Paddletail/Swimbait test

[Ryan_Johnson]

I'm having troubles with youtube right now, so be patient. I have 61 videos to get on there, and the quality is good on my computer, but is horrible after downloading. I'm not sure what's happening, because I used the same camera as before.

In the meantime, here's what I found out. Paddletails stink! Literally, they have a real strong plastic smell. Even the Berkly Hollow Belly had more of a plastic smell than a Powerbait smell.

Next, these things can be difficult to rig, and they will tear easily. If you hook them offcenter, they swim funny- which might actually be a good thing. I would not expect to get much life from them, alot of them seemed like one fish baits. I rigged up all the paddletails on the same weighted hook that uses a corkscrew that goes into the nose of the bait.

Poor Boy's Silly Rabbit and Rainbow Worms Bowfish are identical. The Silly Rabbit comes with a couple of weighted hooks and a different sticker on the same clear box. They both need more plastic over the eyes, I lost an eye on the Bowfish on my first pitch into the pool. The swimming action was good, with a strong thumping tail, slight body rock, and it falls nice and flat. Also, contrary to what other review sites said, the tail kicks great on the fall.

The Fishbelly Kick S Shad didn't have much action. The bait is slender and has a small tail. I tried rigging it with different weights, hooks, everything I could think of. This thing just doesn't have much action. On most retrieves, the tail didn't move.  

The funny looking Gambler Brutus swims like a champ. Who knows what the fish will think of it, but that tail doesn't stop moving, including on the fall.

The Lake Fork Live Magic Shad swims just like a fish, but the segmented sections don't look or feel very durable. On pauses, it falls flat with a tantalizing tail wiggle.  

The Money Lures Money Minnow split open on the belly when I tried to rig them up. I tried every one in the package and they all did that. I'm not sure if that hurt the action or not, but they did swim great. They did nose dive fast with a tail kick on the way down when paused.

The Reaction Strike Fathead Jr. had a good tail wiggle. When paused, it nose dived slightly and fell slower with some tail movement.

The Luck E Strike Bass Magic is the thickest hollow bodied bait. It swims with a slight body rock and a nice thumping tail. When paused, it does a spiral nose dive with no tail action.

The Berkly Hollow Belly would probably be my pick as the best overall swimmer.

It has a slight nose twitch, body wobble, and the tail has a faster flashier kick. When paused, this bait looks great. It noses down slightly and the tails moves so that it looks like it's swimming to the bottom.  

The Basstrix is the softest paddletail and the easiest to tear up. When it swims, the middle section of the body wiggles back and forth and the tail kicks fast. It's probably the nicest looking swimmer when it's moving, but when paused, it drops and does the nose down spiral with some tail kick. I'm not sure if there's a way to stop them from doing that.

The Yamamoto Saltwater Series 5" Swimbait was rigged with a 1/4oz darter head jig. I think it might be too bulky and solid to use anything but an exposed hook. The design is simple but effective. It has an active tail with a sligh body wobble.

The Yamamoto Swimming Senko is a combination of the Senko and the swimbait.

The tail kicks quickly, and the worm section has a slight wobble. When paused, it drops flat with some kicking from the tail.

The Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper has a solid body with a slightly cut belly and a groove on the back. The body doesn't move much, but the tail has a quick kick all the time. When paused, it nosed down and fell quicker than I expected, the tail kicke on the way down.

The Castaic swimbait was the most realistic looking in and out of the water. I got the trout colored 6" bait, and it looked like the real thing in the water. When paused, it did the nose dive, but it looked like it was swimming down to grab something.

The Canyon Plastics Swim Doctor is a solid bodied swimbait that comes with a hook. It is alot heavier than it looks. The tail has a tight kick and there's not much body movement. It nose dives with tail kick when paused. For the price of $12.95 per 1, I won't be buying another one.

The California Swimbaits Tiny "E" is a solid body hand pour that comes with a small treble hook. It has some body movement with a wild tail kick. When paused, it'll nose dive, spiralled sometimes, and that wild tail doesn't move at all.

The Berkly Realistix is a nicely packaged swimbait that has a strange plastic hood behind the head and a very heavy duty hook. The swimming action is a hard side to side body rock that makes it appear to have tail action. When paused, it did a spiral nose dive sometimes, and fell flat sometimes.  I don't see how that plastic collar  won't cause problems on hook ups.

The Storm Kickin Slab is a cheaper priced somewhat realstic looking swimbait. The treble hook isn't small, and this tended to cause problems. On 10 pitches, 4 of them resulted in the treble hook snagging the line. After tucking one of the points into the belly, there wasn't any problems. The swimming action is nice, but seems to require more speed. When paused, it was unpredictable. Sometimes it falls on it's side and flutters down, and other times, it did a spiral nose dive which resulted in more tangled up lines.

