Rick Clunn STX
Today we are looking at a new offering from Luck “E” Strike, the RC STX Jerk Bait. As you know, cold weather brings the opportunity to fish this style of bait and have productive days on the water. The RC is 4 1/2 inches long and weighs 1/2 oz. We have been fishing the STX for a little while now with some success.
The first thing that you will notice about the STX is that it is eerily similar in size, weight, shape and running depth to the infamous Ito Vision 110. The Vision being the standard bearer for the last couple of seasons for this genre of lures. The other thing that is painfully obvious at first glance is the fact that while the Vision will set you back about $30 per bait, the STX is about $8.
This fact allows you folks who are prone to losing baits to go through about 4 of the Luck “E” Strikes for the cost of one Vision 110. While we don’t believe that price alone should be the single deciding factor in choosing one lure over another, this disparity is hard to ignore. Price aside, what are the real differences between the two baits and are they substantial enough to disqualify ownership of either? Let’s see how the STX performs in the real world and you can be the judge.
Rick Clunn STX Action
The RC has a published running depth of 5-7 feet. We were using 10 pound mono on a 6 1/2 foot casting rig throughout our testing. We were able to consistently attain the 5 foot range but to get to 7 was pushing it. The STX was compliant in the casting department with the weight transfer system doing its job adequately though not exceptionally. It also prevents the bait from helicoptering fairly well. Once in the water, two or three turns of your reel handle will get it down to its running depth.
We employed several different retrieves with our first, and coincidentally most productive, being the standard snap, snap, snap then pause. Pause as long as you can stand to before snapping your rod tip once or twice more followed by another extended pause. We suggest just counting one-mississippi, two-mississippi, all the way up to around fifteen. The majority of our strikes came as the bait was dead still in the water. Another 30% or so came just as we began our retrieve after one of those extended pauses.
The STX does exhibit an erratic, wandering action as it’s being jerked. It comes to rest with a slight nose down angle and suspends very well. If there is something that we weren’t accustomed to, it is the body roll that it exhibits on a straight retrieve and while being jerked. I really don’t know if this was intentional or not but it is a characteristic of the bait. Was that a negative for the fish? Beats the fire out of me cause’ when they hit this thing, the strikes were usually on the aggressive side and our hook-up ratio has been fairly good.
Rick Clunn STX Construction
One thing that we have noticed is that the split rings, both in front and those that are holding the hooks, seem to be sub-par. We had instances where they began to pull apart. Fortunately, we noticed the damage prior to either losing a fish or losing a bait. We simply replaced them and in the case of the front ring, removed it in favor of tying a snap on our line. This didn’t affect the action of the lure at all either negatively or positively.
So is this as good as a Vision 110? In our opinion, no. However, it is a capable lure that will catch some fish when used in the right conditions. And at the risk of beating a dead horse, the fact is that you can get four of these for about the same price as one Vision.
The Luck “E” Strike RC STX comes in a variety of colors of which you should be able to find a couple or three that will work in your area. If throwing jerkbaits is your thing or if you have never tried using one of these lures, this is a good one to expand your arsenal or with which to experiment to learn this technique.
| Rick Clunn STX Jerk Bait | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |   |
| Good price, but loses points for components | |
See ya’ on the water …