Like something out of H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds,” an alien fishing lure is taking the bass fishing world by storm as many anglers watch in astonishment.

Dubbed the Coike by Japanese lure company Hideup, the lure is taking the top shelf in professional tournament anglers’ tackle boxes and inspiring many companies to put their own version in production as soon as possible.

The Coike, and the various knock-offs, are flat-out fish-catchers, even as anglers have a difficult time describing what they think the lures represent in the food chain. They do appear to be from another world, considering our general perception of what a fishing lure should look like. To some, the tentacled invaders might even resemble a hallucination.

Some call them urchins, which is an apt word considering the tennis-ball-size baits sport numerous wiggling tentacles growing from a soft plastic core.

But I don’t know of any freshwater urchins, so I am not certain what a bass might judge a Coike to imitate. Some anglers say Coikes appear as a school of baitfish, a cloud of crustaceans or a bluegill or other small round-body fish.

We may not know for sure what an urchin bait represents, but the hard truth is that largemouth bass eat them aggressively.

Theories abound on the question of why bass are so willing to attack a Coike. One that makes sense to me is that the lure is so new that largemouths have yet to become conditioned to seeing them and getting tricked into striking.

They certainly do work.

I have not yet invested in a Coike or one of the several knock-offs already on the market, but I’ve seen them in action. Two of my fishing friends have already won bass tournaments on Mosquito Lake and Shenango Reservoir on urchin baits.

Professional bass anglers were among the first to fling the urchin-style lures and have already credited them with big money wins.

Joining the Coike in anglers’ boats are the Berkley PowerBait Moeba, Prickly Pear by Hag’s Baits, Uni by Yamamato, Sea Star Star Burst and, not surprisingly, the Sea Urchin.

The fishing lure industry is a classic example of evolution by innovation. Fishing baits have changed dramatically over the last 100 years, with new shapes, colors and actions coming to market every year. It would seem now that the pace of change is accelerating.

In recent years, bass anglers bought into a phenomena known as fuzzy dice. The lures featured dice-shaped soft-plastic bodies through which strands of rubber were inserted. The “fuzzy dice” nomenclature exactly described the baits.

To me, the wave of urchin-style lures is the next iteration of the tentacled invaders.

Fishing friend Tyler Woak jumped into my boat recently with several Berkley Moeba baits in his bag. About an hour or two into the day, he rigged up a Moeba and caught a two-pound bass on his first cast. Several minutes later, he caught another. Both bass had Tyler’s Moeba deep in their mouths.

The bass are convinced, so I guess it’s time I give urchin baits a try. I may not be an early adopter, but I’m also not one to be left on the dock to wonder what could have been.

Jack Wollitz writes about the local fishing scene weekly for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.