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Swimbait Review


RatRumble : The Surprisingly Refined LitRat (continued)

Dexterity: First test of this bait was on splash down. LitLures does an excellent job weighting this bait for perfect buoyancy. At rest, the bait's nose is just under the surface while the eyes and ears are visible from above. The remainder of the bait sits straight with the tail trailing out the back. Twitch your rod tip and the LitRat will actually dance in place. I was skeptical that a three-piece rat could walk, but to my surprise, this bait actually does so relatively easily.


On splash down, the LitRat sits perfectly level at the surface with its eyes just barely above the water

Turn the handle of your reel and that's where the real fun begins. The LitRat is a slosher. There is occasionally, a subtle knocking sound that can be heard if there's no background noise (like at night), but the deal with this rat is the amount of water it moves while sloshing on the surface. The other interesting feature with this bait is you can almost burn it on the surface. That's right, it does not crank down making it super easy to fish with the rod tip down (my preference for quicker hook sets) and with that fluorocarbon leader I spoke of earlier.


The joints are shallow-v cut

The reel I was using is a seven point something to one retrieve - once considered fast. I tried on several occasions with a few different strategies to get the LitRat down below the surface mostly because I was in disbelief it wouldn't crank down, but each attempt was met with joy. That's right, I said joy. Lipped wake baits are a good choice because that lip creates resistance that results in more wiggle in the bait's swim, but typically this requires the angler to keep their rod tip up so the bait does not dive when anything other than a slow, crawling retrieve is in play.


Hooks are stout and precisely placed to avoid fouling with each other, at the lip, the joints, or tail

Keeping my rod tip up while working a big wake bait annoys me. I'll do it if I have to, but when a strike occurs, I believe that added split second of time to drop your rod tip and reel in slack contributes to lost fish. Granted, some anglers need this built in delay to give fish the time to actually take the bait. See, if you swing too soon, you risk pulling the bait away before the fish has a good hold of it. However, if you have the discipline to wait, keeping your rod tip down allows you to feel the fish actually pull before you swing. That opportunity is lost when working the rat with your rod tip up because as you drop it, your line is in slack making it impossible to feel anything.


Careful detailing all around even at the ears, which are not pointed just in case they might catch with the line

By allowing me to keep my rod tip down during the retrieve, my hookup ratio with the LitRat is excellent. This also gives me the flexibility to stop my retrieve at any time and change things up by mixing in some side to side walks, bursts of speed, and back to the slow, steady grind of the usual wake. This is exactly the type of flexibility in retrieve I seek in a true wake bait.


Hinge connection is achieved via pin and screw eye - both very stout

Drawing Power: If there's a downside to the LitRat, it's the fact it's a slosher and not a knocker. I mean, in reality, what real live rat swimming across the surface of the water is going to give off a knocking sound? In fact, I'd be surprised if they give off any sound at all and if they do, it'd be slosh. Yet that knock on a wake bait is gold because it gives me confidence fish will hear it from a distance and swim over to check out what the commotion is all about. Then, with any luck, strike that noise making annoyance of a weird, multi-jointed creature out of hunger, anger, reflex. While it's not impossible for a resin bait to knock (and this one does quietly), it's much easier when they're made out of wood, hence the popularity of wake baits made from this material.


The tail is attached via a center-pin like screw recessed into the back of the bait

Vitality: One thing resin baits might have over wood? Durability. There was a point in time, long ago, on a couple of lakes and waterways not too far away, where the go to torture test for a lure in the midst of one of our reviews was to deliberately cast them into a rock or concrete bridge piling. The goal was to see if the bait could hold up to such random abuse - oh the good ole days. However, as the baits we fished got more expensive, and the finishes more intricate, the nerve to actually conduct these tests and consciously cast a bait into potential destruction dissipated to where we now look at normal wear and tear. I know, unreasonable, right?


Body of the bait and the tail align nicely at the surface

Next Section: An unexpected durability "test"...

 

   

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