Did a little shopping spree on TW Sunday night and got the goodies this evening. There was a chill to the air but I took a few minutes to do some quick tests. Here's the first impressions:

Pretty painful. The plastic felt cheap and stiff. You'll need a massive hook with a good chunk of weight to even begin to make this thing fishable. With 90000000 basstrix clones out now, it wasn't compelling
http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/ProductImages/EGSB-GSD.JPG


Not bad. Not amazing either. Decent body wobble. Requires a large weighted hook. The Tennessee Shad color is decent looking. Inexpensive price wise.
http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/ProductImages/FBESB-04.JPG


This one's for you Urban. I wasn't half as impressed as I was with the small one. It seemed like the baits I got had been sitting in the package for a long time. They were coated in this weird goo. Maybe it's just me but I'm not a fan of weird goo. The baits swam ok but need a lot of weight. They don't need that big of a hook which is nice. The smoke and gold color reminds of the Megabait Charlie in that color. Some guys like that one. I'm undecided on this lure.
http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/ProductImages/GBSSB-SMG.JPG



It's legit. Like everything from Jackall. Awesome hooks, perfect rigging. The lure has nice body wobble and swims perfect. Not a bait for burning on the surface! But superb on a medium retrieve. Worth the money.
http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/ProductImages/JSN-SXY.JPG

Lake Fork Magic Shad 5.5 Inch - 3 baits for $4.89
Where have I been all these years on the Magic Shad? Head under a rock or something. Love the action on this lure. Like a fluke but wiggly. I can't imagine actually hooking and landing a bass if you just pin this on an EWG and fish it, but hang a treble off the belly and you should be in business. Reasonable price, nice colors. Take a $5 bill and explore this one.
http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/ProductImages/LFLMS-GP.JPG


Well it only costs $1 per tail. But they seem to have forgotten the eyeballs. The body shape is exactly like a Basstrix and it swims exactly like a Basstrix. This one uses a slit in the belly for the hook vs. a hollow core. Seems like a good lure but I like swimbaits with eyes so I'll probably spend the extra pennies and get Basstrix or the Berkeley clone.
http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/ProductImages/NBKS-HCH.JPG


We've reached the bargain basement in price and although Spro's other baits are great, this one left me with the feeling of cheap Chinese junk lures in my mouth. The nose on 4 out of the 5 lures was permanently bent from curing in the plastic bag. These things are made out of that 3x type plastic which seems cool but has never really caught on well over the years. I have no idea how you are supposed to put an EWG hook through the solid 1/2" of plastic body and still hook fish but if you cut the head off with scissors and pinned this on a 1.5oz Hammerhead jighead, you could probably catch some Ling Cod. Sorry Spro, this one needs fine tuning on the factory floor.
http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/ProductImages/SDS60-SMK.JPG


An Uncle Josh swimbait? Yes its true. It looks like a Reaction Strike OEM deal but I don't know for sure. This one surprised the heck out of me. It swam money! Even better, it has a shad action. You can walk it along under water or slow wind it. Looks terrific. Hate the fact that it has only one hook but what can you do. It is a lot like the BBZ-1 Shad but the action is a big differentiator, as are the transparent colors. I like this lure.
http://img.tacklewarehouse.com/ProductImages/UJFFS-BBH.JPG

Dude, what I want to know is what took you so long to get a house with a pool. Its a great thing for this site and your readers, but I am wondering how long before your wife gets tired of you sneaking out to the back yard to flip new swimmers into the pool.

Keep up the great work. This is by far the most informative fishing web site going, mostly because of the content that you are always adding.

"This is by far the most informative fishing web site going..."

•••• I agree 100%. The one thing that would take this site to the next level is more participation from the members. There are a lot of top notch fishermen that view this site that rairly if ever participate. I will do my part to participate more. Let's get these forums back to where they used to be with large numbers of posts and participation.

Thanks for all of the tools that you provide through Calfishing.com Rob.

