86 Baits Tempest Gill

[jkarol24]

Swimbait Review: 86 Baits Tempest Gill

The Tempest Gill is the latest offering from 86 Swimbaits, and is a continuation of the doomrider shad glide concept. The Tempest Gill provides a similar action as the Doomrider, albeit slightly shorter and taller. The bait features a lifelike printed "paint" scheme, along with anatomically correct soft side and top fins. The Tempest comes in at 3.3 oz of resin, and is 6.75" in total length. You will notice the addition of a tracer for your viewing pleasures. The Tempest carries a retail price of $225 plus tax/shipping. 

Starting with a straight retrieve, the Tempest swims back and forth in a relatively wide and sweeping manner, as the bait turns nearly 180 degrees back and forth. The bait stays level and upright at slower speeds, but does display some body roll as speeds increase past about a moderate retrieve. As will be a theme with this bait (and also generally with the previously-reviewed Doomrider), the bait was designed to be fished slow, and can certainly lose its stability with fast or firm inputs. The swim is fluid, and the transitions are tight but not choppy, kind of has that in-between turning action. The bait also maintains depth well, and didn't show signs of rising unless the rod tip was held up. I neglected to show on video, but the Tempest will also swim with plenty of action on a slow crawl. 

Next, we began to add some easy reel inputs, and I was able to Glide the bait approx a foot in either direction. Again, slow and easy was key, and even though the reel inputs were slow, the Tempest carried some speed through the glide. It doesn't take much to get the bait moving side to side, and less is definitely more. Stability was good on the slower inputs, and the bait stayed horizontal through the transitions. 

As I added a bit more gusto to the inputs, I found the bait would get slightly wider than previous, and would certainly carry more speed. As before, the transitions were smooth and easy. I did notice that there was a fine line, and crossing that line resulted in body roll on the transitions, and a glide that finishes with a nose up attitude. However, the action of the bait was predictable, and I was able to learn where that line was, and live right on the edge. I also found that a rod with a soft tip allowed the bait to accept firmer inputs, and carry a bit more distance on the glides as a result. 

I also expiramented with and introduction of some rod tip pulls, and was able to tighten up the glide to acheive more of a turn and flash, with limited glide distance. I was able to keep the bait generally in one place, while causing some attention that may be suited for close-to-cover applications. 

Last, I tried some different tod positions, and found that I could fish the bait as a surface glide with the rod tip up. Speed was key, and slower was better. As well, I slowly dropped the rod tip as the bait came close to me. The result is that the Tempest would swim/glide on the surface, and produce a pronounced wake pushed from the forehead and top fin of the bait. Slow speeds caused the bait to Glide wider, and faster speeds tightened up the action, and almost swam like you'd expect a 2 pc billed wake to swim. Always fun to expirament! 

I threw the Tempest on both the Levaithan Heavy (on video) and the KGB Heavy. I went with the Leviathan for video as it was easier to control the bait with the rod tip, but I did find that if I was only gliding the bait, that the KGB stick was a bit more forgiving as it has softer/slower tip and mid section. Both rods are paired with Curado 300Es spooled with 20 Lb copoly. Fluro or mono would be just fine, but I would hesitate with braid knowing that the bait doesn't love the firm inputs. 

Enjoy your holiday weekend, and spend some time with the family if possible. Thanks for joining, and have a great Sunday. I shot a bunch of videos in the past 2 weeks, so there will be some more consistent content coming out weekly unless I am traveling/working, which seems to have been a common theme lately....

 

[Smacking_bass]

Love this bait!!