Hey Fongster,

I see you've discovered our talks about the fastrac. It's caught on pretty good up here. I didn't want to mention it on the pier fishing board because there are too many barnies there ready to kill illegal fish and... any idiot can catch fish on the fastrac.

Yes it's the Rebel Fastrac Minnow. It comes in two sizes and they both work. I've only tried the Black/Chrome model. The jointed one seems to work a little better than the non-jointed but the non-jointed has a rattle which may work better at night or in darker conditions. It seems to work best in clear water. They cast fine. I typically use it on my Loomis P843 with 10 lb. test. The Loomis popping rod series has a slower action which is better for fishing crankbaits.

The "problem" with these lures is that they are so easy to use. Just cast and reel. You can cover a lot of water quickly. I usually fish them in less than 10 ft. of water for halibut but for seabass the depth doesn't seem to matter. I've caught one Sand Bass on them but no Calicos yet.

I prefer to remove the center hook because I don't think it's necessary. In my opinion it just gets in the way and tears up the fish more.

It's not just the fastrac either. We've experimented and caught them on Rapala's, the shallow diving version of the fastrac (I even got a halibut to hit topwater as I was twitching it on the surface), Yo Zuri Crystal Minnows, etc. I've tried Rat-L-Traps a few times but nothing yet - the minnow baits are shaped more like anchovies, smelt, or sardines. The deep diving versions haven't got anything either. I don't think the action is as good. We've also tried putting a sinker on the line in front to get the bait down but it usually fouls.

Another thing... watch the birds. The fastrac floats and if you backlash and a bird sees the lure it's all over!

Pete

You can't catch tomorrow what you kill today - please practice catch and release.