I have been fishing with PowerBait soft plastics for 25 years now, and in that time, they have caught me thousands of fish. The Power Minnow or Bass Minnow was my number one choice back at the start of my lure fishing journey and they still perform as great today as they did back then. I think most anglers from my era had their first plastics fishing experience using a Berkley PowerBait.

It’s been Interesting to see the PowerBait range of plastics evolve over the years. Did you know that Berkley have a scientific and engineering department for research and development for PowerBait and other great products? Their research has shown that fish on average fish hang onto PowerBait 18 times longer than other brands of plastics. Some might ask, how do they make a great bait better? Berkley are always coming up with new designs, and the latest shapes are a testament to the development of their product from this great department.
2022 is an exciting year for Berkley, releasing new shapes such as the Fan Tail Shrimp & Craw plus bringing new sizes to the table in Forktail Minnows and last, but not least, new colours in the PowerBait Nemesis, Nemesis Paddletail and 2.5” Power Grub.

I’ve recently had the pleasure of putting the Fan Tail Shrimp, Craw and the new sizes of Forktail Minnows through their paces in my local waterway, and WOW, don’t they know how to catch fish!
The Fan Tail Shrimp is going to be a killer. Three sizes 2”, 3” and 4” and 6 great fish attracting colours, that will attract a lot of different fish with its unique lifelike action. Unlike any plastic on the market, the Fan Tail Shrimp looks very much like a fleeing prawn with lots of movement that will attract fish from a distance. Each time I’ve tied one on, fish can’t resist, they hunt them down like they haven’t seen food for a week.

The Fan Tail Shrimp are great for bream, flathead, snapper, jewfish, barra and just about anything that swims. This is a must have in any tackle bag.

Another great addition to the PowerBait range is the Craw. Coming in two sizes, 2.5” and 3.5” with six great colours to suit a wide variety of conditions. Your colour choices are Camo, Houdini, Black UV, Bloodworm, Cappuccino & Pumpkinseed. The Craw has a lifelike crayfish shape with unique claws that have been designed to generate a strong swimming action that will draw fish to them immediately. Even when rigged with a lightly weighted hook, the claws still work overtime on the lift and sink.

Being a topwater addict during the warmer months, the Craw impressed me with its ability to be thrown around structure unweighted and worked across the surface with my rod tip up high. The pincers giving off a double paddling action that looks so much like a fleeing crayfish, proving to be deadly. A bit of an all-rounder, the Craw can be thrown near structure or used in open water and will be the undoing of most crab and crayfish crunchers. Bream, Bass, flathead are just a few that come to mind.

Just when I thought the new shapes were good enough, I still had to try out the two new sizes in the PowerBait Forktail Minnow lineup. A Proven fish magnet since their initial release in 2021 which saw a 3.5” model hit the market, now a 4.5” and 5.5” version have emerged to target those larger species. A deeper bodied minnow with just the right action and profile to mimic baitfish found in most systems across Australia. Coming in 6 fantastic colours to suit anything from freshwater dams, estuaries & offshore work. Big fish Like barra, jewfish, snapper & flathead will go crazy for this larger profile. Fish these with a light jig head & they will be irresistible, so you better hang on!

Berkley are on a winner with these new additions to their range, and I’m excited to see them hit the shelves!

By Stephen Wilson (The Wiz) – Berkley Pro Team