If you’ve been a serious bass angler long enough, you’ve seen trending baits come and go. It seems like once every three or four years a new bait hits the market and the bass, along with the anglers, just can’t get enough of it. But that rise to fame is typically short lived. Like a one-hit wonder on the radio, the most popular bait one year will fade into obscurity the next.
The River2Sea Whopper Plopper in 2016 after Chris Lane’s performance on Toledo Bend, the Z-Man Jack Hammer Chatterbait in 2017, and the Berkley MaxScent Flatworm in 2019 after dominating the smallmouth fisheries up north are just a few examples. Sure, these baits are still catching fish regularly to this day. But they aren’t nearly as dominant as when they were initially introduced.
Today, this weird phenomenon continues with one of the strangest baits I’ve seen in my 20 years as a bass fisherman. The dice bait, or urchin bait, has taken the bass fishing world by storm. Here’s everything I know about this bait so far, and why they’re so desirable right now.
The Urchin Takeover
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve likely seen the dice baits and urchin baits flooding the market since ICAST last summer. Walking the show floor, it was apparent that this was the direction the bass fishing luremakers were headed, but at the time I remained skeptical as to why.
I’d seen small cubes of plastic with skirt material threaded through to make a fuzzy dice-looking bait and figured it would work, but honestly didn’t give it the time of day. Could that weird plastic that looks nothing like natural forage really outfish a hyper-realistic shad or crawfish pattern?
Yes. Yes it can. And the top tour level professionals have been proving that this year in a dominating fashion. From Fisher Anaya’s win on Lake Martin to Chris Johnston’s blowout on Santee Cooper without FFS, and plenty of other major tournament victories, this weird bait has been winning big money for anglers on every type of fishery out there. And the average weekend warriors have taken notice.
The first urchin-style bait to really start the takeover was the Hideup Coike Fullcast. This 23mm bait has the pulling power of a glide bait, with the ability to be swallowed whole like a small soft plastic. As it won tournament after tournament at the highest levels, the imitators began to flood the market mere months ago.
The Urchin Market
After the Fullcast, Hideup launched 17mm, 13mm, and 9.5mm options. Alongside those options, other brands began pumping out as many urchin and dice style baits as they could. The Hag’s Baits Prickly Pear, the Arsenal Fishing Morning Star, the G-Ratt Baits Webber, the Yamamoto Uni, and the Berkley ‘Moeba are just a few of the options that have become available in recent months. You can see even more options at Tackle Warehouse — just know it’s an overwhelming amount.
But the really crazy part isn’t the number dice and urchin style baits being created, it’s the fact that they’re seemingly never in stock. From backorders to empty shelves at your local retailer, anglers are struggling to find any of these baits available for purchase, unless you are buying on Ebay or Facebook Marketplace. The issue there? Lack of supply and increasing demand have made prices skyrocket.
Normally $20 per bait, a Hideup Fullcast in Scuppernong & Mimizu is currently selling for $284.98 on Ebay. Interested? You’d better hurry — there’s been 454 sold and only one left from this seller. And no, this isn’t some scam or a one-off example. It’s truly the prices these unopened packages are fetching on the open market.
I don’t think those insanely high prices are worth it. What I can say, however, is that bass anglers are insane. We love to get a leg up on the competition, and right now, that seems to require a bait that is almost impossible to get your hands on.
How to Fish the Urchin
Now, I’ve been lucky enough to fish some of the easier-to-find versions like the Yamamoto Uni and the Hag’s Baits Prickly Pear during the post-spawn. After quite a few days of playing with rigging techniques, figuring out how to move the bait underwater, and dialing in the right gear for the job, I can tell you I’m a firm believer. After getting whooped 10 fish to one by a buddy, I broke down and started throwing one alongside him. We went on to catch more than 50 bass in just a few hours on a eavily pressured body of water.
The bass acted like they’d never seen a lure, coming out of rock piles, brush, and deep schools to crush the urchin baits without a second thought. In the days since, I’ve figured out that I like to fish it around cover. If you’re able to find a laydown, rock pile, or brush pile using your electronics, simply cast the urchin bait over top and let it sink toward the cover. Typically any bass nearby will swarm to the bait before it even makes it close to the structure. When it approaches the bait, pop it like a jerkbait or jig to really add a flaring and enticing action — and hang on tight. One or two pops is typically enough to trigger a bone-jarring bite.
As for rigging, I’ve found the best option so far (that doesn’t include aftermarket urchin rigs) is a round-bend treble hook. Skin hook it on the outside of the bait and insert a 3/32 ounce nail weight into the urchin’s body. This helps it subtly fall through the water column, and the treble hook increases your odds of a solid hookset into the roof of the bass’ mouth. I’ve tried octopus hooks, straight shank Neko hooks, and small wacky rig hooks, but noticed my hook-up ratio was much better with a 1/0 wide gap round bend treble hook.
The Setup You Need to Fish the Urchin Baits
As for the rod-and-reel setup, I’ve been using a spinning rod paired with a quality reel. Some anglers are opting for lighter casting rod setups, but I’ve still found my casting accuracy to be higher with a quality spinning setup.
Urchin Bait Rod
The rod I’ve been using is the new G.Loomis IMX-Pro. I have the 7-foot medium rod with a fast-action tip that allows me to make long, accurate casts and really add a good pop to the bait as the bass approach from the depths. The backbone of this rod also allows me to firmly set the treble hook into the roof of a bass’ mouth to avoid it throwing the hook during the fight that ensues.
G.Loomis IMX-Pro Spinning Rod
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Urchin Bait Reel
The reel I’m using for the urchin bait fetches a pretty penny, but it’s more than worthwhile to me thanks to its buttery smooth drag, ability to make long and accurate casts, and the MGL rotor is perfect for this start and stop technique. The Shimano Exsence B in the 2500 size has been a winner for my urchin and dice bait techniques. I think, more than anything, the ability to stop and start the reel so seamlessly allows me to keep the bait right where I want it when a bass is approaching. So far, it’s been the perfect match for this new and wild technique.
Shimano Exsence B
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Urchin Bait Line
Similar to other spinning rod techniques, I like to go with 10-pound XBraid X9 Fulldrag for my braided line. As for the fluorocarbon leader, I lean on 8-pound Sunline FC. You can upsize your line based on where you’re fishing, but up north, this combo hasn’t let me down yet.
Final Thoughts on the Urchin and Dice Craze
After talking with my good friend Shaye Baker about this new and obscene bait, we both agreed that we weren’t exactly hoping it would be as effective as it is. I think the big reason for that is I can’t put my finger on why it’s working so well. It doesn’t look like anything in the natural freshwater world that bass are feeding on regularly. So why does it work?
Related: How to Fish the Geecrack Cue Bomb — and Other Rubber Dice Baits
I still don’t know. But what I do know is that this technique feels a lot like the other one hit wonders. I anticipate that it will be hot for a season or two, then slowly die off. If you want to wait it out and avoid the price scalping, I don’t blame you. But, if you want to get in on the hottest bass bait of 2026, it’s time to start throwing the urchin and dice baits.
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