We went out trout fishing on the 4th and as usual, I took a bait-casting rod with me so that I could test a couple of new lures. The first is the one I am going to review today, the KVD Silent Stalker Square Bill 1.5 crankbait. Yeah, it’s a lot of name but was one of the baits that last year was a prototype and helped Kevin VanDam win his third consecutive AOY title.
I took two colors with me, the Bluegill and the Sexy Shad. I chose these patterns because I wanted to be able to throw this bait in both clear water and stained water. Sure enough, the facility we fished has three lakes and I was able to find the conditions that I was looking for in two bodies of water.
What was most intriguing to me when I first saw this bait was that it had no internal rattles. I figure that bass here in So-Cal have seen every rattling style bait under the sun and this would be something different. Furthermore, it was designed to have an erratic action built into it so that it wouldn’t just come back to you with no variation in either the way it tracked or it’s wiggle, so onto the first cast.
The Bluegill Color
I started throwing the Bluegill in the clear water and the first thing that you notice is that the Siltent Stalker casts better than you would expect a 3/8 ounce lure to cast. When you begin your retrieve you’ll find that this bait gets down to its running depth very quickly and stays in that zone all the way back to you.
The published running depth for this lure is 3 -5 feet depending on line size. I was using a ten pound line and the bait was running right around 4 feet, just where I was hoping it would. The other characteristic you will notice right away is that the 1.5, which is the size I was using, provides a lot of feedback to your hands.
I was really curious to see if the reports about the erratic action were going to be accurate or over-stated. On my second cast, I threw it parallel to shore just to watch the bait as I was retrieving it. Sure enough, it does have an erratic, kind of wandering action on a steady retrieve. Seeing that, I had to go ahead and play a little and see what would happen if I popped the rod tip as I was retrieving the lure.
Here again, I was more than satisfied with the fact that you can elicit an understated directional change in the bait with just a short, sharp pop of your rod tip. Next cast I figured I would play a little bit more but as I took the first turn on the reel handle, I got slammed! Problem was I was having a hard time moving this fish. Not wanting to lose it, I took my time and eventually, landed a 15 plus pound carp! Not hardly the species of fish the Silent Stalker had in mind while under development but I couldn’t complain.
The Sexy Shad Color
I went ahead and changed colors to the sexy shad and started casting in the lake with stained water, experimenting as I went. I started looking for things to bang this lure into to see how it would react. Once again, I was more than happy with the results. The KVD Silent Stalker deflects off of cover without missing a beat and if you need to stop the lure, it will float up, staying horizontal as it goes.
One thing that you should be aware of is that if you are fishing a body of water that has a lot of grass in it, the Silent Stalker will pick junk up from below it. The stock hooks are sharp and sized to catch fish. I may try changing out the front hook to something a little bit smaller the next time I know there is lots of cabbage in the four foot zone.
After having used this lure for about half a day, I am looking forward to using it a lot more and for longer stretches. I can see that I’ll be grabbing it often especially over the course of the next couple of months as the bass are moving up to spawn and actively feeding in the shallows. I’ll let you know how we do with the KVD Silent Stalker 1.5.
See ya on the water…