Strike King Rocket Shads

[GAMEOVER]

Anyone fish em?

[reelblues]

I have for white bass, here in the South. They work great for them when they are schooling. Any particular question?

[OhioChamp183]

I do for schooling fish on Lake Erie. Anything from white bass to largemouth and smallies.
One thing I do to them from the get go though.
I get rid of the stupid hooks that come with them. I replace them with a split ring, with a #4 VMC Vanadium short shank/wide gap treble hook attached to the split ring. Been working great! Nice small/compact lure, that'll cast twice as far as a spinnerbait, and they WILL catch big fish! MANY 5+ smallies on them!

[brokeneye]

they do work at times.

imo, they are an updated version of the h&h spinner that has caught a world of fish, big and small...or, at least, a better built version with fewer color options.

also replace the stock hooks...with a split ring and a #4, sometimes a #2 gammie...the same as i do on the h&h's.

[Rip]

Replace the double hook with a spolit ring and an Owner frog hook, the one with the coil of wire in the eye of the hook. Put on a grub texas style and you have a super weedless spinnerbait you can throw about anywhere you can throw a worm. And it catches bass.

[GAMEOVER]

Why replace the hook? They dont seem like they'd grab too many weeds as their not a full treble but those two shanks must grab em ey?

Well I asked because I took 80 bucks out of my rod/reel fund to go splurge on some oldschool just plane jane baits no JDM stuff. Its rare that I get regular stuff anymore and its nice to get back to the basics every so often at least once a year for me since I fish so much. I picked up two of these Rocket Shads, forced myself to get a Strike King Pro Model Brauer jig, two old school Manns spinnerbaits, a zell pop, and some plastics.

Those old Manns spinnerbaits were my first spinnerbaits ever back in the day.

[Nickk]

I've done well with them on small rivers for smallies, I gotta give them another go.

[OhioChamp183]

I go with the larger treble instead of the stock hooks for better hookup ratio, and I fish these ONLY in open water, so no problems with snagging with the trebles.
I've thought of using a large long shange single worm or spinnerbait trailer hook, but I'm liking the larger trebles too much to change.

[SouthFLAngler]

I fish them all the time. They work great anytime.

[brokeneye]

if you're fishing them in cover, stay with the stock hooks.

in open water, change them out.

primarily, use them as a searchbait in open water...both sizes will cast a country mile...much farther than the traditional spinnerbait...in open water, the treble is much better for hookups.

[kingsriverrat]

For a couple of years after getting some of these, I didn't have any luck with them. I would occasionally fish them like regular spinnerbaits when I thought a smaller spinnerbait might be appropriate, or if I wanted something that could work up and down faster. I couldn't catch very much at all with them and was about to resign them to the back of the tackle box.
Then one day on Beaver Lake, on the south side, down near Blue Springs, I figured them out. I cast one into a hole with dead limbs and I didn't like where it fell, so I ripped it back out as hard as I could, just so I could get it back and make a 'decent cast' to my target. A bass nailed it.
In other words, do what you'd do with a Lil' George; cast it into some cover, let it sink to the bottom or almost to it, then rip it out as fast as you can. Or, just bring it back in with a 7:1 reel. --Like a baitfish trying to get the heck out of scary territory as fast as he can.

[GAMEOVER]

For a couple of years after getting some of these, I didn't have any luck with them. I would occasionally fish them like regular spinnerbaits when I thought a smaller spinnerbait might be appropriate, or if I wanted something that could work up and down faster. I couldn't catch very much at all with them and was about to resign them to the back of the tackle box.
Then one day on Beaver Lake, on the south side, down near Blue Springs, I figured them out. I cast one into a hole with dead limbs and I didn't like where it fell, so I ripped it back out as hard as I could, just so I could get it back and make a 'decent cast' to my target. A bass nailed it.
In other words, do what you'd do with a Lil' George; cast it into some cover, let it sink to the bottom or almost to it, then rip it out as fast as you can. Or, just bring it back in with a 7:1 reel. --Like a baitfish trying to get the heck out of scary territory as fast as he can.

Thanks for that post, I enjoyed reading it. Bass do not like suprises thats a known.