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

Jared had had a limited number of these baits for his own use thus far and provided a few to a number of his tournament fishing colleagues who have also caught fish on them. He is hoping to get more in time for his trip back east to the next round of Elite Series events.  Jared showed me one of the baits he had caught multiple fish on and while I could see tearing around the top of the bait surrounding the buried hook point the rest of the bait looked like it was holding together nicely.

The baby bass pattern. Jared remarked how many baby bass swimbaits are actually miniature mature bass and he wanted a pattern that looked more like a true juvenile bass

When I tugged on the bait I could tell they were very durable, even the thin fins didn’t rip off easily. Jared also pointed out that they went with an extra large screw so that it would not rip out of the bait and render the swimbait unusable just after one fish. To prove this he rotated one in and pulled aggressively on the hook which stretched the entire swimbait without dislodging the wire. 

The bottom of the swimbait has a opening for the hook

The Shaky Fins Shad will be available in five different patterns which include shad and trout patterns, and all will share the same profile. Each pack will come with two swimbaits and one weighted hook, and while a retail price has not yet been determined the lures will be available at Tackle Warehouse in a few weeks.

Even smaller bass can inhale this modestly sized swimbait

At this point Brad had landed a few fish with a spinnerbait while Rich had successfully caught fish on plastics and JIP had cranked up one with a Norman DLN. It looked like everything was working but the problem was all that was being caught were small females or even smaller males, and the biggest fish thus far was in the two pound class.

Jared with a nicer fish

Rich like JIP and I was also busy evaluating products, and was fishing a rod from a brand that TW was still evaluating to bring in. JIP was testing a new e21 rod equipped with Micro Guides and I was fishing two new Shimano Cumulus rods. It turns out Jared was doing a little rod testing of his own and was fishing a new prototype from Powell that he was also working on as a possible addition to the TW exclusive lineup. 

Rich works the flats while Brad lands a fish

Back to the competition at hand, we moved up and down the different arms of lake and even fished for a few minutes in deeper water near the dam. Jared continued to throw the Shaky Fins Swimbait and was rewarded with a three and a half pounder near one of the coves, and it was here that we saw some really big fish sitting on beds. Jared estimated some of the fish were as big as eight pounds but they were not fully locked onto beds and would spook as we approached them. The further back into the cove we got the warmer the water temperature and the more fish we saw sitting on beds.

Nick and Jared work a bed fish while Rich, JIP and Brad fish a nearby point

We pounded a few of the fish with a combination of jigs, crawfish imitators and Reaction Innovation Beavers. A few of the fish were eager to attack even when we were literally right on top of them and there were others that were completely lockjawed. Jared and Nick tag teamed one six pound fish for over thirty minutes and she flared up on just about every bait imaginable but never once charged or bit.

Rich boat flips a quality fish