There's currently a vast array of swimbaits being produced in Asia. Some of these are sold through major brands like Bass Pro Shops or Cabelas, while others may be found through more specialized fishing tackle distributors, with some very unique and interesting lures available. Such is the case with Real Fish Bait, based out of Modesto, California. Tackle Tour has featured Real Fish Bait on their website several times, mostly for their large selection of affordable swimbaits, both hard and soft. Most recently, Tackle Tour showed off some of the new offerings from Real Fish Bait at this year's ISE. I was fortunate enough to get to try some of the latest swimbait offerings from Real Fish Bait, including their impressive Hardbait Shad lures. (More after the jump with video)
The Hard Shad comes in 4 different patterns: threadfin, pumpkinseed, crappie and largemouth. They are done in a photo realistic finish-style, similar to the ABT swimbaits. Colors are sharp and the photo transfer process seems fairly seamless. Further setting apart the Hard Shad lures from many other swimbaits is the nifty "broomtails" feature. I haven't seen too many swimbaits that go for the bristle approach to create a realistic fin appearance, and the tails on the Real Fish Baits look great. It's a smaller swimbait, at 4'', built with six jointed sections, connected by metal pins/wires.
The Hardbait Shad lures are advertised at sinking at roughly 6'' ROF. They have a very natural, lifelike action in the water, even on slower retrieves. Being able to slowly work a hard swimbait through an area is definitely a something I look for in swimbaits; as too many hardbait versions (including the Spro Baby BBZ) seem to lose almost all their action at slow speeds. The Hardbait Shads maintained a tantalizing "S" wobble at both slow and fast speeds.
Do bass like the Hardbait Shad? Indeed! I had a lot of followers and strikes on one short urban creek fishing trip with this small swimbait, and managed to get a fish striking it on film with my Kodak HD cam. You can actually see the fish come after the lure on the first cast, in the top left side of the screen, if you look closely (watch it on 720p HD quality for best shots).
Durability is one point I am concerned about in regards to the Hardbait Shad. In the above video, you'll see a bass hit the lure twice, hooking up and getting landed on the second toss.
After catching this bass, I've gone on to use this same swimbait lure on several more California fishing trips. It's landed me some of my biggest urban creek bass and I've very happy with it. After getting hit by a particularly tough bass, you may find that the joints get a bit stiffer at the 2nd section. A few quick wiggles should fix the problem.
The 4'' Hardbait Shad looks great, swims great and definitely catches bass. It's a smaller swimbait with a whole lot of potential, at a fairly reasonable price. I'll be updating this post as I fish with this offering from Real Fish Bait in the future. Until then, if you are intrigued by this smaller swimbait, check it out at their website, available online for $11.99. Tight lines!
[Update March 12, 2012: I've since used the Hardbait Shad on several other fishing trips and have been impressed with its performance. It's definitely a keeper of a lure for me on my urban creek and lake bass trips!]
After taking a look at wLure's excellent trout swimbait and chunky sunfish swimbait, let me turn your attention to another interesting Chinese swimbait they offer. The HS6 from wLure is an affordable sunfish imitation lure, not frequently seen in the United States.
(More after the jump)
Design
The HS6 is a 4 inch swimbait, shaped after a basic sunfish pattern. wLure offers 4 unique patterns for this lure, including a black crappie one (seen in my photos). They all look pretty great, especially for a bargain Chinese swimbait. The joints are rather unique for a swimbait. Instead of using the typical hinge metal joints found in many swimbaits, wLure has opted to go with a flexible band of tough material to link the swimbait. It's pretty unique but doesn't seem to detract from the motion of the lure.
Price The HS6 is priced fairly competitively, at a little over $7 with free shipping from wLure. For this price range, a comparable model is the H2O Academy Sports line of swimbaits, with one seen in the following image. The H2O swimbaits sell for a little more and are considerably more difficult to obtain, unless you happen to live in the South/Midwest. Bass Pro Shops also sells a similarly priced swimbait model, but I'd argue that the wLure model is much more appealing to the eye.
wLure's HS6 in action at Ford Park
Action I found the HS6 to have the best action at a medium to fast retrieve. It's not a lure that has to exclusively be retrieved quickly to get any good action, but a very slow retrieve is not recommended! Also, it reacts favorably to short pauses with rapid intermitent jerks and twitches. I'd estimate that it sinks at about the same rate as a Baby BBZ swimbait, and it falls horizontally in the water column (as it should). It's really not a lure I would throw for timid or lethargic fish, especially during the colder months. However, I think the HS6 will certainly shine and catch loads of bass when they are feeding more heavily on sunfish (Fall), or protecting their beds from hungry bluegills (Spring). Working it medium-fast past ambush points should also yield good bass.
