Today was a great day on the water.  

Went to a different small pond today.  Had fished it last year, and left wanting to try it again.  So a buddy and I went.

A small pond surrounded by woodland and swamp, that is part of a small state park in Taunton.

The deepest water we found is about ten feet.  Most is about five and the shore is lined with lily pads, and inviting openings.  Other than the deep parts, the pond is thick with coontail which rises almost to the surface in some areas, while in other places it does not come within a foot and a half or two from the surface.

Last year I fished it primarily with a spinnerbait, running it just above the top of the weeds, or just below the surface.

I wanted to do something different this year.  After several unsuccessful attempts with various lures, I decided to try a Strike King Caffein Shad, rigged on a weightless 4/0, Owner twistlock hook.

After rigging the pole, I fiddled around the boat with the lure, studying its action.  It darted, and dived, and looked pretty good.

I caught a couple in short order fishing that in the coontail.

Another followed a bit after, and the shad was still serviceable, though somewhat the worse for the wear.

But, in the process of catching those fish, and getting a little mutilated, something happened to the action.  Give it a quick twitch and it would dart toward the surface, only to suddenly dive toward the bottom or to the left or right.

When it darted down, it would do so into the depths of the coontail, only to rise quickly above the vegetation, without hanging in it, when jerked again.

After studying it carefully as to the shape and configuration, I removed it and installed a new shad, trying my best to duplicate what I had seen.

While it was close, the action was not as violent.  So I fiddled around, put a little more bend here and a bit of distortion when texposing the point of the hook, and voila, it performed as well as the shad I had taken off.

By the time the fishing was over, I had boated over a dozen fish, and lost a few others, including two that made the drag sing when they realized it wasn't the meal they expected.

I'm anxious to try it in areas of my favorite pond where the bottom is covered with filamentous algae muck.  I'm anticipating big things.

Plus there are a couple of ponds in this area that I don't fish much because they are choked with coontail.  That may all have changed today.

Good discovery Rhino, I myself haven't fished soft shad swimbaits yet may have to give them a shot this weekend.

is this more of a swim bait, or a fluke type bait? I almost always rig my flukes so they'll jump to the surface when I twitch them, then letting them fall

is this more of a swim bait, or a fluke type bait? I almost always rig my flukes so they'll jump to the surface when I twitch them, then letting them fall

Fluke type of bait.  That's what this was doing, it would dart toward the surface.  If I gave it a very short, hard jerk, and giving it slack immediately, it would initially dart upward, then loop, and dart into the coontail, then fall.

It was a very sudden 180, sometimes darting away from me, back to where it had started.

It did twist the line, but after each retrieve, I'd allow the bait to hang on five or six feet of line so it could "untwist".  It might not have taken out all the twists, but I never had a problem because of the twisting.