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How's it going fellow SU members, Just wanted to take a moment and submit a review on a bait that I've been recently having a lot of success with. Having been a bait designer/manufacturer going on twenty years now, you can pretty much guess if I haven't seen it from other designers, or attempted something similar myself, it's probably not worth the time and effort. You can probably also imagine it may take a bit more for a bait to grab my attn and keep it, more so than most guys. Having a lil understanding of what makes baits tic, much like a watch repair guy to a clock, I do admittedly tend to over analyze a bit. I received a couple slow sink Phoney Frog USA glide shads about five weeks ago. My first impressions were; Unbelievable aesthetics rt outta the package! The paint scheme was true and very natural, not overly exaggerated on color hues, in fact once under water, the pigments become even more realistic. The finish wasn't too thick either, but I could tell it had a high level of durability. The eyes are truly lifelike, I'd almost say close to that of what a taxidermist would use. It always amazes me why other high end companiesstill use cheap peel backer eyes. The fins were very realistic, anatomically correct, and appear to be extremely durable! Some very notable features; rotating hook hanger swivels, a very helpful aid in hook retention. The hinge/connection design is exactly how I'd design it myself. A stainless connector pin, I'm guessing .075" thick, extremely durable, joins the two halves via sunk in heavy duty stainless eyelet screws. You can hardly see the hinge system from a side view. This system provides the most durability without question. Unlike molded in door hinge systems, very difficult to break on unforeseen hard structures, (we've all done that a time or three... lol). Another great attribute to this system, is adjustability, cause we all have that buddy who thinks he's the next Kevin Van- Skeet- elite who claims to know exactly how the fish want it served to them, lol! Well it is possible to tune the glide yourself with this system, although I wouldn't mess with it, it comes factory tuned just to my liking. But nevertheless, a great feature to know you have so you can fix down the road without having to try to count on some guy helping you fix it, the same guy that took eleven-teen months to even get you the bait... So this far I'm actually pretty impressed! One awesome thing,, I didn't have to wait three, five, ten months to a year and a half to get my order either! The owner of Phoney frogs ensured me I'd have no longer than six weeks to receive my order. He was wrong! It only took three!!! Lol. Granted this was during pre-spring time, a less busier time than I'm guessing now would be. But another great fact about this company, HE DOESN'T CHARGE YOU TIL YOUR ORDER SHIPS!!!! Now I absolutely do not agree this is something we as consumers should ever feel necessary to get excited over, but the fact is, and many of you can vehemently relate, the other popular shad bait producers have nearly successfully got us to believe prepaid lists are normal business practices. Well they're not! Not hardly close to ethical or responsible. Have you ever asked how the heck you'regoing to get your money back heaven forbid one of these bait makers decides he's done making baits, or just disappears, or even dies...? Believe me, I've thought about it, actually quite a bit lately, I have several hundred dollars floating around out there, with no idea when my bait's arrival is going to be, or if at all... And quite possibly after publicizing this review never see my baits or money again. And want to know an even better part? You get ALL that, at a fraction of the price of those bigger names out there, who only have the popularity because of lil groupie like followers, who have yet to impress me very much. With a retail of a $100.00 bill this bait will sell itself. Putting the Phoney glide next to others almost makes you feel a lil bad for them, no rough wood rasp exteriors, no funky tails that are going to look like a frazzled mess after a fish destroys it, just a great all around replica of a shad, the way it should be, a tool that's going to look good, function well, and provide you a lot of great memories the more you use it. Ok, so now time to get it wet. After tieing it up to my stick of choice, a Loomis IMX 957 and a Curado 301 spooled w 25# sunline super natty green, I gave it a short handed test run. Could immediately tell this bait was quality! It had a very smooth feel, looked extremely fluid, and best attribute was it's balance. On the pause it didn't want to nose dive, or roll, it almost stayed rt where it was paused like a REAL fish would. I varied my retrieve to see if it possessed the ability to duplicate all the retrieves I demand from a glide. I require the bait to have a smooth fluid like motion with a near suspension-like pause, to be able to be burned, and to have a real lively "fleeing or attacking" look when needed, ironically all the swim attributes found in nature. I immediately started catching quality fish on this bait, and it has now earned itself a permanent place on my deck. So to sum it all up,, I'd absolutely recommend this bait to you, my best friend, even my own mom! You will not be disappointed, I promise you that much,, and in the unlikely event that you are, please come visit me, I'll show you what you're missing.