[Bob Kavanaugh]

Wow, looks like you put a ton of work (and cash) into this. Thanks for the info! Can't wait for the videos.

[Ryan_Johnson]

Sorry guys, I think I'm going to have to reshoot everything with a better camera.  I tried loading them onto google, and the same thing happens with horrible definition.  

[Ryan_Johnson]

Wow, looks like you put a ton of work (and cash) into this. Thanks for the info! Can't wait for the videos.

One of the reasons that I started doing this is that I'm sick of wasting money on false advertising and stuff that doesn't do what it's supposed to.   If this helps people avoid the junk, then it's successful.

[.dsaavedra.]

wow thats some good info right there! lots of effort and money in that one. good job

the quality of the videos will decrease no matter where you upload them.

[Mattlures]

Ryan the money minnows are suposed to have the split belly. They can take a falcon hook instead of a screw in type hooks. The advantage to that is the bait looks more realistic without hardly any hook showing. I personaly prefer the Falcon type hooks for that reason.

The Baby E is not realy a sinking type bait. It is designed to wake. You slow rollit just under the surface and it makes a nice wake.

All of the unrigged paddle tail baits will fall nose down if you rig them with the weight in the first half of the bait. They make weights that can be possitioned on diferent spots of the hook shank. If you slide the weight towards the back you can make the baits fall more level.

Also prety much all plastisol baits can be aired out to loos their "new bait smell" all fresh plastisol has an oder, some are stronger then others but let you baits sit out for a week or two and the smell should be gone. Dont set them out in direct sunlight or the colors will bleach out.

I like your comparrisons. Might I make a suggestion? You should break them down into catagories. A Castaic is nothing like a Basstrix and the swimming senko and that Gambler thing well they would just be MISC. I would start with Unrigged or riggable paddletails. That seemed to be the majority of your subjects.

Keep up the good work I cant wait to see all your videos. I will send you a few baits to play with too.

[Mattlures]

Oh yeah if you dont like the canyon plastic bait you should try the original. The 3:16 mission fish. They look similar but you will see the diference as soon as you fish them. Just goes to show that knock offs rarley are as good as the originals.

[LakeAnnaBasser]

In you r opinion which swimbait was the best??

[ba7ss3in]

Like all baits, it depends on the situation. I like the RI Skinny Dipper when fish are hitting this lure it does not matter what it's swimming like, they will crush it.  

[HOIST-N-HAWGS]

Excellent work! Your post is extemely appreciated!

[Jimzee]

Oh yeah if you dont like the canyon plastic bait you should try the original. The 3:16 mission fish. They look similar but you will see the diference as soon as you fish them. Just goes to show that knock offs rarley are as good as the originals.

X2

[Ryan_Johnson]

Ryan the money minnows are suposed to have the split belly. They can take a falcon hook instead of a screw in type hooks. The advantage to that is the bait looks more realistic without hardly any hook showing. I personaly prefer the Falcon type hooks for that reason.

The Baby E is not realy a sinking type bait. It is designed to wake. You slow rollit just under the surface and it makes a nice wake.

All of the unrigged paddle tail baits will fall nose down if you rig them with the weight in the first half of the bait. They make weights that can be possitioned on diferent spots of the hook shank. If you slide the weight towards the back you can make the baits fall more level.

Also prety much all plastisol baits can be aired out to loos their "new bait smell" all fresh plastisol has an oder, some are stronger then others but let you baits sit out for a week or two and the smell should be gone. Dont set them out in direct sunlight or the colors will bleach out.

I like your comparrisons. Might I make a suggestion? You should break them down into catagories. A Castaic is nothing like a Basstrix and the swimming senko and that Gambler thing well they would just be MISC. I would start with Unrigged or riggable paddletails. That seemed to be the majority of your subjects.

Keep up the good work I cant wait to see all your videos. I will send you a few baits to play with too.

Thanks for the tips Matt.  Alot of people have not used this type of lure, myself included.  There were only a couple of packages with instructions, so rigging each one up and figuring out how to use it is an adventure.  

I know there are several subclasses in the group, and I had planned on breaking them down for the website write up.  

paddletails and solid bodied copies-Basstrix, Money Minnows, Poor Boys, Hollow Belly, etc.

Misc swimming style baits- Lake Fork, Yamamotos, Reaction Innovations, Gambler, etc.  

Swimbaits- Castaic, Storm,

There should be some others showing up this week from some other companies.  I'll see if I can get a 3:16 mission fish to test out.

-Ryan

[The Next KVD]

Ryan, thanx alot dude!  You have really helped me figure out which swimbaits to try out.  Thank you for spending the money to help others save some $.  Glad to have a fellow Minnesotan on the board!

[Ryan_Johnson]

The new video of the swimbaits and paddletails and other things that have a  flapping tail are up.  Also, there is new video of the senko style worms wacky rigged and some other new stuff.

[dumb_dog11]

WOW, nice work man