Shad Kill tactics.....Late winter...trying to warm up

[bishoptf]

On 3/5/2025 at 1:51 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Lot of people say the A-Rig shines in clearer water, however in my experience they bite it way better when it's a bit stained.   I'm usually fishing in somewhere between 2-3ft of viz, and because of this I've never really played around with A-Rigs without blades.  I've heard read similar things as you though about sometimes non bladed rigs are the deal.  

 

I've used a number of different rigs from expensive ones like the Hog Farmer and Picasso ones, to the Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr rigs.   I've used everything from 3" Armor Shad to 4-5" paddletails.    I've had success on all of them, and it really reenforces my belief that when the fish want an A-Rig, they really aren't all that picky on the particulars.  

 

I've actually caught more fish on the Yumbrella rigs especially the kits that include the Scottsboro swimbaits.    Cheap, very effective, and they actually have a much more flexable wire guage than most other rigs, and this allows you to really "pulse" that rig with rod pops or hard reel turns.     The downside is that I've broken off fish when an arm decides to break after enough stress.  This will happen with all rigs eventually, but happens much quicker on the Yum rigs.   

 

I've found that 1/8th jigheads with 3/0 hooks paired up with 3-4" paddletails to be the best most of the times.    

 

The two rigs I've used this season are the Hog Farmer 5 wire/4 blade rig with Diamond Baits 1/8th 3/0 jigheads using Rage Swimmers in the 3.3? size.

 

The other rig is the Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr with the same Diamond Baits heads but with the Scottsboro 4" Paddletail swimbaits.

 

In years past I've mixed in the smaller 3.5" arm rigs and had lots of success of those as well.   Again I've never really tried any form of an A-Rig that didn't produce. 

 

You just don't want to reel that thing to fast and be mindful of the fact the bait sinks rather slow and wants to rise on the retrieve.

 

Secondly, you absolutely want to incorporate rod pops, or hard reel turns to get that rig to pulse like a real bait ball.   Perhaps the majority of fish I catch come on them came after a pulse.     

 

 

Thanks this is good information and helps. I spin my wheels on some of the easy of things and still trying to find some jig/swimbait heads that will work. I went to BPS today and really just did not like anything that I saw, most of the 1/8oz size stuff had light wires and everything today seems to be focused on the jig head minnow. In Missouri you can only have 3 hooks so in my case with a 5 wire setup I need 2 dummy heads. I have seen folks talk about using screw locks and use that on the dummies and I tried that once before but they didn't seem to work real well. I looked up those diamond ones that you mentioned and they do indeed look nice. BPS has a bunch of stuff but never can seem to find what I am looking for, and it doesn't help that I am cheap, lol.

 

Anyone else have any suggestions for decent heads that are 1/8, 3/0 hook and decent keeper and what folks are doing for dummy heads. That was the issue today most of the ones that they did have imho had crummy keepers. Maybe will just order some from amazon at least I can get them overnight etc, maybe stop at wally world and see what they have, sometimes carry 6th sense stuff but the heads that I have seen in the past are all 1/4oz.   

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Those Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr kits come with quality jigheads and I've caught plenty of fish on those.    Those kits really are the easy button when it comes to A-Rigs imho.   It's very overwhelming when starting out with A-Rigs when you have to A La Cart you're A-Rig component by component.     

 

I've also used the Strike King baby Squadron jigheads on the finesse A-Rigs, and they have a really stout hook and pretty decent keeper, but super glue always works regardless of the design.   Strike King Squadron Swimbait Jigheads | Bass Pro Shops

 

I like a stout hook, but many A-Rigs fans actually like a lighter wire hook so that they can bend the hooks out when they get snagged.   

 

I've even seen 6th Sense A-Rig kits at Wal-Mart IIrc, they include their Divine Swimbaits, their jigheads, and then the rig like you already got. Divine Umbrella Rig Kit - 4K Shad – 6th Sense Fishing

 

The 6th Sense heads look great

6th Sense Fishing Divine Umbrella Rig Jighead | Bass Pro Shops

 

Hog Farmer makes some rigs with the CPS dummy pins already installed, and I would assume they've been built and tested to run true in those exact configurations.  

[bishoptf]

38 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Those Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr kits come with quality jigheads and I've caught plenty of fish on those.    Those kits really are the easy button when it comes to A-Rigs imho.   It's very overwhelming when starting out with A-Rigs when you have to A La Cart you're A-Rig component by component.     

 

I've also used the Strike King baby Squadron jigheads on the finesse A-Rigs, and they have a really stout hook and pretty decent keeper, but super glue always works regardless of the design.   Strike King Squadron Swimbait Jigheads | Bass Pro Shops

 

I like a stout hook, but many A-Rigs fans actually like a lighter wire hook so that they can bend the hooks out when they get snagged.   

 

I've even seen 6th Sense A-Rig kits at Wal-Mart IIrc, they include their Divine Swimbaits, their jigheads, and then the rig like you already got. Divine Umbrella Rig Kit - 4K Shad – 6th Sense Fishing

 

The 6th Sense heads look great

6th Sense Fishing Divine Umbrella Rig Jighead | Bass Pro Shops

 

Hog Farmer makes some rigs with the CPS dummy pins already installed, and I would assume they've been built and tested to run true in those exact configurations.  

Yeah I like the 6th sense hooks, all oos at both BPS near me...I did see the squadron heads but wasn't crazy about the keeper on them. I did look at the flashmob kit and it comes with nice heads but did not see them sold separately. The 6th sense rig I got was just the main unit, no heads and no baits. I just need to figure out what I want to do and get something. BPS has lots of stuff but seems to be trending towards jig head minnow stuff, they also had some BPS XPS heads that were decent but the 3/0 had light wire and I have some decent size fish and think I would rather go with heavier wire hooks.

 

Looks like you can the the heads that come with the Yum flashmob they are Yum Scottsboro Recon swimbait head with a screw lock. They are nice but BPS or academy doesn't carry them. Maybe it's just me but paying $2 for a lead jig head these days seems pretty lame. Looking on tacklewarehouse looks like eagle claw is coming out with some that look decent but not available yet...

 

Will keep looking...