i purchased some strike king shadalicious in sexy shad and in the largest size that was available (5.5 in.) and some keel weighted 6/0 hooks and was wondering how these baits are at catching fish.  also i put some anise on them and was wondering if table salt or bacon grease would help.  do they use sodium chloride for attractant?

In my opinion, I have tried the Shadalicious and they are terrible. I will quote myself, saying that they swim like a hot dog, straight to the boat.

Randall has come up with a mod to fix them.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1216323177

I am a firm believer in the Berkley hollowbellies. Just my opinion, as I've used a few different types of these baits. Wouldn't waste the time, or money with bacon grease, anise or anything else. Buy the Berkleys....

I have used them and if you use the correct keel weighted (Swimbait) hook that is suited for the size bait you are fishing they are great. I think the material in the nose could be thicker to hold the screw lock better but all of the different models I have seen are thin as well.

It is not necessary to take the hook completely thru the bait and then skin hook on top as some illustrations show because this in fact if not centered perfecty is much of what is causing the poor action results that some refer to. Simply penetrate the centerline of the belly and leave the hook point inside the hollow body. This provides proper action every time and the hook set only has to penetrate the other thin side of body. Just my opinion.

Big O

will table salt help as an attractant along with oil of anise?  what about coffee?

No , no , and only with cream.

I have not tried the SK hollow body swimbaits, but the NetBait BK swimbaits work quite well on the weighted and weightless hooks.  As an added bonus, they already have a good scent to them.  You might look into those also.

Brad

I have the SHADYS in all the colors they make. They are a bit finicky, but most of these style baits are. I play with the retrieve...some times the fish are finicky . I have no problem with these baits. I catch bigger fish on these and they seem to eliminate the dinks. I use the 4.5" version. The do have to be rigged just right, but I suppose all HB swimbaits do. I have tried several of the HB swimbaits, and durability is not good. After a few fish, they all need to be changed. I have the new Manns hard nose that I just picked up and am going to try. I love the Hard Nose baits as a whole. I am hoping they are more durable than the rest. I don't know if adding a scent makes a difference. The fish are going after the movement. I would say (IMHO) that rigging is more important. I am going to try the tip given about not bringing the hook all thee way through the SHADDYS, sounds good.

Bottom line....it's all about the rigging and retrieve!!

Good luck!!

Peace

ajr

To drive the hook completely thru the body and skin hook also stiffens the front of the bait which reduces action considerably. By free floating the hook point inside the tube body, the bait has the action it was originally designed to have. Maintaining the hook point in the center of bait is paramount.

Big O

Big-O,

So, do you run the hook in, down, and out the nose of the bait like a texas-rigged worm, then turn the point into the belly of the swimbait?

Big-O,

So, do you run the hook in, down, and out the nose of the bait like a texas-rigged worm, then turn the point into the belly of the swimbait?

You got it!!  

I have found these to be among the best out there and reasonable compared to most. Try this.

I boil mine fo about 30 seconds. You will definitely notice a difference in the softness. Put on some Chompers garlic scent and hold on.

If you can't catch bass with this, you're rigging them wrong. I use the 4.5" and a standard 5/0 gammie supeline ewg hook with a BPS clam weight crimped to the hook in the middle of the bottom exposed portion. Remember- These are the exact same baits as Bass Magic.

Get which ever is on sale!

Here is an illustration that came from my website on hooking the Rage Shad with the swimbait hook. Use same procedure on tube style swimmers. Notice that you don't run the hook thru nose of the bait from the front end, instead under the chin area. This keeps nose from boring out when the weight is forced thru thus causing the bait to slip down the hook. With this method, the bait must be rigged then tied to line after rigging but it's worth it to me because it forces me to retie more often keeping a fresh knot. Some people use a screw lock hook which is nice if you don't mind the bait flying off the hook when fighting the fish. I lose alot of baits like this when I'm really in the fish. Remember not to run hook completely thru (as last illustration shows) on hollow body baits and just let it float inside the hollow cavity.

Big O

i tried em today and found you must hold your rod tip down with a moderate retreive speed.  i didn't get any because it turns out you can't fish these from the ledges where the fish were and i was standing but on level ground they look good.  i also only had 30 minutes.  they cast like a rock too.

This is a bit off topic, but with the rage tail shad, changing your rod angle will change the action of the bait.  I'm convinced that this lure will work on most days, but figuring out which presentation is best can be a weird challenge.  But once you figure it out, look out!!!  These things get VICOUS topwater strikes.

Big-O, I've been fishing the Luck-E-Strike on 5/0 and 6/0 Daichii Butt Draggers, depending on the depth I want to go.  I've been fishing them with the hook Texposed - all the way through the body with the point skin hooked ont he back.  I haven't had any hook-up issues, but the bait does tend to roll and have a odd action.

This is the way I've been fishing them...

But you are saying not to do that, just set the hook through the bottom and let it free float in the body.

I can see where that would reduce the roll I've seen, since the weight is lower. Do you think the hook-ups will be as good this way with having to push the tip through the back on hook set?

Micro, your bottom illustrations are correct. I tested the baits for SK as well and have never penetrated the back of the bait for rigging, and hook up percentage is equally as good and catch rate to casts made, is much improved, probably due to improved performance or action. Can run it both faster and slower with improved action and vibration. In my case, faster to cover more water and get in more cast until the fish are located and slow down to pick on'em. I am not the originator of this idea but I definitely broke some of our guys from that bad habit because I caught as many or more in each case. I do add scent gel like Megastrike to'em also. Not sure it matters that much cause the fish normally slam'em as you know, but I'm picky about scent. It is a hollow body with a .090 thickness of soft plastic between a wide gap hook and the fishes jaw. I'll take those odds all day long. Give'er a go and when you get into the fish, lets talk about it  

Big O