If you were going to buy a couple of 4 to 5 inch hard swimbaits, what would your choices be? We have lots of bream and shad in the river backwaters here. Thanks in advance for the advice.

Mattlures hard bluegills would be my choice for a bluegill imitation. www.Mattlures.com If you want a sinker you will need to hurry since he has been sold out of the sinkers for a while and has just put some more on his site. I can't really suggest a small shad shape bait less than six inches. I wasn't all that impressed with any of them more than the other. Triton Mike makes a great bait in his smaller 6 inch Bull Shad bait   http://www.tritonmike.com/bullshad.html. If you want a smaller hard bait get a sebile magic swimmer.  It's not exactly a shad shape but it works great and I have had no issues with it. You can just google sebile and plenty of sites will come up.

For shad get a spro bbz-1 4" swim bait.

http://www.***.com/descpageSPROSWIM-SBZSFS.html

I agree...Sebile Magic Swimmer is the way to go. Another good one is the Strike King King Shad or Wake Shad.  Other than those, some of the California companies have some good ones but very expensive.  

any one have any reviews for the mattlures hard bait ?

Easy one to answer.  Would suggest a Strike King King Shad and a Sebile 125.  Get the colors that "match the hatch" for your area.

My personal favorites are the Gizzard Shad in the King Shad and the Natural Shinner in the Sebile.

Baron49 another color that's works well for me on the King Shad is the Morjarra, I've also had success with the Baby Bass for largemouths on overcast days and early mornings. I also heard that some of the Strike King pros already are fishing a smaller version of this bait and that it will probably be released shortly after the Classic.

Has anyone used any of the other bait by Mattlures. I have to pay $9.95 shipping for $.05 so I was looking at the Cisco Woodie also. It's on sale for $19.95 would end up only costing $10.00 that way. Thanks!

you cant go wrong with any of the mattlures although i havent used the woody it looks pretty good and im sure its high quality

I have used all of Matt's Baits. They are all good so you can't really go wrong.  I have caught a few eight to ten pound bass on Matt's Woody. ;D

Oh well! He who snooze lose. Out of stock already. Must say something. I will keep watching. Thanks!

Baron49 another color that's works well for me on the King Shad is the Morjarra, I've also had success with the Baby Bass for largemouths on overcast days and early mornings. I also heard that some of the Strike King pros already are fishing a smaller version of this bait and that it will probably be released shortly after the Classic.

I have a lot of the different colors for these baits, just did not want to over load the guy asking about them. The Morjarra is a great color too. I have not had much luck with the Baby bass, but last fall knocked their lights out with the Sexy Shad color.

As far as that smaller King Shad goes........ Let's just keep that to ourselves.