Here at MVF, we really like to keep our reviews in line with the season, whatever that may be. With that in mind and the fact that it is now the first part of August, let’s take a look at the Strike King Perfect Plastic Caffeine Shad.
This is a 5” inch, soft plastic jerk bait that, like all the Perfect Plastic line, is loaded with salt as well as having the coffee scent. During the spring and summer months, soft plastic jerk baits are at their best and can be fished a number of ways. First, let’s look at the most traditional rigging for the Caffeine Shad.
Rigging The Caffeine Shad
Like all baits in this category, the Caffeine Shad was designed to be thrown weightless on a 5/0 EWG hook. I like to use 10 pound test for fishing the Strike King as one of its advantages is that it weighs more than most of its competitors. You can really cast this bait for surprisingly good distance.
Rigging it weightless is the perfect option for fishing over submerged weed-beds and other structure. Employing short, sharp snaps of the rod tip will make this bait dart, twitch and change direction in a frenzied manner. I like to kill it when I reach a hole in the grass and just let it float down.
Here is another unique feature of this bait. The tail is kind of bulbous which makes it sink slower than the rest of the body resulting in an action similar to the shimmy of a senko style bait.
As a lot of folks are aware, the soft plastic jerk bait can be a killer on lakes that contain a lot of blue-back herring. For these waters, you’ll probably be most successful by really moving this bait quickly with very sharp snaps of the rod tip.
Other Ways To Rig A Caffeine Shad
You can use the Caffeine Shad on the business end of a Carolina rig for the deep water bite. When using this technique, I prefer to use the lightest sinker I can get away with even if it means waiting a few more seconds to contact the bottom. Once the bait hits the bottom, use horizontal snaps of the rod to keep it down yet still give it the action that will get the attention of hungry bass.
Another way to fish the Strike King is dragging. For this option, I prefer to use the Dirty Jigs Pivot Point Football Jig. We’ll be doing an in-depth review of this product soon but for now, suffice it to say that the Dirty Jigs allows the Caffeine Shad more freedom of movement while maintaining bottom contact than a traditional football head would. Again, the floating tail of this lure adds a great deal to this presentation as the lure is being dragged across the bottom.
If there is a drawback to the Caffeine Shad it is the fact that the plastic is so soft that it isn’t as durable as some of the other baits in this class. I have caught as many as four fish on a single bait as well as having the first fish completely trash the Caffeine Shad. At a retail cost of about $5.29 they are on the moderately expensive end of the spectrum for this genre.
If you’ve never tried bass fishing with a fluke style bait or have only tried one, this is certainly well worth the time and expense to expand your arsenal.
| Strike King Caffeine Shad | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |    |
| Deserves a place in your tackle box | |
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