Silicone baits that conquered the Don pike perch

It so happened that in the past year, the pike categorically ignored me, probably announced a boycott. Spring and early summer, I still tried to somehow seduce her, in various reservoirs and with various baits, for the most part, of course, with wobblers, but alas, as they say, it didn’t grow together.

On one of the July, multi-day fishing trips, at one point, I understand that I need to leave wobblers and pike alone, and switch to a jig, change gears to catching zander. Silicone lures, I gained a lot over the past winter, but they are not in demand, not in order. Looking ahead, I’ll say that I did that 5-day fishing trip in one evening and one silicone bait.

I am not a great specialist in catching zander, I learned how to purposefully catch it only five or six years ago, and even then catching was more episodic than purposeful.

At first, thanks exclusively to fishing forums, with each purchase of the next wobbler, as if in a load, I took indiscriminately one or two packs of silicone. Everything that was 3-4 inches in size, and the prefix "edible" was unequivocally classified by me as "for pike perch." In my zander arsenal, quite a few silicone baits from such well-known companies as Reins, Keitech, Fox, Mann's, Lucky John and Big Bite Baits have appeared. Each bait of a particular company definitely has the right to life, it’s not the bait that catches In general, my collection of silicone for zander, for a couple of seasons, from various manufacturers, lay almost unclaimed, and I could not weed out what was needed and what was not.

Summing up the outgoing year, I can make my personal rating of silicone baits for catching zander, a zander menu, so to speak. This is my personal rating, so please treat this review with understanding, and draw conclusions correctly, for each angler specifically for himself and for his fishing conditions.

Big Bite Baits Cane Thumper 3.5", color Eufaula Special– this bait is without any doubt the culmination of my hit. In general, about the baits of the American company Big Bite Baits, which, as far as I could find out, specializes in the manufacture of soft baits from "edible silicone", it is worth stopping in more detail, but this is not now. What prompted me to buy this bait, I can’t say, I just saw a new product, and ordered several models from BBB, I definitely didn’t lose.

Cane Thumper - translated from English, means "blatant lie." I think the manufacturer subtly hinted that this bait can easily fool any predator. I don’t know about anyone, but the pike perch clearly takes it for a real food object.

I would call this bait a classic zander vibrotail. It has an elongated, narrow, slightly ribbed body, a small "heel" on a relatively thin and short transition. Silicone is positioned as "edible", there are grains of salt in the pack, baits are richly smeared with an attractant. But the smell surprised me at first, some kind of anise-mint smell, against the background of baits from other manufacturers that have fish and crab smells, this one looks extraordinary. During the season, the smell keeps perfectly, and the pike perch clearly appreciated this approach. Packed in a hermetically sealed pack, in an amount of eight pieces.

Practice has shown that despite its softness, the bait is quite tenacious, easily survives a lot of bites, and most importantly, the disease of “bitten tails” is very poorly developed. It has a slot at the top and bottom for equipping with an offset, as well as slots on the sides for equipping with a twin. By the way, these slots have another plus, with the apparent volume of the body, the bait is light in comparison with similar baits, but in which the body is solid.

There are no tricks in the equipment - an offset hinge, and a classic jig head. Although, to be honest, you have to grind the lead spike on the jig head, otherwise the bait breaks when equipped. I tried it on leash rigs, but I didn’t like it.

Offsets I use Decoy Dream Hook Worm 15, in sizes 2/0 and 3/0, the hook is not wide, but rather long, and fits perfectly in the bait, and even an elongated step on the forearm provides better fixation of the silicone bait.

Cane Thumper belongs to active baits, therefore it has a good, high-frequency own game. It is very easy to animate it, a classic jig - and you don’t have to invent anything. On a classic step, with the help of jerky wiring, you can make the bait jump over the bottom, tremble when it falls. Dragging along the bottom, with pauses, also brings its excellent results, pike perch picks it up and eats it, even on a long pause, from the bottom, sometimes after a pause during the next reel, I understood that pike perch was already on the hook, it only remained to make a control hook.

