Real World Tests: I fished the Reins C-Pod both Tex-posed and as a drop shot bait. For my Tex-posed rig, I tied a Gamakatsu G-Finesse Light Wire Worm Hook with the Tin Keeper at the end of some ten pound (10lb) test Sunline Super Natural nylon monofilament that was spooled on my Abu Garcia Revo4 X mounted on an Ark Rods Lancer LAC73MHFC. I of course, also had a small, tungsten bullet weight on the line above the hook and before that I even slipped a bobber stopper on the line to hold the bullet weight in place. I exposed the hook point on top of the bait because the hook is a straight shank and didn't have enough of a gap for the hook point to come out if rigged weedless.

I continued to have success with this same bait pitched and cast to sparse patches of weeds. The bass really keyed in on the bait as it was descending the water column. So in an effort to keep the bait in the strike zone even longer, I rigged a separate bait up on a dropshot with my Ark Rods IVK610LMLXS Invoker paired with a Quantum Smoke S3 25 spinning reel spooled with 10lb Sunline Supernatural, and of course the C-Pod is equally effective as a drop shot bait as well.

Those antennae looking appendages are actually swim fins for a copepod.

With all of its appendages, the natural question would be how durable is the C-Pod creature bait? The answer, like with any soft plastic bait is it depends. I had one bait last through several fish, I had another whose appendages were picked apart by smaller sunfish almost as if being devoured by piranha.

The bait's plastic has a nice, soft consistency, and the body suffers through about average wear from rigging, re-rigging, fish battles and so on.

The C-Pods's ribbed body is reminiscent of a trailer bait.

Design & Ergonomics: The C-Pod Creature's plastic is infused with some type of fish attractant that may be derived from crustacean and invertebrates. The wording is unclear on Reins's website. Nevertheless, there are seven available colors including staples like Watermelon, Green Pumpkin and Bluegill.

The tail end of this bait is interesting but not something that lends itself well to using the bait as a jig trailer.

Price & Applications: Reins retails their C-Pod Creature bait for $6.49 per re-sealable pack of 6 baits. That equates to over a dollar per bait, so this is a pretty pricey little soft plastic. Though it is essentially a creature bait, I think it's best fished alone or as the primary offering and not as a trailer. The appendages are a bit subtle to be used as a trailer and intuition tells us it's the bait's entire profile that triggers that instinctive strike from a fish- not the action of its appendages.