# The urchin bait wave, from the factory side

> An urchin bait sold out in the US and the industry copied it in weeks. The copies share the shape, not the sink rate - plastisol and salt load are why.

Source: https://luressource.com/opportunities/the-urchin-bait-wave-from-the-factory-side/

Direct answer. An urchin-style soft bait sold out in the US market in 2026 and was copied across the industry within weeks. The copies share the shape but not the performance, because the two fields that decide how a soft bait fishes - the plastisol grade and the salt load - are the two a copy cuts first. Buyers can settle the difference by asking for specific gravity and sink rate rather than softness, sampling two consecutive batches, and writing salt content into the order. Key facts. 1) Sports Illustrated reported the bait sold out and was "instantly copied to death"; Wired2Fish published a make-your-own guide because stock was unavailable. 2) A soft bait needs no steel tooling, so the shape can be copied from photographs within weeks. The formula cannot be seen and is copied later, if at all. 3) Our Soft Lure sample holds six listings from US$0.20 to US$3.75 at MOQ 50 to 1,000 - an 18.8x spread inside one sub-type. 4) Salt is the cheapest filler in a soft bait and the first thing a copy reduces. Salt load sets specific gravity, and specific gravity sets sink rate. 5) The MOQ floor of 50 on soft plastics is low enough that a buyer can sample two batches before committing. Frequently asked questions. Q: What is an urchin bait? A: A soft plastic bait with a spined, urchin-like body. The 2026 wave in the US bass market centred on the Hideup Coike, which appeared at the Bassmaster Classic as a mystery bait and then sold out. Q: Why do the copies not fish the same? A: Because a soft bait's behaviour comes from its formula, not its outline. Plastisol grade sets the flex and the durability; salt load sets the specific gravity and therefore the sink rate. A copy can match the outline from a photograph and still sink at a different speed. Q: What should I ask a supplier instead of how soft it is? A: Ask for specific gravity and sink rate, ideally in centimetres per second. Softness is a feel word. Specific gravity is a number, and a supplier who has measured it can give you one. Q: Why sample two batches rather than one? A: Filler dosing drifts between production runs. Two consecutive batches sunk side by side will show whether the factory controls that drift or leaves it to the operator. Q: Does writing salt content into the order actually help? A: It converts a feel into a specification. Once the salt content and the test method are on the order, a batch that misses them is a deviation you can raise, rather than a difference you have to absorb. Sources (6). 1) Sports Illustrated - Sold Out and Instantly Copied to Death — https://www.si.com/onsi/fishing/bass-fishing/urchin-bait-craze-sold-out-copied 2) Wired2Fish - If You Can't Find Urchin Baits in Stock, Making Your Own Works Just Fine — https://www.wired2fish.com/tackle-tips/if-you-cant-find-urchin-baits-in-stock-making-your-own-w 3) On The Water - Bass Fishing Trends from ICAST 2026 — https://onthewater.com/bass-fishing-trends-from-icast-2026 4) Our Soft Lure sample records, price bands and MOQ floors — internal record 5) UN Comtrade — China export statistics under HS 9507, 2023-2024 (retrieved from the official API) — https://comtradeplus.un.org/ 6) Harmonized System heading 9507 (rods, hooks, reels, lures) — US HTS lookup — https://hts.usitc.gov/ If you went looking for a Coike in June, you already know how that went. It is a soft bait covered in spines, like a sea urchin, made by Hideup. It turned up at the Bassmaster Classic as one of two mystery baits, and then it was simply gone - sold out, back-ordered, and on the secondary market at prices nobody wanted to pay. It turned up at the 2026 Bassmaster Classic as one of two mystery baits, and then it was gone. Sports Illustrated ran the headline Sold Out and Instantly Copied to Death . Wired2Fish went further and published a guide to making your own, on the grounds that you were not going to find one to buy. I spend more time in factories in Weihai than I do on the water, and what I see in this story is not a hit product. It is a purchasing problem, and it is one that repeats every couple of years. How fast the copies arrive A soft bait does not need a steel mould. A silicone tool costs a fraction of an injection tool, and an outline can be copied from a photograph. The practical window between a bait going viral and copies appearing on shelves is now measured in weeks, not seasons. That is the part everyone notices. The part that matters is what the copy does and does not carry across. A soft bait's shape is visible. Its formula is not. So copies arrive matching the outline first, and the feel second, if it arrives at all. Our own sample shows the shape of that gap. Across six Soft Lure listings, unit prices run from US$0.20 to US$3.75 - an 18.8x spread inside a single sub-type, with MOQ floors from 50 to 1,000. From a photograph, those six baits are hard to tell apart. The two fields a copy cuts first A soft bait's cost sits in three places: the plastisol, the salt, and the labour. The first two are what decide how it fishes. The plastisol. PVC plastisol is sold in grades. Plasticiser ratio sets how soft the bait is and how much it flexes. UV stabiliser sets whether it survives an afternoon in the sun or goes hard in a car over a summer. Colour carrier sets whether the colour reads as translucent or as paint. A cheaper plastisol is soft out of the bag too. It is three months later that the difference shows. The salt. This is the one that decides whether you can use the bait at all. Salt is what gives a soft plastic its density, and density is what sets sink rate. More salt, higher specific gravity, faster sink - deep water, current Less salt, lower specific gravity, slow flutter - shallow water, pressured fish Salt is also the cheapest filler in the bait. A copy that has to hit a lower price cuts there first. The result is a bait that matches the original on the shelf and falls through the water at a different speed - which means the retrieve you learned on the original no longer works. That is what "copied to death" actually means. Not that the copies look wrong. That they look right and fish differently, and you cannot tell at the point of sale. Three things a buyer can do Ask for specific gravity, not softness. "How soft is it" produces an adjective. Ask for specific gravity, and for sink rate in centimetres per second. A supplier who has measured either one will give you a number. One who has not will describe the bait again. Buy two consecutive batches, not one sample. Filler dosing drifts between runs. Two batches sunk side by side in a tank will show whether the factory controls that drift or leaves it to whoever is on the line that shift. This is not necessarily dishonesty - it is dosing tolerance - but it is the difference between a supplier you can write a specification with and one you cannot. Put salt content on the order, not on the packaging. This is the one that pays. The MOQ floor on soft plastics in our sample is 50 pieces, which is low enough to trial a run. Write the salt content with a tolerance, the specific gravity, the sink rate, and the method used to test them. Once those are on the order, a batch that misses them is a deviation you can raise rather than a difference you have to absorb. The wave will pass It always does. A shape gets hot for a reason, the industry makes it, and two years later it is a standard option on the shelf. What does not pass is the underlying problem. The outline of a soft bait is public the moment it sells; the formula never is. So the buying question was never can I find this bait . It is can I say which version of it I want . Say it, and a supplier cannot sell you the wrong one. Cannot say it, and the only lever left is price - and the end of that road is a bait that sinks at the wrong speed. Related reading Urchin Baits After ICAST 2026 Fishing Lure Trends for 2027: What US Tackle Buyers Should Watch After ICAST 2026