Has anyone tried the Strike King King Shad bait yet?  If so what do you think of it?  I was looking at them but they are $20 each and I want to hear how they work before I go out and spend that much on one of these baits.

I use these baits in a lot of situations where I would use a shallow running crank, I've caught a few 5 lb plus bass on them (good size for Michigan), I like the fact that it will fish fast and not roll on you. I've seen some post that they've broke at the hinge but this hasn't happened to me and I have 4 so far and from what I understand the newer ones don't have that problem. I've gotten the majority of my bites on the Mojarra & Baby Bass colors.

Im gonna wait til the spring classic sale at either BPS & Cabelas, hopefully they will be a few dollars off.

Thanks for the info Primus. I may buy one for this weekend since the lake I am fishing has had some striper top water action in the last week.

I just ordered one the other day in baby bass color but havent had a chance to use it yet...to me it looks to be a little on the fragile side when your talking about the hinge but the color detail is pretty good and it has some decent trebles also.

I still wish I would have got a BBZ tho.... 8-)

For $20 I would get the Spro BBZ-1 Shad.

I saw them on sale for $6.99 at *** a month or so ago. Maybe it was bass pro...Well either way, it was an awesome deal. My brother has one, never caught one on it.

I have one that I have thrown quite a bit. I have never caught a fish on it. I catch just as many fish using the RC series of crankbaits. Those crankbaits are designed to bump cover but they catch fish in open water as well.  And they can be bought in bigger sizes if you are fishing for the big bite. I have also had more strikes on the Money Minnow ( A basstrix imitation) than I have on the King Shad. But the Money Minnow cannot be fished fast. This year I plan to acquire a Sebile Magic Swimmer to be used as the swimbait of choice. I am even going to experiment with it on lakes that do not have herring.

I caught some solid 2-3lb fish on one at Guntersville. They are OK but I think I would rather have one of the new 4in swimbaits. I did better twiching it on top than reeling it in and jerking it.   I think I might post a short review on them soon.

I have been fishing the King Shad since they first came out and have not found another single hard bait that produces as many or as big Smallmouth and Largemouth bass as well as huge pike and pickeral.  I have tried several other hard swimbaits and they have not come close to the King Shad.

The King Shads are sold by Strike King, but are actually from the ABT company run by Allen Borden.

The bad news with these baits is the hinge used to be made of plastic only and was prone to breaking.  All the new baits produced since the latter part of 2008 have a steel pin embedded in the plastic hinge.  I have not broken one of the new baits.