Courtesy of Dynamic Sponsorships

If you tuned into live coverage of the 2026 Yokohama Tire Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes, you were witness to something special. More than an impressive parade of heavyweight largemouth that we’ve almost come to expect out of Santee, we watched the arrival of a lure and presentation unfold in real time. The urchin.

Sure, several tournaments had already been won in the past 18-months on these Japanese inspired baits. Many bass fishing junkies knew of these lures, but what happened on Santee Cooper opened the eyes and piqued the interest of anglers across the country. More than just the funky looking lure, it was the way in which the top ten employed their Hideup Coikes’, urchins, or spiked ball baits.

Eventual tournament champion Chris Johnston and his brother Cory skipped docks with their urchins. Using heavy line, baitcasting gear and fished the lure like a grown-man’s wacky-rig. While 2^nd place finisher Brandon Palaniuk boated numerous Santee Cooper giants on urchins pitching to Cypress trees, shallow grass lines, and other visible cover.

Notably, this all took place without the aid of forward-facing sonar, something most anglers had connected to this bait and style of fishing. Watching the tournament leaders use these offerings to catch shallow, cover-orientated fish other competitors fished over was spellbinding.

It felt like we were watching the early days of the Senko or the umbrella rig, when bass seemingly couldn’t help but to react because these presentations had seldom been seen.

There has been and will continue to be myriad videos, articles and photo galleries exploring the equipment side of the urchin craze and how to fish them, but the mental side of employing this relatively novel presentation at the Santee Cooper Elite is equally as interesting.

Team Toyota pro Brandon Palaniuk found himself in the middle of this phenomenon and knew it was notable as it happened.

“I dialed in the Coike bite during practice and knew it was something special,” Palaniuk said. “This bait was triggering 4-pound plus bites, and the fish were reacting in a way I hadn’t seen before. Every one that bit had the bait in its crushers, and when I switched to no hooks, I could hardly shake the fish off. I had multiple bass swim out from the cover and chase the bait to eat it two or three times. That’s when you know you’re onto something.”

Palaniuk caught a five fish limit of nearly 30-pounds the first two days of the event, and everyone came on the urchin. The two-time Angler of the Year led the tournament heading into Saturday and never slipped lower than 2^nd place. What may come as a surprise to many is that prior to Santee Cooper, Palaniuk said his experience with these baits was really limited.

“I’ve owned some of the baits a little over a year and had heard all the chatter about them, but to be honest I took them out of my Tundra for the second half of the season,” Palaniuk admitted. “With our split FFS schedule, I just didn’t think the bait would be a player in South Carolina. But prior to our South Carolina swing, it got to a point where I couldn’t ignore it (the urchin) any longer.

“Several tournaments had already been won on Coikes this year, so I started playing around with them more. I caught a bunch of fish during a media event at Guntersville and saw a unique response to that bait. So much so, I had Kyle (his videographer) grab some urchins out of my garage in Idaho and ship them, so I’d have them for Lake Murray and Santee.”

As it has been many times before, Palaniuk’s gut feeling proved to be right on the mark. The “Prodigy” used the baits that had been sitting idle in his garage to boat 94-pounds of Santee Cooper bass and notch his best finish of the 2026 season.

Palaniuk will be the first to tell you that top-level tournament fishing often comes down to the mental side in between your ears. Non-tangible things like decision making, when and how to adjust, confidence and momentum often impact an angler’s success or failure more so than equipment, according to Palaniuk.

Knowing how much Palaniuk leans into the mental aspect of fishing, was it a challenge for BP to go ‘all-in’ with a lure and presentation he had hardly any experience with?

“I felt a bit weird starting the tournament on a new bite, so to speak, but after that first day it was not mentally challenging,” Palaniuk explained. “Days 3 and 4 look tougher on paper, but I was getting the right bites each day, it was just my execution that suffered. There were winning fish moving through my primary area, and the way those fish were reacting to the bait… my confidence never wavered.”

That confidence allowed Palaniuk to overcome inexperience with this style of lure and employ it to great success on the biggest of stages. Besting all but one of his fellow Elite Series pros. As he and his peers tinker with rigging options and continue to optimize the urchin presentation, this confidence will only grow.

If you believed the interest and popularity over these urchin-style lures was overblown and destined to be a temporary trend, I’ve got bad news for you. The Elite on Santee Cooper recalibrated how this bait could be used, especially in terms of power fishing.

Top pros like Palaniuk have already seen enough, and “BP” promises he won’t be taking these baits out of his boat or truck for the foreseeable future.