Durability The paint job on the HS6 appears to hold up decently well, even with a few errant casts on to the concrete shoreline at a portion of Fairmount Park in Riverside, California. As far the inner band that links the swimbait, I have no complaints. Anglers will certainly be wary of a non-metal joint material, however, I applied a lot of pressure to the joints and couldn't get the link material to rip or stretch easily. Of course, a massive strike from a hard-fighting bass may not be easily replicated with out of water tests and this remains an area I haven't tested yet.
Summary The HS6 swimbait from wLure is another interesting and unique lure from this fishing company. With multiple patterns and a good swimming action in the water, it looks like a solid contender for an affordable swimbait. While I have not gotten to throw it in the conditions that I would consider the best (yet), I'll be updating this with more info on how it catches fish as my trips progress throughout the year. So far, I am pleased with the HS6 sunfish swimbait and I would recommend it if you are looking for a bargain-priced sunfish imitation swimbait.
For the second lure in my series on wLure's Chinese swimbaits, I have the HS145F2, a jointed, chunky swimbait somewhat shaped after a bluegill. It sells for $5.49 online, with three different color options, length of 5 3/4'', and a weight of 1 2/3oz.
(Continued after the jump)
The HS145F2 swimbait is pretty chunky. It's certainly not a "knock-off" of any specific lure I've encountered, and it seems to be a hybrid swimbait/crankbait style lure. The entire lure is hard plastic, complete with a nice set of fins sticking out both dorsally and laterally. However, the tail is a soft plastic/rubber piece, attached by two pins. If any part of this lure was to fail after repeated hits, this may be it. Still, it's fairly well attached and shouldn't present too much of an issue.
This swimbait will float, diving around 2-3 ft on retrieve. When using the HS145F2, I found it had excellent action, even at slower retrieval speeds. The added crankbait lip really helps increase the bait's enticing wobble action, for the better. Here is a few YouTube videos of the HS145F2 swimbait that I took while trying it out at Ford Park, in Redlands.You'll notice the excellent side to side action upon retrieve.
Details on this lure are fairly impressive. The paint job isn't amazing, but it certainly looks much nicer than many generic Chinese eBay lures. Of the three color options available for this lure, my favorite is the bluegill-style pattern. The other two, a goldfish (?) and a striped bass pattern really don't appeal to me. The finish on the lure seems quite durable and didn't chip, despite some rough handling on rocks on my part. Will it hold up to the smash of a toad largemouth or striper? I'm not sure, but the joints and attachments certainly feel tough.
Overall, I was pretty impressed with the HS145F2 bluegill swimbait. It's cheap, has great action in the water, and looks decent. I'll post updates with how it performs on the toads as the water starts to warm up. Tight lines!
The ODS HS5X374 from wLure is jointed, hardbody trout swimbait, selling for $8.99. It's a completely new bait to me, as I have never seen this model before. I ran into it on the wLure website and couldn't resist asking about it. I have purchased several Chinese knock-off (KO lure) or non-name brand lures in the past and had mixed experiences, so I was a little wary at the time. Thankfully, this swimbait turned out to be quite a keeper, with a great price, great motion in the water and a great design.
Size Comparison
wLure is a Chinese fishing lure website with a local US branch in Houston, Texas. I recently stumbeled upon their website and was amazed at just how low the prices on their lures was. Also, they offer free shipping, no matter how small the order, which is super nice on top of the low prices. If you do order from wLure, do expect to wait at least 15 days for your order. After all, it's coming over from China and is not going to arrive at your doorstep anywhere as fast as a TW or BPS order. Still, I don't mind the wait, as long as I order well in advance of major fishing trips.However, if you would like to avoid waiting roughly 3 weeks, consider ordering this same lure through Amazon, for slightly more (see sidebar). (More after the jump)
Gill detail
The HS5X374 comes in a 6 1/2'' and in 4 different colors/patterns. Behind the front gill joint is a bright red, painted gill, certainly a nice touch. I've included several photos showing how this ODS wLure HS5X374 compares to the sizes of other swimbaits offered by wLure (more reviews on these to come).
