Klash9

ty for the feedback! yeah, the price tag is high for sure. it is beautifully crafted though, top notch in every fashion. the body, joints, finish, line tie, and hook hangers are all perfection. id say its pretty much a work of art craftmanship wise. the wing hardware though is a touch fragile, probably just a touch below average in terms of durability. though i think the wing itself is well designed, not too many are pre bent which is a cool characteristic, and which makes it run at higher cadence than normal. i think one of the few others that were pre bent was on the gen 1 marute wood hanemaru. a bigger bass, musky, striper or catfish would probably do enough damage to require new hardware installation after..

Having fished pretty much every JDM jointed crawler made over the past 7 or eight years (and most USDM ones too), I finally splashed the cash on a the $400 KRR Cometa Wing, a handmade wooden 2 segment jointed bait weighing in at 2.8 oz and 6.5 inches in length. The time from placing the preorder to the bait showing up on my doorstep was about 4 months. The Cometa ran pretty well out of the box and had about a 85% startup/wing engagement without having to pop it. Wing cadence/speed was high even on ultra slow retrieve. Interestingly, the only way to slow the cadence was to do a burn retrieve. No hardware or segment/segment noise, only sounds were the wings engaging the surface in the typical crawler bloop bloop sound, so I would say this bait is on the medium (typical) side loudness wise. As I fish exclusively at night, I am very dependent on the feedback I receive through my preferred topwater setup: Evergreen Kaleido Super Stallion GT2RS, Daiwa Zillion HD, 1520 SH, and Hitena Silky 63lb braid. The description of how the Cometa feels/gives feedback on the retrieve is something akin to soft butter. Extremely smooth, even utilizing braid. This is a big difference to other baits in its price bracket like the Vansbaits or Kawasemi, or even other much less expensive wood baits like the DS Customs Speed Crawler or Fish Arrow Wing Dachs where I can feel every tiny vibration, movement of the wings, joints, and hardware amplified. It was an interesting feeling. It wasn't a dead feeling, nor refined, just very buttery. Typically I can feel if a bait ticks a weed, or a fish is pushing up behind a bait,. With the KRR, it was muted to the point I had difficulty feeling that I had ticked a submerged weed and had it caught on the hooks. Typically with even the slightest weed on a hook, the wing cadence will change, speeding up or the pitch will change. On the Cometa, there was no change. Surface disturbance was about on par for the size of this bait. The hookup ratio was 3 for 3 in blowups to landed fish. However, the bait went out of tune in the first fish, which was a cookie cutter 4-5lber size, not even a crazy fight which should not have caused it to get out of tune so easily. It took me a good amount of time to get it back in tune, and I never could get it tuned back to running perfectly despite my best efforts (and many, many years experience fishing and tuning all sorts of crawlers). By fish 3, the soft plastic tail had been lost. A spare tail is included in the package, so that will be replaced. The finish on the Cometa held up well, only a minor bit of hook pitting and bite marks. Wings and hardware closely resemble Raid Deka Dodge wings/hardware, but they are pre bent forward, which explains the fast wing cadence. My overall impressions of this bait are that it is beautifully built and finished, the hardware is somewhat fragile, and it is finicky to retune. Would I buy another one? Probably not. I have other better performing baits in that price range: the Kawasemi is a magical bait, and the Vansbait Magnum Lake does everything the KRR does, except better and more reliably with a slightly larger profile. KRR Cometa Wing Length: 6.5 inches Weight: 2.8 oz Strengths: Top notch build quality, excellent hook up ratio, when running right has a great sound Weaknesses: Hardware is fragile, and is finicky to retune. Soft plastic tail is easily lost. Out of the box: 9.5 Twitch: 6 Ease of Startup: 8 Slow Retrieve (Creep): 6 Medium Retrieve (Crawl): 9 Fast Retrieve (Skitter): 6 Noise: Medium (from wings: 100%) Wing cadence: Fast Durability: 6 Ease of tuning: 6 (Stay tuned, as I will have an in-depth crawler breakdown and reviews of over 30 different JDM jointed crawlers coming soon on jdmfishing.com. My other article, on the DRT Klash 9, can also be found on jdmfishing.com, in the Big Bait Otaku section.)