AlabamaSpothunter

That's what it all boils down to for me. There is nothing like big swimbait fishing, not even topwater or a red hot jerkbait bite to me. Everybody who goes does the rabbit hole says the same thing, the addiction factor is off the charts. I'll know I can catch a dozen fish on other stuff, yet stubbornly keep fishing a big bait. To answer OP's question: I first started with $20-35 baits......S-Wavers, Sneaky Petes, Traces, BD Shads, Arashi 18/19, even Gantarels, none of them gave me the "eureka" moment, although I caught a few fish over 5lbs on them, along with a handful of other fish. Then I spent $42 on the Shimano 190SF, and boom everything changed in terms of addiction and understanding what it was all about in terms of followers, and ridiculous boat side blowups, etc. Biggest fish thus far is a 7lb, but have prob. caught close to 50 fish on the bait in only a few months. Then I spent $60 on a SPRO KGB Chad Shad a week ago, already caught half dozen fish, but had so, so many followers including one giant. Time will tell, but it's just that much better of a bait than the other big baits I own beside the Shimano. Lot of this comes down to the sink rate. All the other slow sinks from the baits I listed above sink way too fast. This led me to be the guy you likely started the thread about......yesterday morning I managed to score a KGB TSG for $175. I've been trying for a month or two to score a real deal high end Shad glide from either Phoney Frog, KGB, or the Bucca Bull Glide or Trick Shad. These baits sell out without a minute. Resin baits have a slower sink rate, and according to the owner of KGB a resin Chad Shad burns a little better vs SPRO Chad Shad, but the ABS SPRO version has a wider glide. Other than that he says they are within 95% of each other. When I witnessed a potential DD sized submarine barely nip the SPRO Chad Shad the other day, and then slowly turn away and swim back down to 20-30ft........I was still left with an experience I can't get using any other bait. In summary, you get what you pay for with these baits. Ben Milliken owns a piece of 6th Sense, is shilling Draws all the time, yet when it was time for him to actually win a professional derby, he was catching them on a $500+ Hinkle Shad, and even caught a weighed fish on a Tiny Klash ($100+). He was throwing a Moby as well, which is another really expensive HUGE 15" bait. To me, Milliken is the best big bait fisherman currently. I had to pay the stupid tax of about $200 to learn this. You can still catch fish on the cheap ones, but if you're serious about big baits, this is the only conclusion. This is the real problem as I've talked with Phishli privately about.......some of us just want a handful of these high-end baits to actually fish with, but a big segment of the swimbait community are beanie baby collectors, or worse straight up flippers and make it really hard for folks to get them. I missed a drop for KGB TSGs last week, this week just out of curiosity I checked EBay, half a dozen out of 100 baits were on there with a markup of anywhere from 50-100 bucks.

He'll be like Dusty Baker, he'll run into a ring simply by being in the position long enough I'd imagine. Taking the job at the Mets was a poor move if he wants a ring though ?

Oh I'm sure if I started using NRX+ or Conquest level bottom contact rods, I couldn't fish with my old junk ? That's like fishing with new Zillions, they ruin you. Fishing equipment is very much about "you don't know what you're missing out on, until you do" type thing. I've got a couple of limited edition GLXs, but have never owned NRX/NRX+/Conquest rods.

I've still got a GL2 and GL3 that are 20+ yrs old. Look and perform the same today as they did 20 years ago. I'm not a rod snob when it comes to sensitivity, I don't need NRX+/Conquest to feel fish bite, I've caught a bunch of toads this Spring on a IM7 Graphite from Daiwa made 25+ years ago. Where I'm a snob is on technique specific moving bait rods. Don't fix it unless it's broke friend, the monkey is loud and persistent, but old stuff catches fish just fine.

It's amazing how the Met's are such whipping boys for the Braves. The last three games were about as bad as it can get for a Met's fan. THROW IT AGAIN LOSERS ?

That's the place you should keep fishing ? Those are the right type of fish, got the right build to them.

