Rats, testing/building a couple versions, and a fish (Pic Heavy)

[chefchris]

I took the original AYC version out on May 27th for a night trip, committed to leaving it on one set up and throwing it as much as possible. 

Only managed one fish all night, was a dink, but it did come on the rat. 

This pond is super shallow, max depth is 6’ and the whole pond has this reed line that is about 30’ from shore in 2-4’ of water, almost the whole pond has that structure around it. 

There was just enough ambient light from a few houses to see it swim/wake. Was working it with short reel cranks, and splashing it in place when it got exploded on! Made a huge splash, set the hook and the fish went crazy, cause it was against the reeds it felt like a solid fish. But once it was free of the reeds ended up being a 1-1.5lb fish. So not the one I was hoping for but nice to catch on an unfinished prototype. 

[chefchris]

@surfk9 yeah I bent the lip in my vise using the heat gun on low, just heated up the area I needed to bend and applied even pressure to it. 

I just popped the lip in the bait, looked at where I thought the bend needed to be, marked it with a sharpie and then taped it off so the vise wouldn’t scuff it. 

I tested it on these baits and it didn’t do what I was hoping so I’ll revisit that next week or with the next batch. 

Thinking I Need to increase the lip slot angle to make it work better too. 

You can see the sharpie mark for where I wanted to bend it in the pic. 

[morgantm16]

Chris, those look great as always!  Its funny you did that toxic skirt mod, I just start doing that on a few baits a couple weeks ago as well.  

[chefchris]

1 hour ago, morgantm16 said:

Chris, those look great as always!  Its funny you did that toxic skirt mod, I just start doing that on a few baits a couple weeks ago as well.  

I had a LPO order going, and decided to grab a couple packs, got some white ones for an albino rat too, it’s a cool mod for sure. 

I did a smaller hole than what he uses and to get it thru the hole, I tightly wrapped some blue painters tape around one end, and made a cone shape, passed it thru the hole and pulled it into position, super easy and snug 

[morgantm16]

3 minutes ago, chefchris said:

I had a LPO order going, and decided to grab a couple packs, got some white ones for an albino rat too, it’s a cool mod for sure. 

I did a smaller hole than what he uses and to get it thru the hole, I tightly wrapped some blue painters tape around one end, and made a cone shape, passed it thru the hole and pulled it into position, super easy and snug 

I used a pretty small whole on mine.  It was a last minute decision to do it on a balsa lure I already had prepped to paint.  I soaked the hole in extremely thin super glue, I hope in got everything sealed back up on the inside of the hole, because all i did was pull the skirt material through without any sort of glue as well.

I have hundreds of silicone skirt tabs laying around anyways from pouring and tying jigs, so I figured why not.  

[azsouth]

very nice, I can't wait for the swim video.

[chefchris]

2 hours ago, azfisher said:

Lookin' killer!  Likin' the skirts, should give some good action on the pause and the raccoon eye band.  I'd be interested to see what kind of differences you'll see between the heavier vs. lighter, they way they swim. I've never found that big of a weight difference in the same type/pc of wood.  WRC for me made a great swim but when I used some heavy dense oak, it kind of killed the action some.   Seemed to push more water, but didn't swim as well.   I'd kill for 4 days of fishing right now, good luck!

@azfisherthanks Will, yeah 4 days will be awesome, place is big/deep/clear water, trout and salmon stocked by two states (pond is on the border of both) lots of structure/docks, it’s tough fishing especially swimbaits but a big fish spot. Also packing my crawdad for some smaller ponds, that are close by. 

I usually heavier/denser woods for sinking or diving plugs, that was my thought for that rat, that it will go subsurface. So will see how it performs this week. 

