulp Alive - and now I am hearing that Sebile is a bait company (man I could freaking kick myself for not knowing that).


Are there others?

I don't know. But I hated their finesse worms!!! So dang soft. Literally, 1 bait per fish caught. And we went through ton of them Saturday!

Anything manufactured by any company under the Pure Fishing umbrella, I think.

Yep...I saw your partner puttin the hurt on you in that cute pink outfit! Good to see you out there Chris!

I just wish I had known about Sebile...you can google Pure Fishing and all it will show you is Berkley products as a brand (now owned by Newell Brands). Today when I googled "Sebile bought by Pure Fishing" it shows info on the transaction...from like 2010! Dang it!

I had some Sebile topwaters, a frog or two and some of their traps - I throw mostly drop shot and t-rigged plastics anyway this time of year but I sure would have liked to try a spoon on that roadbed at the mouth of Big Caney!

Live and Learn - had a fun time. It was fun catching a bunch of fish on Saturday....we only had two on Sunday

Pure fishing covers a lot of different manufacturing companies. Ken, I guess I posted the info to late, FYI - Johnson makes spoons, beetle spins, etc... All under the pure fishing umbrella.... I have some big Sebile topwater baits..

Pure fishing company umbrella
Berkley
Berkley Havoc
Johnson
Sebile
Abu Garcia makes some inline spinners, jerk baits, and spoons
Suppose if you had some vintage pflueger and/or Shakespeare lures, those
might qualify

OMG!!!!!!!!!! Beatle Spins, spoons ---- more chit to buy for next year! I had fun throwing my t-rig with the blue fleck power worm!!!

Not trying to be a jacka$$ at all here but isn't this listed on Champs website? Not sure why the TFF would be the place to acquire this data and be 100% sure it was correct?

I had no idea you could use Sebile baits until the overall big bass winner said he caught her with a Sebile Crankbait. The rules stated Berkley products exclusively which meant to me; Berkley Powerbait, Berkley Havoc�, Berkley Gulp, and Gulp Alive.

Yes, I just read the rules they are confusing.

Special Rules:
� All contestants must use Berkley baits EXCLUSIVELY during this event. This now includes the NEW Berkley Hard Baits-Pitbull, Bad Shad, Warpig, and Cutter hard baits.
� Spinner bait frames, jig heads, buzz bait frames, ect may be used only when broken down to terminal tackle where ALL skirts and plastics have been removed and replaced with ONLY BERKLEY PRODUCTS.
� All terminal tackle must include a �functional� full length Berkley skirt and/or Berkley soft plastic.
� Non-Berkley skirts and soft plastic trailers are NOT permitted.

http://www.basschamps.com/berkleyRules.cfm

I emailed Bass Champs for clarification and Jeff W. answered: As in years past any bait under the Berkley/Pure Fishing brand is allowed, the difference was before the new hard baits came out last year, the number one question we had was �what do I use for a crank bait?� so we highlighted Sebile. Since there are numerous options now within the Berkley/Pure-Fishing hardbait line up, Sebile was not highlighted as in years past but well within the rules. This year the highlighted baits were the newly released crank baits. They sold a lot of the new crank baits and sebile crank baits under the Berkley tent for this event along with Johnson beetle Spins and Silver Minnows!

Thanks Jeff for your response.

Those rules could be more clear. Not everyone would know Sebile was allowed.

It would really be helpful to everyone if the rules were more specific.

- Every year, the rules are unclear about what baits can be used.
- Every year, people come in the store confused about what baits they can use.
- Every year, I call Bass Champs and ask if Sebile and Johnson are legal.
- Every year, they say yes.

Based on this thread, it looks like the problem is more commn than I thought.

Bass Champs: PLEASE, a few additional words (i.e., Sebile, Johnson) printed in the rules would save everyone a lot of confusion.

Shameless plug: Oak Ridge Marina showcases and carries all of the legal manufacturers during the Berkley tournament!

I would deffinately agree on the statement of the rules, it isnt to hard to add the additional lines of text being more specific.

Either way, it was a great tournament with a good turn out and great fishing. I will admit that if I had known about the other baits that could have been used, then I would have bought such baits, thus increasing my donation to the Pure Fishing Company....yay everyone wins :P

Why don't they just call it the Pure Fishing Tournament, seems like they are leaving themselves wide open to protest, saying Berkley only, and then allowing other brands by the Mother corporation.