The result was complete and total disappointment. I have the 10" slow sinking trout. The lure does not swim. It comes almost straight at you with no action.

I tried working out the joints, pushing and pulling on them. It made no difference. The joints are too tight which restricts all action.

The screw eyes are very small for a bait this size. I can't imagine that the actual screws under the eyes are any beefier than the eyes look. If the lure did swim, I'd be freaked out that if I did get bit, the lure would rip in half.

Next stop for this bait is the same box as my four Rago Real Trout's (also made by Castaic) none of which swim. Keeping them company will be the half dozen dud Castaic Platinum softbaits I own - a nice mix of trouts, bluegills, and shads.

Jason - I've bought almost everything you've made in recent years, and dude, I'm done buying. You guys need to tank test these things before you send them out.

-Rob

Being very new to big swimbait fishing and searching everything I can get my hands on. I have to listen to an accomplshed big swimbait fisherman as the auther of this thread.
Thanks

Well, at least you tried a bunch of Castaic baits before giving up. I bought one once, threw it for two hours. Then I threw it in the trashcan and vowed never to buy another Castaic bait.

Question for you Rob...What was the issue with the soft platinum? Ripping? Action? Production? Just wondering...

Jared,

I've caught fish on the Soft Platinum trout and gizzard shad. When you get one that swims right, they get bit and catch fish. My problems have been with baits that do not swim straight, and baits that tear in half.

It's a complete crap shoot on tearing them on fish. A 2lber is very likely to shake and jump and rip the lure in half. A bigger fish may swallow it and you get the lure back in one piece.

What's a huge bummer is when you have say a Platinum Bluegill that swims perfect and you snag it on a tully and pull on it and not only does it rip in half, it rips in half right through the foam head which detaches the wire line tie in the nose from the wire that holds your hook on. Once I saw that I just couldn't use that lure any more because I knew if I got a giant fish going on it - that would be the likely outcome.

All these Castaic baits have potential, what they need is tank testing and a test where you tie a piece of wire to the screw eye and put the hook in a vice - then pull to see what breaks first. All of the swimbaits that stand the test of time like the Hudd, Slammer, Triple Trout, etc can take the abuse. $15 disposable baits that might break in half and cost me a fish are too hard to stomach for my taste.

broke mine on the first outing at the second joint. Kept bending back the screw eye and it only weakened over the course of the day. The bait is way to rigid for the size gauge hardware it comes with.

I'm with Urban on this one. I have had zero success with any of the current Castaic made baits running correct. I agree that they need to start doing more R&D before they release a bait. It seems that every bait that has been released needs to be reworked or a "new" version comes out later. I didn't even pick up a Castaic Hardbait at the Bass-a-thon knowing that they would be crap.

I'm staying with 3:16, Huddleston and Rago baits from here on out.

I couldn't agree more with Rob on this one. It's really just getting embarrassing for them at this point. I too have refused to buy into the hype with Jason's baits from this point forward. Less hype and more R and D please.

Wow guys so then it is not just me huh, I have 10 Rago Real Trouts that wont run true and have not had much luck with the soft Platinum running true. only about half did but that bait breaks apart to easily. I ordered 2 Rock hards when they were available for pre order and never recieved them. I did not print a reciept and dont remember which card I used, live and learn I guess. The old wood and the old plastic Castaic trouts and the smaller baby bass were nice lures. The hard head Castaic trouts that were not snap on bodies were pretty nice. Lately I have been dissapointed with the later Castaic swimbaits. If I do buisness with them again it will be because everyone is talking up a certain bait they made and it has proven itself already. No more buying the new hot swimbaits before they have proven themself for me. I have so much tackle that I do not use and I am a little wiser for it. Thank you to Rob and all the users of Calfishing for keeping it real and letting us interface on this site. Boy drama, hype and marketing tactics are 3 things I dont care a lot for. I appreciate those who try to help each other out and focus on the positive, talk is cheap and like my dad used to say "show me, dont tell me about it" There is a nice community here on this site and I appreciate the honesty that helps others out and saves us money to keep us from buying bunk tackle. I hope you all break your PB this year, just please put it back for the next guy.
Thanks for all the help in the past.
Peace, Rich Lund

Rock Hard Hardware on the left. Triple Trout stainless steel hardware on the right

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/lures/trout_plugs/castaic_platinum_rock_hard/castaic_platinum_rock_hard_hardware.jpg

You be the judge

that is a sweet photo Rob.

Still haven't received my pre-order of these baits and I'm certainly in no hurry now. Thanks for the review!

Thats not even funny,what a pos.

I don't want to add unnecessary fuel to a fire, but there are a few take-aways from this thread. First, Rob Belloni and Calfishing.com are the shiz. How refreshing to see straight talk, and calling out something that clearly needs to be called out.

Castaic Bait Company should wake up and smell the coffee. It needs to be said. Rob said it, everyone else replied with simliar validation of the issue, and I'm raising my hand to validate the issue as well. Between having some of the worst QA and R&D teams in the space, these guys aren't getting any better. Castaic is OLD SCHOOl/OG on the big bait scene, and making hurrendous mistakes, and if anything taking steps backwards. You'd think these guys would have mastered pouring perfect baits, getting the majority to run straight out of the package, and making baits that can survive a real strike by a fish of consequence.

Besides serious errors in design, testing, QA, R&D, and basically having a second rate, at best product....Castaic further buried themselves in my mind, with this Rago deal. I have 15 Rago Real Trout that don't have a belly ring to attach a trap hook. How is that possible? These guys go way way way back in the swimbait game. This wasn't an oversight, this was sabotage. I didn't even know that Castaic Baits was behind the Rago thing until recently. That was a revelation to say the least.

I'm not big on posting controversial/pointed topics. That's what swimbaitnation is for!

:P

It needs to be said, and hence my allegiance and alignment to calfishing.com and Rob Belloni. Zero tolerance for any BS, and certainly not going to let a company like Castaic who likely has one of the most recognized brand names in the swimbait space, across the country, get away with this crap unnoticed.

MP

It just sucks to see a company who had a really cool product with their snap on trout make such crappy baits... That big 12" floater is a cool bait and brings fish up to the surface to check it out

i feel like maybe they are now in the business of catching the fisherman and not too worried about the fish

Wow, I am sure glad I waited to buy on of these baits.

Don't buy Untested baits period. It is not right to do that to the people.

Don.

hm, I guess there is some confusion about how I took that bait apart.

I used my hands to wiggle the halves apart (that's why the screw eyes are opened up). Then I took a pair of pliers and backed out all the screws. I was interested to see if the screw section of the eye was any beefier than the eye. I was also curious to see if the same screw eyes were used in the joints, hook hangers, and line tie. They are all the same.

From the picture, you can see how long the screws are and how wide the threading is. You can also see that some of the screws broke off inside the bait, which may be a function of them being molded inside the lure. Based on how the screw eyes are recessed, I would guess that they are molded in.

This brings up an interesting point regarding screw eyes... For a fishing lure, the idea screw eye would have a very small eye, and a beefy screw section. I've looked at a lot of lures and trolled the aisles of more than a couple hardware stores and found that the ideal screw eye does not exist because the eyes always match the screw. If you want a strong screw eye, you have to buy big ones.

This may seem like a small detail, but wouldn't it be cool to downsize the screw eyes on your hard baits? Some day a lure company will make them, it just hasn't happened yet to my knowledge. Just like Castaic came up with the Treble Claw hook, or Lucky Craft started using the oval shaped split rings. Funny when you think about how many things we use tackle wise are just a function of what was available at the hardware store for some entirely non-fishing purpose.