Today we’re going to talk about one of the work horse baits in my spring arsenal, the Strike King Perfect Plastics Rodent. This is a creature bait that like all creature baits, resembles a crawfish to some extent.
It is designed to be pitched or flipped into heavy cover or can be used a jig trailer. It comes in two sizes, a 4 inch and a 3 inch. The color patterns are consistent no matter which size you prefer. The plastic is loaded with salt and uses a coffee scent as well, The small appendages on this bait are molded with air bubbles in them so that they float when the bait is dead-sticked.
Perfect For The Spawn
Often during the spring as fish are moving up to spawn, they will relate to specific pieces of cover such as isolated clumps of grass or stumps and just as often, they will relate to this structure the same way throughout an area. For example, if you catch one fish off of the sunny side of a submerged stump, you will catch the majority of your fish on the sunny side.
I prefer this bait over others in this segment for a couple of reasons. One of which is the scent. I do believe that it is different enough from the majority of the products so that it generates more bites. I also like the way the appendages float which gives this lure a different action than it’s competitors. Finally, the plastic is somewhat softer than most of the other creature baits which, in my opinion, translates to the bass holding on just a little bit longer than firmer baits.
This is one of those baits that I always have with me because in the years that creature baits have been on the market, I have never seen a spawn where the bass wouldn’t bite this bait at some point. That doesn’t mean that it will produce every day, nothing will.
However, this bait can be used in any body of water, is simple to rig up and doesn’t require a lot of skill to manipulate. The vast majority of the time, you will rig this on a 5/0 EWG with a slip sinker, cast it beyond some form of cover and crawl it back to you with pauses. Nice and simple and it can be absolutely deadly in the right conditions.
The one drawback to the rodent is that the plastic is so soft that it can and will be torn fairly easily. The 4 inch version comes six baits to a pack so when I buy these baits, I always pick up two packs of the same color in each color that I get. If you’ve never used a creature bait, this is one that is definitely worth trying, especially at this time of year!
See ya’ on the water …