There are several internal rattles in this trout swimbait, making it a little louder than the Megabait Charlie's I usually throw. I'm not sure how useful this rattle is, or if it might even be a deterrent to getting wary fish to bite it. I would prefer it to be almost silent, instead of the rattle. However, in some murky conditions this may be a benefit. The ODS swimbait casts quite well and handles well in the water.
Awesome detail
For a little lure trivia, the HS5X374 comes in a "ODS Lure" box. Never having heard of such a brand, I did some research online and found several Chinese eBay sellers offering these ODS lures, including this one, for the same or more than what wLure sold them for. Several foreign wholesale websites offered them in massive bulk lots, and I could find only one US-based retailer also selling them, albeit under a different name (hardbait hitch swimbait). The box comes with English and Russian script, I suppose ODS is a tackle manufacturer in China, selling a affordable line of swimbaits. Learning more about the slowly burgeoning tackle industry in China and looking at the different lures produced there is pretty fascinating. In general, most diehard anglers steer away from generic Chinese lures, but I've started to see a slow increase in quality from these overseas baits.
More awesome detail
The pattern on this swimbait is pretty unique. It's closest to a trout, although not exactly a rainbow trout. There are four patterns to choose from for this exciting swimbait model, including two trout-style ones, a carp/rough fish patter and a baby striped bass pattern. wLure has a taken a photorealistic finish approach to the coating of this swimbait and it looks excellent. Paint job seems to be strong too, with no chipping or cracks despite being bounced around in my swimbait box a little too often.
YouTube video of trout swimbait in action
The HS5X374 swimbait from wLure has a very interesting performance in the water. It is a surface/subsurface swimbait, and looks just like a confused, terrified stocked trout when retrieved a medium to medium fast speed. It has an absolutely wonderful "S" swimming pattern, as you can somewhat see in the following video, where it really comes alive. I also found you could cast the lure, let it sit, then give it quick "walk-the-dog" style jerks to really get a unique action. It will dive from side to side, subsurface, sure to be a hit. It's worth noting that at very slow speeds, or on line that is too light, the lure's swimming action is impacted negatively and doesn't show quite as much motion. I haven't fished with a lure like this before, nor seen one on the market in BPS stores yet.
Second video showing this swimbait in action on top Thanks to gf for video help!
Unfortunately, I haven't gotten a chance to fish this trout swimbait in "real" conditions for striper or largemouth. The trial casts and videos I've posted above are from Ford Park, in Redlands, California (better known for its dog park and large swarms of aggressive waterfowl). While the lure seems durable, only intense use over time will really tell how strong it is. I am curious to see how it holds up to larger fish, as it is certainly designed for heavier fish than the usual city park pond bass. I'll be posting more updates on to how this swimbait works for me as the season progresses.
|Summary| The HS5X374 trout swimbait from wLure is a interesting lure for a very affordable price. It is the the best example of a no-name, generic, Chinese-brand bait that has excellent swimming action and a great selection of lure color patterns that I have used so far. I have no complaints about it, only praise, at least at this early stage. For swimbait collectors, or those interested in trying out a really affordable swimbait for a fraction of the cost of name-brand models, the HS5X374 from wLure may be a good choice.
Want a sneak peak at my next set of fishing lure reviews? Enjoy my Flickr page!
[Update]: I did a little more research online and found the actual producers of this lure. It's from a Chinese company called ODA Fishing Tackle, in Canton, China (southern area of China). They have a fairly extensive line of "photo-finish" lures, and a pretty decent website, located here. It looks like they are trying to break into the US market, with plenty of lure options for anglers. Here is a photo from their website of some of their baits being produced.
Coming soon: Exclusive, in-depth look at a previously-unheard of, dirt-cheap, line of swimbaits never before reviewed in the USA, courtesy of wLure. Expect photos, videos and complete reviews of these impressively-affordable swimbaits. Stay tuned.
