We’ve been fishing some of the baits that we obtained at ICAST 2014 since we got back home. The one that we’re going to review today is the new soft plastic offering from Jackall, the Scissor Comb. This new lure is one that really doesn’t fit into any existing design category so we’re gonna do our best to give you the skinny on it!
While Jackall advertises the Scissor Comb as a six inch bait, it actually consistently measures 6 5/8 when put on a ruler. So let’s break down the whole body since we’re being as accurate as we can.
A Hard Look at the Scissor Comb
The bait starts out with a “bottom” section of relatively dense plastic that has small ribs all along its length and holds the first two pairs of little feet or appendages. It also has a small indentation top and bottom. This makes it easy to hide your hook point. This section is approx. 2 1/2 inches long.
It then narrows and flares again slightly to a section whose ribs are much larger while the total circumference of this section is smaller than the first. This middle portion of the bait also holds two more pairs of those little feet and will swing side to side to some degree independent of the first section. It is about 1 1/2 in length.
Finally the head of the bait that has no head. Instead it has two feelers or antennae if you will which both have a slightly bulbous tip made to float. These are about 2 5/8 inches long.
So we’ve got 2 1/2 + 1 1/2 + 2 5/8. Yup, when I was going to school that equaled 6 5/8. Now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s look at the important stuff.
One of the interesting features of this “bug” is that is doesn’t have a defined top or bottom. No little protruding eyes, no flappers nearer one side of the bait, absolutely nothing that would make you spend any time wondering if you rigged it right-side-up or not.
The pairs of small feet on the Scissor Comb all have slightly different angles to the body when held by the bottom section with the antennae down. The top pair near the antennae are at almost a right angle while the bottom pair are close to 45 degrees. The other two have progressively smaller angles than the 90.
The Scissor Comb sports Jackall’s shrimp scenting just for good measure and to round out the list of features.
Jackall obviously spent a lot of effort developing all the intricacies of so many moving parts. So what does that translate to when it comes down to the most important feature of any soft plastic bait, the action?
Fishing the Scissor Comb
When we spoke to Jared Lintner and Cody Meyer at ICAST about the Scissor Comb, they were unanimous in recommending fishing it Texas rigged. Hey, good enough for us so off we went to the lake, Texas rigged and ready for action.
As usual, our first stop was in shallow clear water to see what we could see. We did, as per recommendation, Texas rig the bait using a 1/16 ounce tungsten weight.
Our first flip with the Scissor Comb gave us a good picture of what this bait does. By employing a simple yo-yo retrieve, it really comes alive, snaking through the water horizontally.
Unfortunately, before we had a chance to let it hit the bottom, a bass came out of some nearby weeds and choked it! We got him unhooked, thanked him for his trouble, released him and got back to work watching the action of the bait.
Once it hit bottom, those little antennae will shake and quiver with the slightest movement of your rod tip or any displacement of the water it is in. This is also the case with the antennae.
On to our third cast and danged if we weren’t able to complete this one before another willing participant flashed out of the weeds and smacked it again. Dad-gum fish got in the way of our testing again!
Another released bass and on to our implementing different retrieves to see what else the Scissor Comb was capable of.
The Most Productive Retrieve
To make a long story short, the retrieve that has produced the most fish for us was the one that we started with initially. Cast it out, let it sink and start a slow, yo-yoing, with intermittent pauses back to you with a light weight.
We repeated this process using a belly weighted swimbait hook with very similar results.
The movement of those little appendages coupled with the waving of the antennae seem to get bass stirred up at this time of year.
It will be interesting to continue to fish the Scissor Comb as we get into fall to see if it will be as productive as it has been in these warm water months.
It will also be interesting to fish it in the dead of winter, early spring, pre-spawn, spawn, post spawn and back into the warm water months again.
How it will do as a year round bait is yet to be determined, but, if we were the betting type, we would have to give strong odds that this latest Jackall creation is going to earn a place in our tackle box as a starter on the soft plastic team.
At the moment, there are 6 colors available, all of which are ones that have been proven for a lot of years. Maybe there will be more in the future, that remains to be seen.
The retail price for a bag of 5 Scissor Combs as about $5. Not cheap but certainly not overly expensive for such an effective lure.
| Jackall Scissor Comb | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |   |
| A weird, wriggly wonderful bait | |
See ya’ on the water …
