Cgolf

Has anyone gotten their hands on these? I have had great luck with the swim senko, but hate the price and lack of durability. If the work, they are a great deal. The only bummer was they don't have it in smoke purple. Curious on action vs the swim senko.

I too like the XCalibur square bills. I had a lot of success with them last year when the fish were active. I even hooked up with a 40+ musky. What I did find though is these things are aggressive and push a ton of water. On a trip last year they were hot most of the week until a front hit and I could only scratch out a fish here or there. I switched to a Bandit 100 which is super subtle and caught a bunch of fish. I have thrown the KVD bait and it is also more of a finesse bait compared to the XCal, so maybe some find it to be too aggressive of a bait.

For me I have a box of 5" kalins grubs along with some 4" from other brands and assorted tubes in the boat. A tube is probably the most versatile bait, it can imitate a baitfish or a craw. I feel I can catch bass anywhere with that box. Colors depend on lake but water red, green pumpkin, for both clear and stained water. Smoke purple is great on clear lakes, especially when the sun is shining. Kalins rons craw and motor oil red grubs produce well too for me. I fish mostly south central WI and Northern WI lakes.

Tackle warehouse 25 days of Christmas was good to me. Got a bunch of Santone swim Jigs, and then did another order and picked up a bunch of netbait pacas and some new squarebills. Already have another order planned for shadow raps, and skirt materials to tie a custom perch skirt for swim jigs.

For me I have learned the hard way to always carry a small box with extra terminal tackle like snaps, split rings, extra hooks, etc. Also when on a trip a rod tip repair kit is invaluable, have only used it twice, but glad I had it. As far as baits always carry a box with tubes and 4 and 5" grubs, because they flat out catch em anywhere.

Totally new here, but when searching for pics of the shadow rap this site came up. I did ask Ike on twitter if this fell between the Husky jerk and the X rap and to be honest I was stunned that I got the following reply from him. (it's something really special. It's a suspending jerk with a much more sub action. On light flora it actually sinks super slow!) Sounds like a great early season and cold front bait