Spro BBZ-1 Rat

[Max Dec]

Has anyone used the spro bbz-1 rat if so plz tell about your expirience with it

 

[Bluebasser86]

This was the first time I'd ever seen the bait fished, biggest bass I've ever seen from the lake by my house.

 

 

[Jim Drinkwater]

The whole rat bait thing is quite interesting. As an off shoot of the whole swimbait craze rat style baits have shown that they do indeed catch a lot of bass and large ones under a number of conditions. The interesting thing about them though is the great ranges in size, price and quality that are out there. The SPRO alone is available in 3 different sizes, a number of different colors and ranges in price from around 23 to 30 dollars, After the SPROS which are generally well made and equipped with good hooks and that range from less than an ounce to I think 2.5 ounces and length from 6 to almost 10 inces if you include the tail. One can find other rats for as little as 15 bucks on E-bay but I have no idea of the quality,weight or durability of finish. Or one might go with a Morning wood rat for75 + dollars, a Wooden Baits rat for 85.00 or even a Matt Lures rat for 180 bucks. I am going with a SPRO and maybe a wooden lures rat for this coming year. Both fish well and are well made. One other consideration will have to be having a rod that can throw the rats. For the rats in sizes that seem to be fish producers you are going to be talking any where from about 2 ounces with the SPRO's to between 4 and 5 ounces for some of the others.The whole rat thing is fun especially if you like to have bass bust the surface but it can be addictive as all get out as it already has been for me with conventional swimbaits.

[deep]

4 minutes ago, Jim Drinkwater said:

Or one might go with a Morning wood rat for75 + dollars, a Wooden Baits rat for 85.00 or even a Matt Lures rat for 180 bucks.

 

Just a small correction. Retail on Matt's rat is ~65; nothing like the Ebay prices you're seeing. Might be worthwhile to friend him on FB. He said something about releasing a small batch every now and then.

Also, Jerry Rago has the patent on rat style baits IIRC.

[Jim Drinkwater]

Thanks deep. I did indeed just do a quick E-bay search.And yes I think I did know some thing about Rago and a patent.I should have picked up on the Matts price, my mistake.

[Airman4754]

I bought the grey & white one when they first came out, threw it out into some open water just to kind of check it out on the first cast and caught about 3 pounder. It was an accident really. 

I don't fish it often, but I haven't gotten anything on it since. 

I can see the appeal, it has drawing power because it's huge like a big swimbait, you can use it as a wake bait, you can kind of walk it, etc. It's very well made, big wire rings, very good quality treble hooks, and the action is like the videos right out of the box. 

The big one is a serious bait. You need a swimbait rod of you're going to seriously fish it. 

[MarkH024]

27 minutes ago, Noah Ravas said:

I don't recommend it, it's stupid.

Very informative. Thank you.

[Max Dec]

13 hours ago, Jim Drinkwater said:

The whole rat bait thing is quite interesting. As an off shoot of the whole swimbait craze rat style baits have shown that they do indeed catch a lot of bass and large ones under a number of conditions. The interesting thing about them though is the great ranges in size, price and quality that are out there. The SPRO alone is available in 3 different sizes, a number of different colors and ranges in price from around 23 to 30 dollars, After the SPROS which are generally well made and equipped with good hooks and that range from less than an ounce to I think 2.5 ounces and length from 6 to almost 10 inces if you include the tail. One can find other rats for as little as 15 bucks on E-bay but I have no idea of the quality,weight or durability of finish. Or one might go with a Morning wood rat for75 + dollars, a Wooden Baits rat for 85.00 or even a Matt Lures rat for 180 bucks. I am going with a SPRO and maybe a wooden lures rat for this coming year. Both fish well and are well made. One other consideration will have to be having a rod that can throw the rats. For the rats in sizes that seem to be fish producers you are going to be talking any where from about 2 ounces with the SPRO's to between 4 and 5 ounces for some of the others.The whole rat thing is fun especially if you like to have bass bust the surface but it can be addictive as all get out as it already has been for me with conventional swimbaits.

Thanks

[Montanaro]

Caught 3 and lost a 4th on the 40mm.  Water temp 55.  Cant wait for the summer!

 

 

[Jim Drinkwater]

Guess I missed Noah's post and now it is gone. And Mark was much more kind than I would have been. This whole rat thing and the connected swimbait venue is just nothing more than another way one can catch bass and if done right at the right time can produce very good bass.  But has already been noted by Mooster47 and myself one is probably going to be looking at a new rod or rods if they seriously want to get into rat fishing. Many of us probably already have flipping sticks that will handle the smaller or lighter SPROS and that is one of the benefits those baits bring to the game, but as with swimbaiits if you get seriously bitten by the rat bug it will not be long before you will want to fish the bigger heavier baits and then you are talking getting some sticks meant for the purpose. A good fishing friend got me into this and it can be quite addictive. I have gone from the flipping stic kwhich  will handle this to getting a Bulldawg rod to getting an Okuma Citrix really heavy duty stick. The Okuma will handle 6 ounce baits and is just shy of 8 feet long and it makes throwing those big heavy baits much more doable. My old shoulders and arms still complain about a full day of it but it can be done. There is some thing really fun about fishing these baits at night or walking/waking one past a dock or blow down and seeing a big bass explode on it, I invite any one to give it a try. Think of it as Jitterbug fishing on steroids.

 

[Noah Ravas]

5 hours ago, Jim Drinkwater said:

Guess I missed Noah's post and now it is gone. And Mark was much more kind than I would have been. This whole rat thing and the connected swimbait venue is just nothing more than another way one can catch bass and if done right at the right time can produce very good bass.  But has already been noted by Mooster47 and myself one is probably going to be looking at a new rod or rods if they seriously want to get into rat fishing. Many of us probably already have flipping sticks that will handle the smaller or lighter SPROS and that is one of the benefits those baits bring to the game, but as with swimbaiits if you get seriously bitten by the rat bug it will not be long before you will want to fish the bigger heavier baits and then you are talking getting some sticks meant for the purpose. A good fishing friend got me into this and it can be quite addictive. I have gone from the flipping stic kwhich  will handle this to getting a Bulldawg rod to getting an Okuma Citrix really heavy duty stick. The Okuma will handle 6 ounce baits and is just shy of 8 feet long and it makes throwing those big heavy baits much more doable. My old shoulders and arms still complain about a full day of it but it can be done. There is some thing really fun about fishing these baits at night or walking/waking one past a dock or blow down and seeing a big bass explode on it, I invite any one to give it a try. Think of it as Jitterbug fishing on steroids.

 

Yo chill Max is my good friend I was just messing with him 

[Jim Drinkwater]

If I was any more chilled I would have to be looking at the sod from the wrong side. In the mean time I ordered a couple rats. Damned bait monkey.

[rippin-lips]

Retail is $55-60 on Matt's rat. 

[blckshirt98]

Rat type of baits have been blowing up out here on the west coast the last couple of years with lots of people catching some chunks.  I think the biggest drawback with rat-style baits blowing up in popularity has been both finding them, and when you do find one, the pricepoint.  Many of the rat baits are handmade and run upwards of $100.  The Spro BBZ rats are a game changer in that they're priced low enough where now almost anyone can buy one without breaking their bank.

[SoFloBassFiend]

Spro BBZ1 30 are being sold at DSG for 19.99