NOT MANY PEOPLE remember who finished second in the 2009 Bassmaster Classic on Louisiana’s Red River, but Mike Iaconelli does, because he was that runner-up angler. The same thing can be said about the lure he used, and the New Jersey pro is happy about that because it means not that many fishermen are using what has long been a mainstay in his own winter tackle arsenal.
The lure is a tube, the soft-plastic, hollow-body bait with squid-like tentacles the late Bobby Garland designed and introduced in 1964. He called his creation the Fat Gitzit, and not long after its introduction, Garland sold $250,000 worth of them during a four-day promotion at Bass Pro Shops.
Guido Hibdon, Denny Brauer and Woo Daves won their Classics (1988, 1998 and 2000, respectively) with tubes; and Iaconelli lost that 2009 Classic by only 11 ounces. How could a lure with a pedigree that strong be forgotten?
“Fishermen forget about certain lures as new baits, and especially as new techniques, are introduced,” believes Iaconelli, “so it falls off the radar. Then, after a few years, it sometimes gets ‘rediscovered’ all over again.
