Sold Out and Instantly Copied to Death: Inside Bass Fishing's Wild Urchin Bait Craze

It's sold out, it's been cloned by half the industry, and we found the one pro willing to say which version is actually worth throwing.

One bait in focus, and imitators filling in behind it — the exact scene playing out on tackle shop shelves right now. | Photo by Kurt Mazurek

If you’ve been able to get your hands on an original Hideup Coike in the past month, you’re either very lucky or well connected. “Sold Out” is what the rest of us are finding. After multiple high-profile tournament wins, proven success on both sides of bass fishing's biggest technology debate, and nearly every soft plastic manufacturer—from garage crafters to industry giants—racing to build its own version, the urchin-style bait category has quickly transitioned from a popular trend to a full-blown craze.

It's winning, and bridging the FFS divide

Baits like these started to creep into the consciousness of American bass anglers after a couple of strong showings by Elite anglers, Taku Ito and Kyoya Fujita. While their performances were worth noting, those guys are well-known as specialists who utilize forward-facing sonar. That put those “crazy looking baits” they were throwing in a category that a huge percentage of anglers wouldn’t touch.

For anyone still wondering if these urchin baits could catch bass, Jason Christie pull all doubt to rest at the Pasquotank Bassmaster Elite event. | B.A.S.S.

But then, during a one-month period late this past spring, anglers won three major tournaments on three different lakes throwing an urchin-style bait—without FFS. Chris Johnston took the Santee Cooper Elite in May, Alex Davis grabbed $100,000 at the NPFL Lay Lake event shortly after, and Jason Christie, who says he had barely thrown one before the Pasquotank River Elite tourney (technically FFS was allowed, but Christie explained he was only using it for careful boat navigation around cypress stumps), got his 10th career Bassmaster win.

A bait that works for anglers on both sides of the FFS divide isn't a niche trend. It seems to be a fact that bass love it, and now it’s for everybody.

Every manufacturer wants an urchin bait of its own

As has been the case in the fishing industry for a long time, once the wins started stacking up, the urchin-style copycats arrived almost immediately. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for the anglers—that’s just business. Yamamoto has a full lineup now. Berkley has the MaxScent 'Moeba. Rapala's CrushCity brand has "The CEO." ICAST 2026 will likely be remembered as the year of the urchin. It’s not just a company or two testing the water. This is the gold rush of the moment, and every company wants to get their share. Again, it’s not a knock on anyone. These companies can’t afford not to have one.

Which makes it hard to get a straight answer

Another sign that we’ve reached the ‘craze’ stage is the real unbiased reporting problem someone like myself faces. Almost every top pro I considered interviewing for this article is now aligned with a brand manufacturing their version of the Coike. For an earlier article I spoke with Trey McKinney about these baits at the Bassmaster Classic back in March. Now his sponsor 6th Sense offers The Abstract Creature. Chris Johnston's sponsor, SPRO, imports the original. Alex Davis is aligned with CrushCity. And I don’t mean to imply any of these guys would lie to me, because they are all genuinely good, trustworthy people. It’s just business. The gold rush has moved fast enough that real conversations about these baits are kind of locked up.

Which urchin should I throw?

Matt Allen of Tactical Bassin' is one of my favorite sources for dependable bass fishing information. | Tactical Bassin'

So I called Matt Allen. He and Tim Little are the longtime hosts of the YouTube channel Tactical Bassin’. As I’ve said many times over the years, these guys are one of my favorite resources for accurate bass fishing gear and technique analysis.

Allen told me he has fished most of what's about to hit ICAST. When I asked for the top three urchin baits in his tackle box, he answered surprisingly quickly. He led with the original: "I would prioritize the original Hideup Coike, simply because it's the original... it's ridiculous not to at least acknowledge what started the trend. And it’s a proven performer.” But for anglers looking for a Coike alternative that might actually be in stock, he offered a couple alternatives. Check out the Berkley 'Moeba, because its scent-infused MaxScent formula is a unique and effective point of differentiation. And coming in at number three, Allen chose the Yamamoto Uni HD model because of its extra-large profile, and because Yamamoto’s design provides a bit of extra motion thanks to the little nubs on the end of each arm.

But he's not buying or selling the urchin-mania either. "I've probably owned 15 brands of truly identical baits," he said — same lure, different label. They all seem to work, but there are only a few like the ones he called out that do anything genuinely different. And even the best of them isn't automatic. Allen says, based on his own experience and intel from some of his most trusted sources, the urchin is THE bait on some lakes, and just another bait on other lakes. While he says he hasn’t found them to be magical or mind-blowing, he will admit, "I hate how well they work.” Remember, urchin-style baits are a tool worth having in the box, not a cheat code.

Where does the Coike land?

A big part of a craze like this can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, too. When FOMO (fear of missing out) makes every angler feel like they must have one tied on, more of these baits get thrown, more of them get bit, the fish see less options, and the winning streak continues. Would Johnston, Davis, or Christie have boated the same bags working the same water with a Senko instead? Impossible to say for sure, and I realize I’m in no position to second-guess some of the best in the sport. But maybe. Very possibly, even.

If, like me, you’ve been fishing long enough to remember, the Yamamoto Senko, closely followed by countless other brand's soft-plastic stick baits, went through a very similar craze-cycle 25 years ago. It's still in every serious angler's arsenal today, long after the hype has faded. So, the real test for any bass bait is not whether it wins right now, when it’s the only bait everyone is throwing, but whether it's still tied on once the craze moves somewhere else.