🦔 The Urchin Craze — 2026's Hottest Genre
The breakout trend of 2026: spiny, "fuzzy" urchin-style soft baits. It started in Japan — and now every major brand is racing to release their own.
It all began with the Hideup Coike, a spiny Japanese soft bait that lights up
a LiveScope screen like a Christmas tree — perfect for picking off suspended, finicky bass.
After years as a JDM secret, it took over US tournament fields in 2026. Now the copycats are
flooding in: Gary Yamamoto, Berkley, Hag's, and 6th Sense have all dropped their own
urchin-style baits. Here's the original and the chasers, side by side.
Hideup Coike
🇯🇵 Japan
★ The Original
The original. A dense elastomer ball covered in soft spines — huge in Japan for years before exploding across US tournament fields. Comes in Fullcast 23mm, 17mm, 13mm, Kyu 9.5mm and the fuzzy-worm Coike Thunder.
Gary Yamamoto Yamamoto Uni
🇯🇵 Japan
Yamamoto's take on the spiny urchin profile from the brand that made the Senko a household name.
🦔
Hag's Prickly Pear
🇺🇸 USA
An American answer to the genre, built for the same suspended, finicky fish the Coike picks off.
🦔
Berkley MaxScent 'Moeba
🇺🇸 USA
Berkley's freshly-dropped urchin-style bait — adds their MaxScent formula to the spiny profile.
🦔
6th Sense Abstract
🇺🇸 USA
6th Sense's entry into the category — one more sign that every tackle company is scrambling to supply the urchin feeding frenzy.
