Sherpa Gill V2

[jkarol24]

Swimbait Review: Sherpa Gill V2

The Sherpa Gill V2 is a resin 2 pc wake n crank style bait, featuring unique facial features, a lexan bill, and a free-swinging tail. The bait comes with oversized hardware, screw eye and pin style joint, and I chose to fish it with a snap on the eye. The Sherpa weighs in at 3.5 ounces, and is approx 6.25 inches in length.

Starting off with our straight retrieves, I found that both speed and rod tip position are going to determine the retrieve type.... For instance, moderate speed with rod tip down is right on the edge of wake versus crank. Any faster, and the bait will crank down to about 3 foot. Any slower, and the sherpa stays up on the surface.  Wake can also be achieved at higher speeds by holding the rod tip up during the retrieve.
The wake retrieve shows off a hard and consistent back and forth head hunt, with the bait staying upright and stable, with no issue as speed is increased. Due to its 2 pc construction, you get a more exaggerated swimming motion as the bait folds along it's axis. However, I did find that the bait also gained some fluidity due to the relatively free-swinging soft plastic tail, which sits in a slot much wider than the tail itself... This allows some more natural action along the rear of the bait. The Wake itself is a defined v wake, with a strong bulge pushed by the Sherpa's oversized lips (the lips on the face of the bait, not the lexan lip). I also found that the swim became wider as speed was reduced, with lots of motion even at a crawl.

The crankdown action is very similar to that of the wake, albeit slightly tighter in terms of side to side motion. The Sherpa continues to have great stability, and had no issue burning back to the boat. I also found that the bait didn't pull back very hard, and was not tiring to crank at speed. Approx 3 ft was the max depth I found on the crankdown.

I also walked the Sherpa in a few different ways. First, the topwater walk was achieved with various rod tip twitches, and the action varied slightly based on cadence.  Slow and easy twitches causes the bait to turn 180 degrees, with a bit of body roll, and some surface commotion. As speed/cadence is increased, body roll becomes more evident, along with more splash and commotion on the surface.

I also walked the bait subsurface during the crankdown, and achieved similar action to the fast walk-easy turns, with a noticeable amount of body roll. The bait does float, but not super quick, so you can get a few twitches in before the bait rises to the surface.

I threw the Sherpa Gill V2 on a Leviathan Heavy, Curado 300e, and 20 lb copoly. Braid or mono would be a fine choice as well, and fluro would be a solid choice if you intend to use the bait for mostly cranking down.

Thanks for joining along, more reviews headed your way soon! See you next Sunday!