Clone Gill: Orange Belly Bluegill

Jackall Lures, known as Jackall Bros. in Japan, was formed in 1999, but the roots of the company stretch back to the early-1990s. That's when Seiji Kato, as a Daiwa employee, designed the TD Minnow. And that TD minnow, a revolutionary jerkbait, formed the tip of a spearpoint: From that single bait, a wave of Japanese lures, techniques and trends would rise to become a major force across the American bass scene.

Seiji Kato left Daiwa in 1994 in order to join an upstart lure manufacturer named Lucky Craft – a company created solely to showcase his talents. After years of success at Lucky Craft, with designs that included the Pointer Minnow, Bevy Shad, Sammy, LV and Flash Minnow, Kato left Lucky Craft to form Jackall Bros. with Japanese JB Top 50 pro Toshiro Ono. Kato wanted more creative control in the design and production of his baits, and he got that with the new Jackall business partnership.

The Jackall offices on the shores of famed Lake Biwa – home of the world-record bass – house several high-tech investments that help drive Jackall's innovative edge. Kato can design a bait, then send the specs to an in-house computer where an ultra-high-tech sculpting machine carves out the design in exact detail in a matter of hours. Then he can literally walk out the door and start testing it on Biwa. Shortcuts such as this mean Jackall can refine R&D baits many more times than its competitors can.

Jackall actually helped start the dropshot craze in America with its Crosstail Shad, and the new Clone Gill is a high-test, hyper-realistic addition to the company's finesse plastics line. It's a natural for the dropshot rig, but can also be fished on a light jighead to create the illusion of a sunfish rooting around on bottom or robbing eggs. An absolute killer for sightfishing in the spring or for working the post-spawn bedding-bluegill bite.

Accents include realistic eyes and fins, textured scale pattern and hand-airbrushed colors.

Style: Swimbait hybrid

Material: Soft-plastic

Length: 2 1/2 inches

Extras: Hand-airbrushed colors

Colors: baby-bass -- baby-bluegill -- black-crappie -- bluegill -- ghost-bluegill -- green-shad -- orange-belly/bluegill -- threadfin-shad