I don't think tournaments hurt Bass populations, rather they make the fish much, much "smarter". Lay Lake has rocket scientist level Bass ?

100%....was just thinking that. "Why don't they at least show the guys fighting to make the cut instead of dudes saying they are done fishing for the day" I've also found the first downside of Catch Weigh Release. I'd make the argument catching a spawning fish 2-3x in a short window is as stressful as live weigh ins.

Fished it for another two hours earlier.....I'm burning up my right arm at this point ? This was one of three different Spots that tried to eat the bait a few feet from the boat. Caught one more, had another couple of hits.....but not nearly the amount of followers today. It's a fun bait, but other baits would have caught them much better the last few days. You just have to commit to throwing these big ones, occasionally it seems to pay off with the fish you are after.

Thanks buddy, and I was going to throw my freaking arm out until I caught a fish, and then finally 4 came within about 15mins, and then I quit lol. This thing is going to produce a big fish, that beautiful Perch one is going to yield you a fattie SM ? Somehow the bait actually warrants the cost when compared to half the cost glides. The sink rate was a huge thing to understand. I get why people pay good money for that aspect alone. The Shimano has made me fall in love with the Slow Float stuff. Now I really am going to have to get a Klash 9. Maybe this bait will give me more confidence to fish a tad deeper.

SPRO Chad Shad review: Total hours fished: 5 solid hours of chunking and chopping Results: 20+ followers, half of which would have been derby quality fish. Earlier today I had my first bonified giant swerve it at the boat....6-7lb+ fish.....so frustrating and heartbreaking watching a big girl swim back down to the depths. Yesterday a couple of the followers were in that 4-5lb range as well. I'm just not quite doing something right to get these fish to fire on the bait. Speed seems to be helping, but perhaps these fish are gonna swerve anything. Missed about half of dozen fish that committed in some manner on the bait. Almost all of them were when the bait was not observable. The vast majority of those 20+ followers came all the way to the boat, and at most bumped the tail of the bait. Caught fish: 4 of which the biggest and smallest are pictured.....if a 1lb Spot, and 2lb LGM will eat it, obviously all size fish are on the table with this bait. Sink Rate: I dont own a real Chad Shad, or similar $200+ resin baits however this thing has the best sink rate by a huge margin over the baits I own that are slow sink like S waver, sneaky pete, Trace, BD Shads. Those baits sink way to fast after fishing this bait. Action: This bait will do a ton of things with the right equipment. With 20lb Sniper fluoro and with some practice you can get this thing to glide out about 2 ft on a long cast. You can reel it as fast as you can on a 7.1 reel and it won't blow out. Most importantly for me though is you can chop this bait incredibly well. You can bring it up to a dock edge or piece of cover and start chopping the bait seemingly in place. Finish: From hooks alone, the rash is very minimal, once you catch a fish or two, the actual plastic takes more of a beating than whatever they used to paint the bait with. The actual paint seems kind of indestructible on it. Bottom line: after waiting months for it, having it now being the most expensive single lure I own, I can comfortably say this bait is worth the hype to a couple groups of anglers.....those who are either new, on a budget, curious if big baits are worth it, or even swimbait vets that want a cheaper Chad Shad at 95% effectiveness of the original and that's according to the Kevin Brightwell the designer of the OG and SPRO versions. All those cheaper baits I listed above collect dust, some I've caught a fish or two on, but after using this bait and the Shimano quasi glide-swimmer, I have no reason to ever throw those cheaper baits. ***I had to put a tracer on this bait to better learn it, likely will pull it off down the road. They're the real deal, seeing that perch color in that pic makes it look a thousand times better. Got a Golden Shiner look to if you need it to be. However they painted these things seems indestructible, and the translucent aspect to them is something unique that even the real ones can't achieve.

Exactly, generally speaking the slower the sink on the "slow sink" baits, the more effective, and expensive they are.

