Lake Fork Magic Shad?

[Kodiak Zach]

Anyone tried these yet?

Saw them in a Wal-Mart in Alabama last week and picked one up. Wish I would have loaded up on them. Brought them back to Orlando and promptly hooked 2 of the biggest Bass I have ever caught out of my back yard pond. The baits seem to be awesome, but the hooks kinda suck. I have never seen big 6-7 pound bass immediately come flying out of the water to shake that hook, even when I was trying to steer them down by keeping my rod tip low and pointed at the water >

[Raul]

Gotta say that durability wise they are much better than the original Javallon from where they were copied, sneeze hard on one of them Javallons and it comes to pieces, LFLMS doesn 't have that issue, they are harder and more durable even though I feel Javallons have a better action due to the softness.

Hooking them with a weighted EWG or unweigthed EWG in my experience with LFLMS is not exactly the best way, with Javallons that 's not a problem, the hook slices through the plastic ( I should say it tears the plastic ) and gives you good 1 bait per fish catch ratio  : but with the Live Magic Shad that 's not the case, being the head is thick but since the material is harder the hook doesn 't exit well the bait head and creates poor hookups.

Try with a jighead with an oversized 3, 4 or 5/0, it does wonders having the hook exposed, the only catch is having the bait head impaled on the jighead right along the middle line otherwise the bait runs crooked.

[Wayne P.]

I you get the 5.5" size, the best hook for weedless rigging to fit the thickness and length of the head segment is the Gammy G-Mag Oversize. If you want some weight, just add the lead part of a rubbercore sinker of appropiate weight to the shank after inserting the hook. All the dedicated swimbait hooks I have tried are too small or too long.

[Just_Old_Fisherman]

If you can find them, Walmarts maybe, the LFT Swimbait hook is the the best for the LFT Magic Shad and most hollow belly swimbaits like the Bass Magic's.  Next best is the Mr Blitz swimbait hook.

You want at least the 5/0 LFT hook for the 4.5" Magic Shad.  They also have a 7/0 and 10/0 for larger baits.

[Red]

i have had good luck with these using either a gammy EWG 4/0 or this other weighted EWG hook i got at walmart, i think "arkie" is the brand and they are red with the weight on the shank.  its best to insert the eye of the hook first then tie on to your line, that way you don't have to force the weight through the head of the bait.  i have had no hook up issues either way, every fish that bit got caught, except for one, which is a whole other story.  i usually buy the pack of just the minnows, not the ones that come pre-rigged on that jig head.

Cliff