At the very beginning of the review, I mentioned that there was one fishing trip in July, on which for four days I tried to lure pike, perch, asp, pike perch, but alas, the fish completely ignored all the baits offered.

The last evening and morning of this trip remained, and then we were going home. In general, it came to Cane Thumper. I first equipped it with a classic jig head, the first wiring brings me eight kilograms of catfish, I grabbed the adrenaline then! The cord was thin, 12 libres in total, and as a leash a 0.23 mm fluor, in general, I tinkered with this catfish. Well, I think it was lucky, an accident!

And then it began. There were bites on every haul, the zander grabbed the Cane Thumper, preventing it from even falling to the bottom after the cast. After a miss or a descent, bites followed again and again until the fish sits on the hook thoroughly. As a result, during that evening and morning, I caught another five-kilogram catfish, and up to two dozen zander from a keel to three. And this is at the end of July!

Of course, this case cannot be considered a regularity, I got to the exit, to the summer zhor of pike perch, to the flock, but you can’t agree that you don’t want to deny the fact that he didn’t want anything else. And later, until the deepest autumn, it was this bait that always brought me the cherished fanged fish.

Smart Lure FLATBACK SHAD (3"8), color FT- this, in general, outwardly, is an ordinary classic vibrotail, which has all the signs of the classification of this family of lures. Smart Lure is another American brand that produces silicone lures, but I hadn’t heard about it either, and when I saw a rather low price, I couldn’t resist.
FLATBACK SHAD, in contrast to the bait described above, has a body of medium width, which smoothly turns into a relatively strong tail, ending in a narrow but high "heel". In the head area, there are designations of gill covers and fins. For fish, this is not significant, but it looks realistic. Wide back and narrow belly.

This rubber is positioned by the manufacturer as "edible", but there is no salt in the pack, the baits are lubricated with an attractant. This is the second bait, which, to my surprise, like the one described above, has an anise smell, it tastes like sweet rubber! What is the reason for the tendency among Americans to give baits vegetable smells, I do not understand, but it works.

The smell and taste last literally for five or six casts, then nothing remains, but the vibrotail works perfectly!

The pack is not airtight, although after using the bait, I put it back into the pack, and after a day, it again has the same aroma and taste, maybe the plastic of the pack itself is impregnated with an attractant. The pack contains, in a hard blister, four lures.

I want to say a few words about the material from which the bait is made, or rather, what kind of material I don’t know, but I was pleasantly impressed by its properties. The material, despite its softness, is very strong, as for me it looks like a pudding - all alive, moving, but at the same time it is very difficult to break it. It took me two packs, and all eight baits went on hooks, not one was torn, fished, heel was beaten off or some other damage. Any bait easily withstands up to a dozen bites, in principle, I think it will withstand more, but they died on my hooks.

When equipped with a classic jig head, the work is the best! I tried to equip the FLATBACK SHAD with an offset tool, I abandoned this idea at home, I didn’t like it, the rubber is quite strong and the height of the body, in my opinion, will not allow zander to be cut through normally. The bait is active, has a wonderful high-frequency own game, and also due to the fact that the upper body is wide and the belly is narrow, then on a pause during the jig, during the fall, the bait still has transverse vibrations, in general, the pike perch appreciated this!

Postings for this vibrotail are applicable to all that are acceptable for catching zander! Here are the classic two turns of a pause, and double explosions with a rod, and dragging along the bottom, and knocking on the bottom in one place along the stream, and even fishing in a plumb line. However, it should also be noted that the bait with a jig from 12-15 grams starts to work, well, it holds 40 grams perfectly, I didn’t set it anymore.

FLATBACK SHAD cannot be called a pure pike-perch lure. I caught all sorts of predatory fish on it. Large perch, zander, pike, and even a few chicks were tempted by his game.

Keitech Swing Impact FAT 3.8", color Bluegill Flash- a rather large, massive vibrotail with a powerful large heel, such a fat man. I don’t think it’s worth writing much about this bait, a very famous and popular bait.

It has a body that is not very oblong, round in cross section, a large round heel is connected to the main body by a completely thick “stem”. In the body of the bait, at the top and bottom, there is a notch for an offset hook, and in the front of the bait there is a special strip, along which you can navigate when putting the bait on an offset hook.

