Pro Angler Jared Lintner debuts his new Shaky Fins Shad Swimbait (continued)

A little competition anyone? Once we got on the water JIP went with Rich and Brad on one boat and I rode shotgun on Jared and Nick’s boat. Since Jared had such a tough few weeks we thought we would just spend a day “fun fishing,” no jerseys and no wagers. But the competitive side in all of us still came out and it was decided that we would have a big fish competition, the angler with the single biggest fish would get bragging rights.

Jared talks about the new Shaky Fins Shad

With that we head out into the deep canyon lake and both boats went into different coves to work the shallow areas. The weather had been relatively warm over the last few days and Jared suspected the fish could have moved up, possibly even to beds. As we scanned the shorelines we saw a few beds but couldn’t see any fish hanging around the outskirts. The vegetation was pretty thick throughout the lake edges and we had do go to weedless presentations to effectively work the shoreline. While Jared and I worked the edge Nick turned to the opposite side of the boat to work the drop off with a drop shot rig.

The retail packaging for the new baits

Nick got things started by landing two fish with the drop shot rig, both in the two pound class. He expressed his dissatisfaction with the quality of fish, as well as the drop shot technique as a whole and joined us targeting bigger fish up on the shore with Basstrix paddletails. At this point I would have been happy to have two fish in the boat but it was a big fish competition so landing a big female largemouth moving up seemed like the better strategy.

Jared demonstrates rigging

I went with Texas rigged plastics while Nick continued to work a variety of paddletails and Jared began to throw a swimbait that I had never seen before. It didn’t take long for Jared to start getting strikes on his bait but the fish were all smaller males. I inquired what swimbait Jared had tied on and he responded “it is something new from a local company I have been working with. “ He lifted the bait up and showed it to me. At first glance it looked like a saltwater baitfish and it was rigged with a weighted hook much like a traditional paddletail.

The Shaky Fins Shad will be available in a number of patterns

“The bait is from a new manufacturer called Prime Target,” Jared explained. “Scott Garmin, the owner of the company has been making baits for years for his own use and after fishing a variety of baits I finally told him that he should make something available to the public. This is the first bait we worked on together and what he did was get an actual Delta Smelt and he made a mold out of it.”

A look at the profile in trout pattern

“As in the actual baitfish from the Delta,” I inquired. “Yes, he is based in Morro Bay and found a way to get his hands on an actual live Delta Smelt,” Jared responded. “He had the baitfish shipped live to his house where he made a mold out of the fish and created a few test patterns. Over time the design was refined and the fins were continually improved.” Jared went on to explain that the fins are a huge part of why this bait is effective, they are attached in strategic positions and are designed to really quiver when the bait is retrieved at any speed, thus the reason why the bait is dubbed the Shaky Fins Shad.

Even the tail has an extra fin

Jared went on to explain that there are a lot of really big baits out there and while there is a time and a place for them it is often hard for anglers to wrap their heads around tossing those huge swim baits all day long, sometimes just hoping for that one bite. He wanted to get behind a swimbait that every angler could fish, one that was easy to toss with standard tackle as well as could be effectively used in a tournament situation.

Each pack comes with one weighted hook