Word. We've been here going on 10 years at calfishing.com and I plan to do it till the day I die. I've put a lot in but I've gotten a lot out. Good friends like you Mark make it all worth it. Jump on board, its just going to get better.

>Dude, what I want to know is what took you so long to get a
>house with a pool.

Probably all those years working at Sun Micro and going fishing too much instead of trying to get promoted :) Ha. Now I'm old and responsible... and thanks to the housing bust I do have a pool. Some day I'll even get a "real" bass boat.

Rob, you are a very brave man buying some of that stuff.}(
I love reading the reports. You just never know when some of that cr@ppy looking stuff might be a diamond in the rough.

Very cool report Rob, thanks.

FishnMike

Thanks again for the great info Rob. I bought a whole mess of the lake fork magic shads the other night. That's why the good colors are out of stock :). I haven't even seen them swim yet! But, like you, i'm wondering where i've been on these things.

check out the OG imakatsu javallons instead of the lake fork magic shads if you want a softer bait (I dont really like fishing the lake forks with just that EWG either but the imakatsu baits are really soft and easy to penetrate with a hook).

thx for the info!

The Imakatsu baits tear very easily too for the cost. The Lake Fork baits are easy to find and much cheaper for the same action.

try the magic shad on a chatterbait. money!

The gambler brutuis shad is a great spinnerbait trailer as well as on a headspin.

My 2 cents

Thanks Rob for the reports!

Hi guys. My name is Jordan and I'm on the El Grande Lures Pro Staff. It seems as though Rob received a defective swimbait from Tackle Warehouse. We stand behind our product and I gladly offered to replace the swimbait and send him a few of our other baits. I can assure you that our baits are anything but stiff and cheap feeling. The guys at TW went crazy over our baits and for good reason. They have the great hand poured feel and incredible action. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Jordan Haegele
jordan@elgrandelures.com
314-775-8852

Hi Jordan,

Welcome to the site. I'm sorry that your first post was spurred by my negative comments about the El Grande swimbait, but I'm glad you took the time to contact me and make this post. Jay from El Grande Lures also contacted me and I appreciate that as well.

Let me do this. I'll take you guys up on an offer for some fresh baits and get a recommendation from you for the proper hook as well. When I get the bait and the hook together I'll get a review page up on the site here and take a fresh look at the lure. Sound good?

-Rob

>Hi Jordan,
>
>Welcome to the site. I'm sorry that your first post was
>spurred by my negative comments about the El Grande swimbait,
>but I'm glad you took the time to contact me and make this
>post. Jay from El Grande Lures also contacted me and I
>appreciate that as well.
>
>Let me do this. I'll take you guys up on an offer for some
>fresh baits and get a recommendation from you for the proper
>hook as well. When I get the bait and the hook together I'll
>get a review page up on the site here and take a fresh look at
>the lure. Sound good?
>
>-Rob

Thank you Rob. I've been "lurking" around this site for a while and I know your opinion is held in high regards. As for the hook size for these, I haven't found any better than the 6/0 Owner Beast Swimbait Hooks (weighted) or the Davis Bait X Swim Screw Lock 3/8oz-5/0. Both available at TW ;). Be sure to use that screw lock/hitch-hiker, because it will definitely help keep the nose from tearing. These things have been a life-saver on the water for me, so I have a feeling you'll change your mind. We don't want to put a defective product in anyone's hands, but like I told Jay, it had to be yours! Hahaha

We're also looking into how TW was storing these and what else may have caused the plastic to stiffen up. I've had some of my EGL swimbaits for almost a year and they're as soft as the day I got them. Have a good one and let Jay or me know if you need anything.

So this is what you did Sunday night after our little fishing excursion. :P I like the looks of that Uncle Josh shad in Ghost Bone Shad.

I swear Rob, you should be an advisor for lure companies. You see things instantly about lures that take me a few fishing trips to figure out!

Love the LF Magic Shads, one of three trailers I use on a Chatterbait (the others being a super fluke and a Yamamoto swimsenko). The Jackall Ninja is on my list of swimbaits to try, thanks for the mini review.