I've yet to buy a big bait that needed new split rings. Got the SPRO Chad Shad yesterday and put about 3hrs in with it yesterday evening, it's hardware for example is perfect. That bait doesn't blow out with OEM hardware. The cheaper S Wavers do though, but I haven't felt the need to tune a cheap bait, figure I'll just buy better baits from the jump. The S Waver 168 was my first "big bait". I keep buying nicer ones, and the performance and hardware keeps getting better. The big bait savants like Milliken use the lead wire primarily to get the bait down faster to fish they are seeing on FFS. If you aren't using FFS or have an extremely great grasp on the cover and depth you are fishing, adding more weight to these relatively expensive baits is a recipe for losing them imho. Fishing in the blind like many of us non FFS guys do, keeping that bait up in the water column works plenty fine, these fish come from a long way off to examine and occasionally hit these big baits. You know my opinion, tie those baits on right out of the package, and send it. The feedback you get will trump anything else.

Outside of DD LGMs, this lake is amazing. You combine the much more aggressive Northerns with the SMs, don't let anybody fish for them for months and months, then unleash some of the best anglers on them during pre spawn and early spawn. Seems like the perfect storm for epic Bass fishing, I'm amazed watching Wheeler hammer a 5+ SM on bed, looking at all the 3-5lb prespawn LGMs. This is an event where all you want to do is just go fishing on the same lake these guys are on.

BOOM SHAKALAKA.....G-G-G-GA-GA-GA-GIANT RAT - Dave Mercer voice 5 little kickers to go with the Giant ? On a sour note I hope that's not rust on the older packaging Flashback Minis.

100% I never realized they had closed Bass seasons until I joined this forum. Seems silly to me with Ice and C&R. That's a monster bag, what's the limit comprised of species wise.......just turned it on and Davis threw back a 3+ LGM. Would have figured these are SM bags, but maybe this place has a great LGM population Keith Poche is an absolute animal....he was just fishing the Sabine in TX, now he's fishing Cayuga in NY. Some of these dudes like Poche, BP, Walters, Cox, etc. fish almost all of these elite level events. Makes sense, but dang what a grind.

In regard to frogs, yes they swim down in the water column, I have a Koi pond at back, as a defense mechanism when spooked they'll dive down a couple of feet.

Wow, that's BS. Either it's open for everyone, or it's closed for everyone.

TW will always be the first place I look for reviews.....this is golden ? Comments: Great lure for chasing Crappie's in southern Iowa. I own all the colors and highly recommend them. From: Stan: Strawberry Point, IA 5/20/23

Bingo, just enough to hit the front aluminum gunnel on the Jon boat with my side arm casts, thereby destroying baits. I've broke a Jackhammer, multiple big swimbaits, a few CB lips, and sadly most recently jacked the hook up on a basically brand-new Burrito. I tried to re sharpen but my confidence is destroyed on it, and it was already about shot since I can't even get a bite on it.

Waited months for this stupid thing, and then I ordered the wrong color lol. The color is terrible, it's more Rainbow Trout than Threadfin Shad. The one thing it has going for it in this color for me is that it's "ghosty", it'll have a very natural look to it in the water I'd imagine. It has typical awesome SPRO Gama hooks though, and it comes with rotating hook hangers. Outside of the color, it's an amazing looking bait right out of the package. I'm about to fish this bait until the joint wears out, or I lose it which highly likely ?

Fishery might not be my style, but watching these guys accomplish their dreams is pretty cool. This dude earned it, congrats to Brock!

This derby becomes a paint drying contest every day once the sun rolls up. The boredom is interrupted by moments of pure excitement when a 1.1 fish hits the deck every 47 mins ?

Dudes are fishing a dozen deep in an industrial park ? These Orange fans must be really special to keep bringing an Elite event back to this place. Not very much fun to watch.

I use the term gucci in tackle to mainly describe JDM baits, anything high end, custom big baits as well. ATA is in that club posting PB rats, and noisy diks haha. I wanted the PB rat but settled for the biggest Spro Rat. I'm gonna buy like 2-3 $150-200 big swimbaits to scratch a very particular Gizzard itch, but I'm really trying to save up for another Bass boat......you know so I can have a bigger pit to dump money into ?