I don’t think that anyone will argue that Koppers LIVETARGET lures are some of the most realistic lures on the market. Lets face it, not all lures are created equal. If you placed this lure beside any of its competition, I’d be willing to bet most fishermen would choose the LIVETARGET lure simply because it just looks better. So the big question is, do these lures just catch fishermen, or do they catch fish too?

The good folks at Koppers must have paid close attention in biology class, because they have covered all the details with this lure. Not only is the profile more realistic, but the smallest details have been covered right down the the smallest fin.

After having a good look at this lure I was very impressed. One detail that I found unusual was the large LIVETARGET logo on the back of the lure. Sure there are other companies that have their logo on their lures, but for a company that worked so hard to achieve the most realistic lure they could, I found it a very odd design choice.

Just like the real thing...wait...real smelt don't have logos - or do they?

To test out these lures, I felt that I needed to try a different approach. So I asked my son Ash to try them out. You see, he doesn’t really care what his lures look like. Hell, he doesn’t even know what a smelt is, he’s two. Now, I’m not saying I’m a pro or anything, but I’m fairly certain I could catch a bass on the least realistic lure ever made. So to truly test this lure I handed the rod over to my son, a two year old with no concept of how the lure should be retrieved – how fast or how slow or how it should move through the water. Without the dexterity to create a provoking retrieve, Ash would have to rely solely on the lures good looks. I’d be lying if I said I expected him to catch a lot of fish, but thats exactly what he did.

Now none of the fish we caught were big, but between us, we landed about 10 fish – more then I have ever caught in that spot at one time. Not only did we catch a bunch of fish, but water temperatures are still below the ideal temperature. For sake of comparison, I usually fish this spot with small Rapala X-Raps, but I think that these LIVETARGET lures may have just taken their spot in my tackle box.

Stay tuned for a more in depth review!