Anyone ever fish these two side by side?  I've had the STX for a few weeks now, it hasn't lit up the water by any means but it does catch fish.  Not sure if I should invest the money into a few Visions though.... seems like a lot of hype, and $25 for a twitch bait is awfully pricey when there are so many good twitch baits out there for 1/5 the price.  

That is a matter of choice on your part.  I buy some more expensive baits to test and if I like them then I will buy more.  Some people just go nuts and own every color just because.  If you find one that works really well it may be worth getting one in that color to test for yourself.  I own one MB pop-max and I have yet to throw it.  Best looking lure ever, and the paint is outstanding.  You may want to look at the other baits from duo, and lucky craft as they are also premium but not as expensive.  Duo is where my money goes most of the time. 

Personally I like Lucky Craft pointers better but it is up to your budget. I have a lure retriever and am careful when fishing waters with Esox so I don't mind the price.

 

Allen

I am also a fan or the LC pointers. More styles, shapes, weights, and sizes to play with and about 1/3 or so less and still plenty of "cool" colors.

 

I have some of the RC Stx and some pointers (probably 4 or so of each) but I have probably close 3 or 4 dozen pointers. I have had great success on them they seem to hold up pretty well.

 

One of the gripes on the 110 has been if fished around rock, the bill can break somewhat easily or at least be a bit more prone to breakage. Also some have had issues with the stock hooks and them straightening. This could be incorrect drag settings, too heavy of a line, and horsing the fish a bit more than needed...maybe even boat flipping. With that said, they are proven fish catchers and great for those cold water days especially pre spawn.

 

As noted above buy one and compare it to your favorite current jerkbaits. Give it an hour and give your current favorite an hour and compare the results. Do this as much as you want and see if you feel it is worth adding more.

I have fished both and actually preferred the STX, but the quality has taken a sharp downturn the last few years. The paint jobs are much different and look pretty bad and the hooks are horrible (although they were never really good). I lost my last good STX this spring, a week after winning a tournament at Table Rock with it as my main bait. 

Due to how fragile they are, and the number of zebra mussels in most of our lakes, I'm not willing to spend the money on the Megabass baits though. 

The middle ground that I've found is having the Predator 110 blanks custom painted by a local guy. This keeps the cost under $15 a bait and I get whatever color I want. 

I'll have to give those pointers a try, little more reasonable on the price.

 

How well does that lure retriever work?  Can they get single hook lures like jigs and such off the bottom as well?

 

For $25 on a bass lure it should be incredibly hard to bend out the hooks, just my opinion.

It used to be I'd tell you that the vision 110 had only a slight edge over the RCstx, but the stx has been gradually made worse over the past two or three years.  Now I would recommend the vision 110 way over the stx.  The vision 110, the staysee 90, and the lc pointer 78 are the only jerks I use now.  The vision 110 accounts for the vast majority of fish caught.

@IndianaFinesse or @Bluebasser86 what has changed with the new RC's, just hooks and paint jobs?  I like my stx's but haven't bought any new ones in at least 1.5-2 years, maybe I have only good ones (or maybe I just don't know any better ) .

 

Megabass-level paint jobs are sweet but not necessary IMO and it was pretty much mandatory to change out the old STX hooks anyway.  I'd be fine if they sent them with no hooks to save me a step.  Even 110's should have the hooks swapped IMO; outbarbs are "cool" until you put one in your hand

3 hours ago, fissure_man said:

@IndianaFinesse or @Bluebasser86 what has changed with the new RC's, just hooks and paint jobs?  I like my stx's but haven't bought any new ones in at least 1.5-2 years, maybe I have only good ones (or maybe I just don't know any better ) .

 

Megabass-level paint jobs are sweet but not necessary IMO and it was pretty much mandatory to change out the old STX hooks anyway.  I'd be fine if they sent them with no hooks to save me a step.  Even 110's should have the hooks swapped IMO; outbarbs are "cool" until you put one in your hand

The stx used to come with better hooks, better paint jobs (although I don't think that matters much), and had a much better action similar to the vision 110.  The stx used to dart almost exactly like the megabass, but now the darting is less consistent and less static.  They also often need hook adjustments to make them suspend out of package, and they used to be pretty close to suspending (depending on the temperature) out of the package.

Prob with suspending baits is hook weight is a big factor.

 

I found Pointer 100sp suspend well. Better in cold water. 110's are slow risers I believe. Pointers go a lil deeper than 110's so I switch depending on depth. Never thru an STX. 

I wish I had a side by side picture, but this is the best I can do. This is supposed to be the same color bait. I believe they went to different molds too. Like @IndianaFinesse said, the action has changed drastically too.