Tell me all about the Luck-E-Strike Rick Clunn STX Jerkbait

[ibobpeb]

Currently I don't have any jerkbaits in my arsenal. I catch so many fish on other lures that I never thought to give jerkbaits a try, but this year may be that year for jerkbaiting. Looked around on TW and came across these. Can someone tell me all about them?

[Bluebasser86]

One of my favorites. The hooks aren't great so you have to change those, but other than that they're real fish catchers. I like the French Pearl, Herring Bone Chartreuse, Cosmic Shad, Pro Blue, and Purple Green Apple are my favorite colors.  

[gardnerjigman]

Yup. Proven fish magnet. I swap hooks over to owners

[IndianaFinesse]

It's a great budget jerkbait, probably the closest knockoff to the megabass, but without the twenty five dollar price tag.  The hooks and split ring are kind of junky, so you will need to replace them.  But besides the hooks the action and casting distance are pretty much he same thing as megabass. There is a good article analyzing the differences and similarities on BIB showing how similar they are.

[stkbassn]

I really like mine too. They are quality baits without the high price tag as mentioned before. I haven't switched out the hooks or ring but it hasn't seemed to hurt my ratio at all. If I fished tournaments regularly I would probably buy the Vision 110's or switch out hooks and rings like others have done but since I don't, I don't worry about it. Bottom line, these are good jerkbaits!

[redbirdsfan44]

For the price tag they are most certainly great stick baits. They don't all perfectly suspended out of the package like the MB 110's but if you do a little tuning and swap the hooks you have an amazing bait for cheaper. I put #2 trebles on the front and tail hooks and a #4 in the middle. Sometimes have to wrap a little wire around the front hook to get them to suspend just right but it beats spending $25 on a jerk

[snake95]

The first jerkbait I have used.  Tried it two weeks ago: the 3-hook model in pro blue in stained water about 50F and it produced for me.  Tried my best to work the bait as KVD shows in YouTube videos, let it sit over grass.  Suspended for me like in the videos.  Bass smashed it.  I'm kind of cheap and left the stock hooks on for now but the wire is pretty thin.  Have seen some very low prices at the big box retailers in the last month, if they carry them.

 

[Cmiller]

Just picked up one in the smallest size for crappie fishing in the next couple of weeks. It doesn't suspend quite perfect out of the box, but has great action.

[WIGuide]

Good baits for sure. Like others said it's a Megabass knockoff. Saves me from spending $25 for one of those. 

[Brian6428]

As the other's have said, they are great jerk baits. The STX catches nearly all my jerkbait fish. Hooks are not the best, but its cheaper to change them than buy megabass

[wisconsin heat]

I really like it. One of my favorite jerkbaits. I haven't tried the smaller version yet, but I plan to.

[ww2farmer]

I liked them better than the Xrap, but I like the SK KVD jerkbaits, and the Storm Twitch Sticks better. The Clunn bait's were too unpredictable out of the box. One would suspend, one would sink, one would float.............etc. Not to mention the hardware on them sucks..............bad. For $2 more the KVD have suspended PERFECT out of the box on dozens of baits, even after a hook change to my preferred hook.

[MainelyBASS]

My opinion doesn't really count because i work for a major fishing outfitter so my price on the Megabass is $13. Before I started working there I would buy STX jerkbaits and swap out O rings and hooks. So I was spending about $10-$12 per STX after changing terminal tackle. Thus the reason I switched to the 110's. The STX is a great bait, but I put it 2nd in line behind the KVD jerkbait. The reason being I had too many problems with STX's not running correctly, or not suspending.

[smalljaw67]

22 hours ago, redbirdsfan44 said:

For the price tag they are most certainly great stick baits. They don't all perfectly suspended out of the package like the MB 110's but if you do a little tuning and swap the hooks you have an amazing bait for cheaper. I put #2 trebles on the front and tail hooks and a #4 in the middle. Sometimes have to wrap a little wire around the front hook to get them to suspend just right but it beats spending $25 on a jerk

Megabass 110s DO NOT SUSPEND, they are listed as slow risers or Hi-Float. The original Vision 110 suspending was, and I believe, still is a Japanese only lure. I also find it funny that people say you have to switch the hooks out on the Luck-E-Strike STX but you don't have to on the Megabass Vision 110, the reason is both feature the same gauge hooks made by the same company. Yes, the Katsuage outbarb hooks on the Megabass Vision 110 are made by VMC, the RC STX uses a VMC 8540 light wire treble hook because it is a copy of the 110 and the 110 was designed to be used with a spinning rod with 6lb line. The RC STX did have a bad batch of split rings a couple of years back and they have fixed that issue and I use the stock hooks with 10lb line and I do have to replace them out. The baits that suspend really well out of the package need to have the original VMC 8540 hooks put back on, any additional weight will cause them to sink, I have several that I switched out to Owner ST-36 hooks and it made them sink. The ones that rise up just a little faster than the suspending ones are good for St-36 and that is the hook I think you are better off using. Sorry for the rant but there are a lot of myths out there regarding the 110 from Megabass and being a jerkbait fanatic I have several of the Megabass baits in the slow rising and the hi-float and I paid a lot of money for a suspending model because it had to be purchased directly from Japan as they weren't, or aren't available in the U.S.

[Scarborough817]

i've never tried them i would like to if i can find any locally instead of spending 25 on a megabass

[Ads7633]

Just get a Spro mcstick, already has great hooks and suspends out of the box every time for $13. 

