Castiac BD Shad first impressions

[floridaswimb8er]

Gentlemen, it's me again, coming at you with my first impression review of the BD Shad by Castiac.

 

I know, I know, POSER!!!!! it is a copy of Bucca's Bullshad which is a copy of HPH's Herring which is a copy of.......I don't care about the fan boy bullshit. I am an independent chucker of swimbaits, nobody buys my opinion. I am only interested in those baits that catch fish for me. That said I buy my own 3:16's, Bull Shads, Deps and Spro baits because they work for me. If one of these companies makes a dog, I'm going to tell you about it, if I know about it.

 

The fact that all manufacturers in this niche type swimbait business are striving to produce as realistic bait as they can makes it hard to simply look at one bait and say, it is a copy. It might actually be a copy but it also might not be that easy to determine. I've been in the lure business for the last 20yrs. I am into pouring handpours and flipping jigs. I have my own designs, but it is hard to label anything as "original" other than perhaps the original Crème worm. I think patent laws need about 10% difference to claim uniqueness. But whatever here is my review....

 

The player: Castiac DB Shad 5" and 6".

 

I acquired both a 5" and 6" model from a compadre who owns a tackle store. He feeds me a ton of stuff to test for him and upon my epiphany, he either stocks or doesn't. I told him a while back to look out for this bait and he sent me these about a month ago.

 

 

5" and 6" BD's pictured with 5" and 6" Bucca's...all NIB

 

Now I am going to tell you, I have 3:16 shads, Bullshads, my first shad type bait was an original 6" HPH that I only moved because the return was so ridiculous I couldn't pass it up. I know what decent baits are and how they should be.

 

Looking at these baits in the package you can see they are pretty. The paint is really nice for a 25.00 bait. One of the things I read about and saw video's of is the tail of these baits not being cut straight. The two I received were cut perfectly and I have to add, for a 25.00 the paint brush type tail is a very nice touch.

 

Evenly cut tail, nice touch for a cheap bait

 

I got kind of excited simply looking at the bait in the box. That changed quickly when I opened up the 5" bait. I pulled it out of the package and realized the pin that holds the hinges together was cut too short and the top hinge was not even connected. WTF quality control much?

 

 

I am going to say right now, this would be a reason for me to simply end the review and chalk this up as a loss. The fact that I didn't was because I ran out of peanut M&M's and Blueberry SeaDog beer and had nothing to do except find a quick fix. The fix was really easy. I found where the hinge pin was slipped into the bait, drilled it out and replaced it with a longer pin of 16ga wire which was clearly twice as strong as the 18 or 20ga the bait came with.

 

 

I stuck the 16ga wire pin in the bait, aligned everything up and devcon 2 ton epoxied it together. The next day I swam the bait in my pool to make sure it was GTG. It was.

 

I need to remind everyone, this is a 25.00 bait. You could have got it for 20.00 with TW's black Friday sale. I shouldn't have to fix the bait to make it run right. I can't defend the lousy quality control, it seems that this is an inherent issue with the manufacturer. But again, I am used to paying 50.00 for a Bucca Bull shad and 125.00 for a 3:16 and if you can hunt unicorns you might get a HPH but surely it will cost you your left nut.......this bait is readily available and did I mention it is 25.00?

 

OK, So as a 25.00 bait what can you expect?

 

Hardware:

Yup some type of stainless split rings.....if you are a legit swim bait chucker you already swapped them out for Owner Hyper Splits as I did. The hooks are "Katana" hooks.....that implies some type of ShoGun sharpness and I will say, they are very sharp...however I don't "not allowed" trust them and you shouldn't either. They come on a 25.00 bait for "Not Allowed" sake......any swimbaiter worth his/her salt already planned on swapping them out for Owner ST's any way.

 

So, original hardware swapped out to Owner hardware.....it is simply common sense. I'm honestly not mad or annoyed that I had to do that. I've done it on baits costing much more if you are serious, it is simply what you do to prevent loss of fish.

 

Something different:

People are going to take a look at this bait and call it an obvious copy. On the outside it looks like a cheap copy. The BD has a couple of tricks up its sleeve though that has me wondering about its legititudeness( made that up).

 

The first interesting feature is a magnet that holds the front treble close to its body just like Bucca's and HPH......oh wait a minute neither of them actually has that. The stock Katana front treble is flat backed so it sits on the magnet all snuggly and such. The next obvious difference is the thickness of the bait. The 5" bait is thinner than the 5" Bucca and the 6" version is thicker than the 6" Bucca. So, um, well.....it is kind of different.

