Rage Tail Shad

[catchnm]

Anyone using these with any success? How about sharing some rigging and retrieve methods that are working for ya? I'm thinking of picking up a bag or two for myself.

[Avalonjohn44]

I get that it is a top water lure, but I am thinking that I could imitate a dying bluegill with this lure by letting it sink, pitching it into heavy cover, etc...

[Big-O]

John, go to my website and look at the message board as there are hooking instructions and types of use there. My top action hook advice is 4/0 to 5/0 EWG (wide Gap) hook. It is definitely a radical top water bait but you can slow them down to a gurgle if in calmer water.  A heavy keel weighted hook is advised for subsurface swim bait action due to, on lighter weighted hooks the shad will still surface fairly easily. Many will use a light keel weight hook for surface action because it cast so far with it and still rides the top easily at slow or quick retrieves. The keel weight lets you drop it in the holes as well. Hope you like em

Good Fishin

Big O

www.ragetail.com

[Big-O]

Hey Catchnm, welcome to the forum and pls feel free to ck out all of the info on my website. If you have any more questions on favorite colors etc. let me know and I'll try to help.

Good fishin

Big O

www.ragetail.com

[FD.]

Welcome aboard!

[catchnm]

Thanks Big O, went there and looked around last night a bit. I fish Lake Texoma here on the Texas - Oklahoma border. It's my home lake and it's borderline brackish. By that I mean that because there's so much salt flowing into it via the upstream of the Red River and because of the minerals that are produced by an oil rich soil, what we have is a quite salty lake for an inland reservoir. It has stripers and is pretty renowned for the striper fishing. However, threadfin shad abound and flourish in it also. The Bass population is great with largemouth, spots, and smallmouth all in good numbers. The stripers and their voracious feeding tendencies cause the bass to stay relatively shallow and wait for and just lay under the schools of striper waiting for an easy meal when they're cutting shad on the surface. I thought the bulk, the large silhouette, and the amazing tail action of the Ragetail may make it a good fall bait rigged weightless to cast right into the schooling striper. What do ya think?

[Big-O]

Catchnm,

For what you are describing I would definitely use a 1/8 to 3/16 oz keel weighted hook and let it drop for a few seconds before starting retrieve. This gives you a 3 1/2 inch power house swimbait.  If you run it too quick it will come back to the surface on you so just feel your way into it. Remember, you can tune the shads tail to achieve a more subtle action and it won't surface as easily. Ck out the message board on my website and click on tuning the Rage Shad topic to find out how to do it. It's pretty simple and will give you a variety of action results.

Good fishin and let me know how you do.  

Big O