[chefchris]

so got to spend some time throwing the rats while on my trip, unfortunately the fishing was less than good, did manage 13 fish in 3 days but nothing bigger than 3lbs, one guy got skunked, and not for lack of trying. anyway the trip itself was awesome, insane food, beers and edibles and lots of laughs. 

i got video of all 3, will upload them once I get em to youtube. 

the skirted version was the least impressive as a swimming rat, i think the skirts just killed the action and created too much drag, was very subtle and quiet which im sure will get bit but wasn't what I was hoping for. on the other hand it was a killer twitch style bait, slow moving, lots of "leg" movement, could work in place and make it splash. can see it being a cool bait and will keep testing it, especially as the wake season gets better here. 

the heavy weight version is really cool, will be a great choppy/windy bait. besides the fact it bombs stupid far on the cast, it swims on top but also just under the surface like an 1" but still makes a wake trail, thru this one night, had two blow ups on it but missed em, fishing in pitch black conditions and got too excited and set too early 

the lightest version (this is what the rest of the batch will weigh in at) was the best swimming/wake version of the bunch, wakes, walks, twitches, pops and got bit. committed to throwing it the last morning of the trip, got out at 3am and thru it til 530am, missed the first two in the dark. Then worked my way into the back area of the pond, this area holds fish and finally found out why this weekend. was casting between the two big rocks in the pic (theres actually a big flat rock in front of the left one which you can see) and it got smoked right in between em. fish sucked it down, set the hook and went crazy on top, but was only a mere 3lber. conditions were flat calm, like glass flat with a 2-3' layer of fog burning off the pond. 

so after that fish, had 2 other fish eat on the wake/pause, and one eat it on the first movement of the bait, all were 2lbs or under. and missed two more hits as i watching the sunrise like an dumbass. 

so after the sun came up i doubled back to that area and was looking for signs of why this one area seemed to have so many fish. well the whole area, about 40 yards before the cove starts and the first 1/2 of the cove are just downed timber lay downs, stumps of all sizes and rocks/boulders of all sizes. Everywhere I looked there was a lay down or rock pile, or a laydown going over a rock, just an epic bass and baitfish habitat all over. Couldnt believe I didnt hit any of the stumps or rocks with the trolling motor as most of em where just below the water line, and i had drifted over a few big ones. 

so this week ill finish the others from the spanish cedar batch and start the fatter AYC ones and keep testing em. 

if anyone is interested in ACTUALLY throwing it and testing it hit me up, I can only fish so much and need more out there. please dont connact me and then never fish the baits, but thats a rant story for another day.

Thanks for reading and checking out the updates. More to come. 

[Rogervang]

That is so badass man! Its a killer rat forsure. I'm in the market for new split rings. I think in going to give those a try. 

[chefchris]

Went out Thursday before work 530am-8am, weather wasn’t supposed to get bad (rain/thunderstorms) until 9/10am 

Got this dink at 545am, twitching and popping the bait under a small overhanging tree. Man they really blow up on em even for small fish.

 

Switched the hooks over to 2/0 KVD triple grips, for testing 

only that one fish on the rat before all hell broke loose. Rain started lightly then became heavy, wind went from a breeze to 35mph gust. In the crawdad that’s like being an ocean. 

Tuck myself in a cove and stuck 3 more fish on the Go2 swimbaits “meany” have to say that bait has been absolutely amazing this year, but that will be another post. 

Be back out tonight/tomorrow am at one of my better ponds still looking for that big girl. 

 

[chefchris]

On 6/11/2019 at 12:22 AM, Rogervang said:

That is so badass man! Its a killer rat forsure. I'm in the market for new split rings. I think in going to give those a try. 

So the rosco split rings are pretty much the go to split ring out for stripers (5.5-7xh sizes) or the triple wolverines (but those have issues with small hook hangers) they’re affordable and super reliable 

[Rogervang]

Man, these rats just keep on producing. I'm liking it more and more as you post them up.

 For the price of the rings, it's a no brainer. I just picked some up and will bring using them for the rest of the season. So far, they are beast as hell. I was blown away when i tried opening them with my split ring pliers. 

[mcclovinfishing]

That’s so slick. one of the most original rats i’ve seen. good stuff man!

[chefchris]

On 6/16/2019 at 12:27 AM, mcclovinfishing said:

That’s so slick. one of the most original rats i’ve seen. good stuff man!

thanks man, now just need to find a big girl to eat it already 

[chefchris]

Got a good size batch drilled and weighed up today after work. 

Excited for one of these in particular