Strike King Shadalicious

Today’s product review is on one of my favorite night time baits, the Strike King Shadilicious. I have reviewed the Sebile Magic Swimmer Soft Pro and do use it, however the Shadilicious while not a brand new bait as I have been using it for now three seasons, is still the swim-bait that I have the most confidence in. 
               

This whole swim-bait craze began I believe with the Basstrix hollow body, paddle tail bait that at one point was seemingly impossible to get a hold of. Like all successful baits, competing companies tend to get their own offering out very quickly to take advantage of a new market niche. We have seen it recently with the hollow body swim-baits, the creature baits and of course the chatter-style baits. I suppose that this trend will continue indefinitely and because of this fact, it can be difficult to wade through all the various offerings available to the angler. What is most important in my opinion is to find the one that works for you in the environments that you fish most often and learn to use it efficiently.

Such was the case for me with the Shadilicious. Originally, I tried some of the earlier products from some other manufacturers and was not pleased with the results. Specifically I was looking for a bait to follow up on missed top-water strikes that would run under the surface but still be weedless enough to get to those targets. The first night that I tried the Strike King lure, it did precisely what I bought it for. I had a fish blow up on a walking lure and miss. I immediately picked up the rod with the Shadilicious tied on and threw it right back where that fished missed. I was rewarded with a solid four and a half pounder and knew that this was the bait that I had been looking for. Since that first night with the bait I have caught uncounted numbers of bass on this little swim-bait.
               

The Strike King Shadilicious is available in several sizes with my first choice being the 4 !/2 Inch bait. There are two colors that I use every night I go fishing and while I have caught lots of bass on both, I still don’t know which one performs better than the other. The Sexy Shad and the Neon Shad are my go to colors. Not that they would be in other parts of the country but here in So-Cal these two patterns have proven to be the most effective.
               

Since that first night, I have tried and learned many different ways to use this little bait. I no longer use it just as a follow up lure but also as a bait to be used when the top-water bite dies out. The Shadilicious is relatively simple to rig with my choice being a belly weighted 5/0 EWG. I prefer using a ¼ ounce weighted hook with the 41/2 inch lure. You do have to be careful to thread the hook through the body as straight as possible and then skin hook the back. You should be careful to not stretch the bait itself and make sure that when you do go through the body that the hook slides easily and is not hooked through the inside of the body. One other little tidbit is to avoid going too deep through the nose of the bait. By taking these precautions, the Stike King Shadalicous will run straight and true.
               

Because of the paddle tail on this bait, when you retrieve it you get a lot of feedback to your hands. You can feel the tail kicking and the swim-bait bouncing off of any structure that your lure comes into contact with. This characteristic is the one that really got me using this bait in other ways. I like to run it close to the bottom while bouncing it off of stick-ups and other vertical structure. In the dead on night or over-cast conditions, the Shadilicious can be deadly on all sizes of bass.