Jackall Stride(Hard) Swimbait review

Thats right anglers, Jackall, the maker of one of the best crankbaits in the industry has stepped up in 2009 with a swimbait. To be honest this is not really a new bait they designed. They have had it on the market in Japan for awhile but it is new to the US market. I had ordered several from Japan about a year and a half ago and fished them alot in tournaments and while fun fishing for bigger fish. The US bait is not any different than the Japan version except some colors. They are only on the market in the US in limited numbers and dealers but well worth the $30.00 price tag.
I have fished the bait in just about every situation over the last year and it has preformed well. I have to say as far as hard swimbaits go it is one of the most versital baits I have seen. When I first got it and took it out of the box I did not like the way it swam in the water. The bait seemed to not have any action at all. I then had to speed up the retrieve and that made a huge difference. At first, I would swim the bait like the Giron, which has to be fished very slow to work, this bait likes it a little faster making it fish a little faster and cover water faster. I also fished it with a "jerking" motion and this is one of my favorite ways to fish it. After making a long cast, which is not hard at all with this bait, let it fall for a couple of seconds. Then jerk the bait with the rod tip in a downward motion. This will make the bait jump clean out of the water. The next time you jerk the bait it will dive. I think I can best describe the action like working a spook underwater. Fish love this action when they are feeding/schooling. One other thing I found to be good on this bait is swimming it back to the boat then twitch it and let it sit. The bait does sink slow but when you twitch it it will turn around and face backwards. I placed the bait in a tank after a demo and had fish follow the bait all the way back without taking it(mainly because I had been slamming them for about 45 mins). I tossed it back out and when they were following it back I stopped it then twitched it and when it turned on the fish(facing it) they killed it. I think this is a good way to trigger a bite when it gets tough.
As far as being duriable, the bait is like every other Jackall bait. They last and the paint work is awesome. I have boated over 115 fish(at the time of this article) and you can tell it has caught fish but it still looks good. I feel sure if you try this bait you will love it. Biggest thing I see many clients do is they dont want to fish it long enough. Alot of anglers, myself included, tend not to fish a new bait they have never seen long enough to build any confidence in it. I hope this helps some anglers understand how to fish the bait and if you want to see it in action give me a call. The swimbait bite is just getting started on Lake Guntersville and only going to get better.