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Mattlures Hardgill


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  • 2 months later...

I just recently received both the floating and ss female gills and love them. The sinking version sinks horizontally and will sit on its hooks pretty cool looking letting it sink and give your rod a sweep and the bait will dart off the bottom and kick up debris. The floater is cool also when you twitch this bait it will dart and dive and occasionally if you give it 2 quick jerks it will dive down then jump out of the water there are so many things you can do with these you just have to get some to beleive it and lets not forget this bait thumps harder than just about any swimbait I have ever used that was probably the first thing I noticed.

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  • 1 month later...

got one of these recently, seems to be a good bait. Small, but has potential. Obviously it has a record of catching fish. Mines a SS and swims really good. Wish it darted and glided more on the pause instead of doing a 180 but still very good action. Banged the trolling motor and shattered the fins on it though :roll: but i guess the new ones are supposed to be stronger and it still swims great. All in all a very solid bait that gives good feedback of its action. You can feel the thump. Have got alot of bites but they have all been small fish (under 5 lbs).

 

Pros:

Very natural looking with great paint schemes.

Good action with a pronounced thump being transmitted back to the rod/Reel

casts well for a little bait

flat out gets bites from numbers with potential for bigger fish

 

Cons:The fins breaking and the inconsistencey with the sink rates makes me think there is very poor QC going on. I have had the same problems with the soft gills from matt lures. Would hate to break a bait in a fish's mouth and lose it. the poor QC takes away from my confidence in the lures strength.

Small with small hooks. Wish the hooks were larger but larger hooks dull the action.

 

Even with the durability issue i will have this tied on year around and will get some more, hope the new ones are stronger.

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  • 1 year later...

I got a ss baby hardgill this summer, and here are my thoughts.

 

The paint on my bait is straight up falling off, like in chunks. Not normal hook rash, it's just falling off. the action is really, really good, and the profile is perfect. I want to get a couple more of these in the different options (single-joint/multi-joint, billed/non-billed, etc) but I think if I did that I would either ask Matt to make them indestructible with hella layers of clear coat or get someone else to do it. His paint jobs are incredible, I just wish they would stay on the bait!

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The last time I did a run of Hardgills was close to 2 years ago. I have done a few releases of other hard baits since then. I have greatly improved the paint adheasion/durability since those baits and I have improved it again going forward for all future hard baits. I am always experimenting and improving things like materials and paint etc.

Thanks for the reviews

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The last time I did a run of Hardgills was close to 2 years ago. I have done a few releases of other hard baits since then. I have greatly improved the paint adheasion/durability since those baits and I have improved it again going forward for all future hard baits. I am always experimenting and improving things like materials and paint etc.

Thanks for the reviews

 

I want one of your bass glides so bad. It would get absolutely smoked in Va. You make awesome baits Matt.

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  • 2 months later...

Matt, you have some of the best natural paint colors I've seen so far. I just picked up some of your strait tail and boot tail bluegills. In Massachusetts, and, can't wait to drop the straight tail on the bed of a Big Mamma this spring. Good honest reviews here, and, I just want to thank you on always trying to inprove your offerings. WayneM just got a couple of your HardGills, and, they look great. Gonna get a couple of them. Are you going to be at the Worcester show this weekend ?

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Went to the Worcester DCU yesterday and stopped by the "Bass Dreams" booth where I met Mickey99. Glanced in their display case and saw a couple HardGills. I pounced on a Green Sunfish colored one quicker than a Big Bass on a HardGill !! As far as the show, my nephew and I went their to see the "listed" 5:00 Nagy demonstration, and found out he was going to be flying in till the morning. Bummer. The DCU mentioned it was a mix up in the scheduling, and, gave us each a free pass for Saturday.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I keep a Mattlures Hardgill tied on virtually 12 months a year. I have caught countless fish with them from 2 pounds to 9+ pounds. The most recent releases are definitely more resilient, but I'm still whacking them on a slow-sink version that is covered with Sharpie ink and it's still the most productive swimbait I own.

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