[redbirdsfan44]

13 hours ago, smalljaw67 said:

Megabass 110s DO NOT SUSPEND, they are listed as slow risers or Hi-Float. The original Vision 110 suspending was, and I believe, still is a Japanese only lure. I also find it funny that people say you have to switch the hooks out on the Luck-E-Strike STX but you don't have to on the Megabass Vision 110, the reason is both feature the same gauge hooks made by the same company. Yes, the Katsuage outbarb hooks on the Megabass Vision 110 are made by VMC, the RC STX uses a VMC 8540 light wire treble hook because it is a copy of the 110 and the 110 was designed to be used with a spinning rod with 6lb line. The RC STX did have a bad batch of split rings a couple of years back and they have fixed that issue and I use the stock hooks with 10lb line and I do have to replace them out. The baits that suspend really well out of the package need to have the original VMC 8540 hooks put back on, any additional weight will cause them to sink, I have several that I switched out to Owner ST-36 hooks and it made them sink. The ones that rise up just a little faster than the suspending ones are good for St-36 and that is the hook I think you are better off using. Sorry for the rant but there are a lot of myths out there regarding the 110 from Megabass and being a jerkbait fanatic I have several of the Megabass baits in the slow rising and the hi-float and I paid a lot of money for a suspending model because it had to be purchased directly from Japan as they weren't, or aren't available in the U.S.

Sorry I should have specified that I don't use the silent riser 110's or the American Megabass 110's. They come in a hard plastic box with a soft foam in the bottom. These are the originals that suspend. If the bite is on it doesn't really matter if you're throwing a MB or an RC STX you will still catch fish. The megabass have flat out produced for me over any other jerk out there. 

[thebillsman]

By chance, could anyone show me what their Herringbone Chartreuse looks like? When I first saw it a few years ago it didn't look great but now it's advertised much different. It seems to be less opaque and a bit more glossy with the "bones" less pronounced. 

 

Which is it?

 

 

[Bluebasser86]

1 hour ago, thebillsman said:

By chance, could anyone show me what their Herringbone Chartreuse looks like? When I first saw it a few years ago it didn't look great but now it's advertised much different. It seems to be less opaque and a bit more glossy with the "bones" less pronounced. 

 

Which is it?

 

 

I have a few at home if I can remember to take a picture. Might have one of it hanging in a fishes face somewhere. Mine are like the bottom one, but I haven't bought one in a couple years so it might not be the case anymore. 

 

I knew I had a picture but you can't tell a lot from it unless you can zoom in on it better than I can figure out how to.

[Fishes in trees]

I'm going to have to set my computer to filter out all jerk bait threads with pictures.  I have complete sets ( all the colors I think I need for where I fish ) of Pointers, Rogues, X-Raps, Husky Jerks, Stacy King Lucky Crafts, Long A's and another couple of boxes of various 1 of's that I've acquired over the years.

I just can't be buying any more jerk baits.   There is such a thing as ENOUGH and I've reached that stage in jerk baits, I'm telling myself that for now, anyway. . . . now in the category of oversize square bills, I haven't even filled out my second box yet.  . . . .  Haven't even got started in the category of over sized deep diving cranks . . . the large swim bait bug hasn't really bit me yet.

[MDbassin]

On 3/15/2016 at 8:46 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

One of my favorites. The hooks aren't great so you have to change those, but other than that they're real fish catchers. I like the French Pearl, Herring Bone Chartreuse, Cosmic Shad, Pro Blue, and Purple Green Apple are my favorite colors.  

French pearl, Pro blue, and purple green apple are my favorites as well.

 

Great jerkbait for a great price can't beat them

[smalljaw67]

4 hours ago, Fishes in trees said:

I'm going to have to set my computer to filter out all jerk bait threads with pictures.  I have complete sets ( all the colors I think I need for where I fish ) of Pointers, Rogues, X-Raps, Husky Jerks, Stacy King Lucky Crafts, Long A's and another couple of boxes of various 1 of's that I've acquired over the years.

I just can't be buying any more jerk baits.   There is such a thing as ENOUGH and I've reached that stage in jerk baits, I'm telling myself that for now, anyway. . . . now in the category of oversize square bills, I haven't even filled out my second box yet.  . . . .  Haven't even got started in the category of over sized deep diving cranks . . . the large swim bait bug hasn't really bit me yet.

 

I'm in the same boat as you my friend!!!! The last time I counted I had 211 jerkbaits and I've probably bought at least 30 or more since then, but I just can't help myself.

[thebillsman]

Just got a killer deal on two already reasonably priced lures. The Herringbone seems to be the more desirable paint job. $8.50 for the pair!

 

I've put ST-36s on my other STXs and they sink a little quick for my liking. I'm going to have to find a lighter more suspend friendly hook.

 

 

[38 Super Fan]

For some reason Luck-e-Strike slightly redesigned them a while back. The weight transfer system is a little different now, and the bodies of the baits are a little more textured. I liked the older ones better, they usually sit more nose down for me.

 

The newer ones are OK, but I buy the older ones when I run across them.

[Mumbly]

I bought a few of both sizes a couple years ago and they have been great baits for me on Smallmouth. As others have said, french pearl, pro blue (I see they have a pro blue 2 listed now) and purple green apple my favorite colors but I would throw in secret night and black diamond and solid colors choices as well.

 

If I had anything negative to say it would be that the colors seem to have changed a bit in the last year or so. There is a couple threads on this forum showing the color difference of the french pearl to just name one. The company is also nonrespondent when asked about this as well as other question....at least in my personal experience.