Golden Belt Customs Reaper and Sickle 8" Glides

[jkarol24]

Swimbait Review: Golden Belt Customs  Reaper and Sickle 8" by Mike Stacey 

I've been traveling and fishing alot on the weekends, and couldn't make the vid review happen Sunday. Couple days late, but hope you forgive. Will try to get back to the normal Sundays this weekend and beyond.

Many of you have asked for some more attainable/available baits for Review, so here's a great example of a few. I've got a BoGo special today, these are a pair of 8" Glides from Mike Stacey over at Golden Belt Customs. Both blank baits come in at 2.35 ounces, with the only major difference being that the Reaper features the textured scales molded into the bait, while the Sickle is smooth-sided. The baits also feature brush tails and quality rings and Owner trebles. The blanks are XSS, but may sink slighty closer to a true SS once painted and cleared. 

The Reaper and Sickle display a tight, fast cadence style swim on the straight retrieve, with a hard head hunt that produces a thump felt all the way back to the rod. The baits turn far off of center and give a more aggressive swim as opposed to other baits that are more of the looping slalom variety. There is no discernable body roll, and the transitions are smooth and fluid. 

This stability continues to be displayed on the burn, with the Reaper and Sickle handling a straight burn with ease. Again, a hard thump is felt back to the rod, with no body roll or blowout at all. Burn and pause will also get the bait to turn around on the pause and look back at a follower. 

By working the bait with slower reel bumps, you can achieve a stable back and forth glide, with hard cuts on the transition. You certainly have the ability to work the bait back and forth while keeping it relatively in one place, a very nice feature around cover. While these baits aren't going to give you the ultra wide glide, you can get good distance by using slower and longer easy reel bumps with some finesse. I did notice that the Sickle (smooth sided) was able to get a bit wider than its brother, possibly due to the smooth sides having less drag in the water. Either bait will also hang out and suspend at the end of the glide due to its xss rate if you want to fish ultra slow. 

Speeding up the glide with faster and more choppy reel bumps shortens the glide distance, essentially causing the bait to walk back and forth in a quick and erratic manner. Once again, you can really keep the bait in place while getting it turning and flashing erratically. The stability is again apparent, as the baits stay nice and upright throughout the retrieve. You can get it even tighter and more choppy by using downward rod twitches, with varying levels of action depending on your aggressiveness with the twitch. Easier twitches gives you an action similar to the rod bumps, while hard twitches cause the bait to act kind of like a jerkbait, with less consistency. The bait will begin to dive down or nose up along with the back and forth action, giving a more erratic and random style retrieve. 

You can also combine these retrieves by mixing in hard chops along with a burn to really get the bait moving. You are only limited by your imagination, as the baits will accept most inputs well, and transitions between retrieve styles without a hiccup. 

I threw both baits with a Tranx 400 and 20 lb Copoly, with one on the Leviathan XH and one on the Dobyns 806. Either rod worked very well, with the Dobyns probably matching the weight of the bait slightly better. I'd recommend trying the Leviathan H as opposed to the XH if that's more your flavor. The Tranx 400 is definitely overkill but that size is more my flavor, and a mono or fluro between 17 and 20 lb would also be just fine.  I am sure that braid to leader would also be appropriate, but I did not test that today. 

Hope you enjoyed Today's Review! Catch ya next time for more swims! In the meantime, get out there and stick a big!

https://youtu.be/UYhlXmwWEAQ