BrianB

Nevermind, I figured out how to edit the thread title. And I forgot to add that we tore them up last night with the toads. ;D I am about to go out again, we'll see what transpires today.

I think that a moderator should be able to edit the thread title. I am not trying to stir up anything though, either way.

I fished these all through the spawn here in south MS. They worked well for me, but the topwater action really picked up last week. No one knows why the toads swim upside down sometimes?

Well I got back from the fishing trip the other day. I had a great time getting the Florida Strain LMB's. Those fish are absolutely beautiful We fished for 3 days and caught some good numbers. Biggest fish was a 3-1, My biggest was 2-6. Lots of 2Lb'ers though. Not much great news to report about the Rage Tail Shads. I bought 3 more bags before I left, and 2 of them were horrible. While I was down there I did the hot water thing again. That helped a little bit, but still not as god as the first 5 or 6 bags I ever bought. Just for kicks, I also tried the microwave method......Don't even bother trying it. What a mess.....HAHA It started to soften up the shad but ended up destroying it. I did it just a few seconds at a time too. The good news to report is that the Rage Tail Toads did very well on the bass down there. I would say that about 75% of the bites I got were on the toad. I fished Manns toads, worms & craws, Rattle Traps, Spinnerbaits, buzz baits, X-raps, sub-walks, and the above mentioned Rage Tails, and the RT Toads performed the best. The only problem I noticed is that the toad would sometimes swim upside down, but it did not slow down the bite at all. What would cause that? After this trip I think I am done with the shads. Too bad, because I love the action when they were working.

Quick Update: The first two shads I used after cooking them, ripped at the bend of the tail after about 50 casts. Since then I have been using the same one without it ripping. Also, they are catching the bass again. When I first opened these bags I could not get a bite at all. after cooking I caught one yesterday, one last night and two today. All between 1-2 Lbs. I know they aren't lunkers, but that is all there is in the pond 50 feet from my house. ;D I am headed to FL next weekend and will try them there on the bigger bass.

Yeah, I really don't want to cook any lures before I use then either. But I like the Shads and Toads so I will continue to buy them as long as the majority of the bags are fine. I am going to get a few more bags and check them out before I go to Florida next weekend.

I put the rest of them in 170f water for about 10 minutes, then in cool water for about 10 minutes. I did soften the plastic quite a bit and the tails were re-centered. The side affect was that the tail lasted about 40 to 50 casts and had a tear at the bend, and the shad rode down the hook a little easy. The action was much more smooth and the shad went through the water much smoother. I did notice that the splash and wake was smaller than I had seen before. I had to reel a little faster to get a the splash and wake to really get going, but the lure tracked very, very well at slow speeds. Now that I have done this, will the plastic firm up a little? If not I will heat them for 5 minutes next time.

I did one of them in the hot water. It was probably hot enough as I could not keep my finger in it. I don't think it was for 10 minutes though....I may have taken it out too early. I will try it with another after dinner and let you know how it goes.

Smokey Shad

I have given up on this bag I tired everything mentioned and a few other things I found on line and the action of this bag (not nag.... ;D) just sucks. I don't get it. Big-O, any idea on how often this happens? I was very happy with the shads up until this bag. Was there some change made to the material recently, or did I get a bad batch? I can't afford to spend money on lures that don't perform.

Now that you have all seen that I am a master at spelling ;D I will try to tune them a little bit. I never knew you could do that with plastics.

Let me start by saying "I am not bashing" just looking for a little help. I just bought some more Shads and this bag does not have the action that the last 5-6 bags had. No matter what I do I can not get the tails to work right. If I real slow they just kind of wallow on the surface, and if I go fast it flips around like when you have a popper with a tangled hook. And before anyone says it, I did rip the little attaching thing off so the tail is free to move. ;D I bought this bag at Academy. Every other nag I have bought has come from Walmart....I doubt that makes a difference though. Other than that no complaints. I have been catching bass left and right with the shads and the toads. My wife even caught her first bass out of our pond with the craw.

I am really leaning towards it being the Pickerel. I caught a nice LMB about 15 minutes ago on the Rage Tail shad and got him in no problem.

It not the knot. I use a palomar knot on almost everything. I found one of my lures (1-Minus) that I lost last week, and it still had 3-4" of braid on it.

I'll try that. I am going fishing in a few minutes and all I had was 10 and 12 Lb MONO, so I am using the 12 as a leader for now. We''ll see how that works.