Just like all Keitech lures, rubber is considered "edible". There is enough salt in the package. The baits are lubricated with an attractant with a fishy smell. The smell and taste are long lasting and stable. The baits are packed in a blister, where each bait is stored in a separate cell.

Based on the shape of the body, the equipment suggests itself in two versions. The first is a classic one, on a jig head, and the second one, which, perhaps, has also already become a classic, is an offset machine with a collapsible cheburashka. Gamakatsu jig head, with a size 2/0 or even 3/0 hook, quite nicely get along together. I choose a jig head with a short hook so that the hook looks out of the body of the bait at 1/3 of its length. About offsets here, too, in principle, everything is just Decoy Kig Hook Worm17 3/0, and you will be happy. The bait, on the jig head, sits and works well, although the body breaks on bites, it still withstands much more than when equipped with an offset. But with hinged mounting, the game of Swing Impact FAT is much more interesting. The lure squirms with the whole body during the haul, in addition to the “heel” oscillation.

I also liked the fact that this vibrotail can be used in almost any conditions, at any depth and in any current. He literally starts from scratch. I put two grams of Cheburashka on ponds with stagnant water and reached forty grams on the Don, the result is always on the face. The only drawback, why I moved this bait to the third position, is still weak, compared to previous baits, survivability, and the price, at the present time we play no small role.

Jackall I Shad Tail 3.8", color BLUEGILL/PEARL WHITE- a bait from the category of an unloved class, in general, it is not clear what it is, either a passive worm, or an active vibrotail. Well, I don’t like all kinds of worms and crayfish, I can’t do it with them, but here it’s on you, I’m impressed! The bait has a narrow, elongated and slightly ribbed body, which ends in a very small "heel". At the top and bottom of the bait there are small cutouts for equipping with an offset. The bait is made of "edible" silicone, there is salt in the pack, but there is not much of it, the baits are smeared with an attractant with a crab or shrimp smell. Salty in taste. The smell and taste are long lasting and stable. Packed in a sealed pack, a pack of eight pieces.

At first I figured a jig head for this silicone, but immediately discarded this thought. Even the head is relatively thin. I also discarded the lead rigs, only one thing remains, a hinge with pasties and an offset. When equipped with a bullet, and with an offset, the patency of the I Shad Tail is simply phenomenal, it even passes through a dredged snag.

The main working wiring of this bait is slow dragging along the bottom with small tosses and movements. Articulated mounting gives almost complete freedom in the movements of the silicone. In principle, based on stereotypes, I Shad Tail should fish in cold water, in spring and autumn, however, even in the summer, the predator does not deprive him of attention. I have not found any cons yet, the rubber is quite strong, it flies well, it does not hold badly on the hook. And the most important thing is that this bait catches zander, and, in terms of the number of zander caught, it is one of the leaders in my case.

Mann's Predator 3, color MO- when I started writing this review, in principle, the first four positions were determined initially, but I doubted for a long time who to give the fifth position. But to one degree or another, I found several shortcomings in many. And then, I decided not to suffer, and give the fifth place to that bait, which can easily take the first one.

In my opinion, everyone knows the Predator vibrotail, it makes no sense to describe it. I will say that this is an active bait, not edible. I equip only on a jig head without any frills and perversions.

Softness and sufficient strength at the same time, makes it possible to use the Predator perfectly for a long time, even after biting several pikes, cuts are easily treated with a heated needle and back into battle. But there is something that made me put this vibrotail into the tail of the column - Predator catches mostly active fish.

I don’t bother with wiring, a classic step, two turns of a pause, there are other lures for experiments! And catches EVERYTHING! I will say more, about 10 years ago it was the bait on which I caught my first walleye, and since then Mann's Predator has not failed!

But life goes on, new lures appear, both in old forms and real novelties, winter is ahead, and I think that next year I will have other favorites!

I will be extremely glad to everyone who will share their TOP, their zander menu!

All no tail, no scales!

Best regards, Sergei!