 

I know I mentioned the finish earlier. For a cheap bait, it is a nice looking bait. I'm not busting on the Bull shad but this bait is certainly prettier. I've received brand new Bucca's that were chipped, the two in the top photo have magic marker marks (other than the false eye)on the top back end of the first segment. I don't care about that personally but some guys might, and for a 25.00 bait, I think this is another positive.

 

modified Katana treble sitting on the magnet that holds it tight to the body is a nice touch

 

In the water:

This bait is a SS bait. Coupled with the new Owner hardware, it likely added slightly to its sink ratio over the original obviously lighter hardware. I don't think the action was impeded by that.

 

I liked they way the bait swims, it undulates nicely for a 3 segmented bait. It might have even more movement that most multi segmented baits but in my opinion it is "something different" than what everyone else is throwing.

 

This bait is going to catch fish, there is no doubt in my mind. I do have one curiosity about it though.....it is a bait that looks like each section is two piece, meaning it is glued together over a wire frame or hook hanger. I am wondering how durable it will be. We are seeing wireframe ripped out of S Wavers or the S Wavers are cracking in half when they are torqued by larger fish. I can't help but wonder if this will be the case with these baits. My head says, this is not in the realm of big fish baits but you never know.

 

 

 

 

My conclusion:

I gotta be honest, I wanted to hate this bait, I initially did until I actually got it in my hands. It has a very nice finish, I think better than some more expensive baits. When I opened the package and saw my bait was FUBAR, I wanted to fix it rather than just throw it away even though I got it for free. I know I shouldn't have to fix a NIB bait to get it to run, it totally is a fail for that. But once I fixed it, I saw that it had potential and in a different way than other baits. It is cheap enough to become a totally trick bait......with a little skill, you can mod the crap out of this thing and not worry too much about screwing it up or even losing it when fishing. BTW, I wound up drilling out all the pins and replacing them with 16Ga pins. I know this bait is not going to fall apart on me.

 

If I had to rate this bait based on what it is from the factory, the quality control issue would have forced me to give it a zero. I like to tinker and I have the ability to fix things and sometimes even improve them. For that reason. I'm not giving it a zero. I really think this bait has potential. I wouldn't tinker with a 3:16 or a HPH, the fact that this bait is 25.00, which seems to be unfathomable it is my duty to mess around with it.

 

I personally don't think we are going to hear about many giant fish caught on this bait so it might not become an issue if one doesn't change the stock pins or the bait cracks in half........and that cracking is just totally speculation by me, I haven't heard anyone complain about it....but over all, I think this could be a dynamite numbers bait with a few mod's that I mentioned.

 

So what I'm saying is this:

If you are a 15yr old kid whose tackle comes at a premium because you don't have the money to waste.......unless you can take one out of the box prior to buying it, to check it, I would stay away from it.

 

If you are a bait monkey like me, and you don't mind screwing around with baits while drinking a few beers and toking a couple, if you have a minimal skill set and some basic tools, this bait can be hot rodded into something with some serious potential without breaking the bank. I know it is going to catch some fish and it is about half the cost as other similar baits. I'm going to crush a few and post some photos with it.

 

I can't give it a numerical rating without actually catching a few big fish on it and I will update this review once I do that. I've taken a few average sized bass and haven't has any issues.

 

[Ong Jim]

Thanks for the honest review. Very informative.

[northeast_trev]

awesome review! tons of great info. I wonder if they will make a larger 8"..

[floridaswimb8er]

I wanted to note, I sent a mssg to Castiac about the issue, I didn't get a response.

[floridaswimb8er]

• Still no response from the manufacturer

[SD032]

Certainly glad I ran across this thread. Big Thanks CJ.

[FishDr]

Solid review!  Thanks for taking the time to put this together.

[OkeechobeeJC]

Great narrative! Clever humor and spot on product comparisons. Informative review!

[MarkH024]

Have you fished this bait anymore since your review CJ? Just curious of any follow up to this bait after your initial thoughts.

[pickle]

Good read!

[floridaswimb8er]

I've fished it a bit and I think if you can get one where you know it is GTG and not FUBAR, it is a decent bait for numbers, I took one decent fish on it that weighed over 5lb, it held up fine.......based on its size and the fact that I am not sure I totally trust it for a really big fish out of the box, I wouldn't make it a top choice when fishing for bigger fish, there are far too many other great, more reliable baits out there.

 

like I said though, for what it is worth.....if you like to mess around with baits and you change the pins and hardware, I think you won't have any problems. It swims good enough, it looks good enough.......if you are one of those guys who feels that you should not have to mod a bait at all....then stay away from it.