V joint side shot
We have reviewed a few offerings from River2Sea and we have one more that really caught our interest, the V-Joint Wake. There are often times when you need a bait for fishing skinny water as bass are pushing shad into the shallows to feed on them.
Another situation where this type of bait shines in when the top-water bite gets going but you find that they are short striking and you need something to get just under the surface so that the fish will take the bait more aggressively. The latter condition is the one that we really obtained the V-Joint Wake to address.
We have mentioned a few times in our recent reviews that we are still waiting for summer around here. Overnight temps are still in the fifties which is keeping water temps much lower than normal for this time of year. Add to that a delayed spawn and you wind up waiting for the top-water bite to get rolling. This is another situation that is made for the V-Joint Wake.
This bait can be worked effectively from the surface to about 1 foot deep. To attain maximum depth when using the River2Sea, wind it down quickly after it hits the water with your rod tip low. From there, adjust your retrieve to keep it in the same zone. It will float slowly up at rest and does so in a horizontal position. So if killing the bait is something that the angler feels will elicit more strikes, it won’t back out of the zone quickly.
The V-Joint Wake comes in two sizes of which we choose the smaller one. At 3 inches in length and weighing 5/16 oz, casting is good although not excellent. We chose the Munkey pattern as it most closely resembles some of the forage available in our local water. This lure is a three segmented bait that comes stock with Daichi hooks that while sharp, are in my opinion just a bit undersized. In our testing, the hook-up ratio was good but we did miss a couple of fish that might have been a result of the smallish hooks.
Three Different Actions
On the retrieve, you’ll notice that the V-Joint Wake displays three different personalities. When you employ a slow, steady retrieve, the entire bait gets in on the swimming action. Speed up and the head stabilizes while the tail sections continue the swimming action. Go fast and the wobble becomes a bit tighter. Can this be used to your advantage? I believe that it can. You just need to dial into what the fish prefer at that moment and give um what they want.
This bait is another that is at its best when used just above emerging vegetation to elicit reaction strikes from bass that are buried in the grass. It runs true out of the package and doesn’t require any special skills to be use properly. I am definitely going to be throwing the V-Joint Wake a lot more as the season progresses.
On our MVF rating scale, the River2Sea V-Joint Wake earns 3.75 stars.
See ya on the water …