LFOD Munk

[jkarol24]

Swimbait Review: LFOD Munk

Making a splash into the swimbait scene is Live Free or Die (LFOD) with their take on the every-popular rat category, a 2 pc resin bait called the Munk. LFOD is a fairly new builder to the swimbait world (as far as I am aware), and the Munk is their first bait to market, coming in at 3.3oz, with a 5” body, and 3.5” tail (8.5” total). The bait is compact in size, but not "tiny" by any means. It has caught lots of attention here on Universe, but are still at the moment pretty limited in terms of availability. 

The straight medium speed retrieve produces the hallmark wake of a topwater rat, with a nice V wake, slight bulge, and a bit of sloshing noise. There is also an erratic tail kick, at a higher cadence than typical due to its fairly short tail. The bill of the bait catches water to produce a back and forth turn and roll action, giving a slight thump along with some body flash. The front and rear sections also produce a subtle clicking sound. Any faster than medium speed will cause the bait to crank down, unless the rod tip is held high above head. 

The Munk will also continue to work all the way down to a crawl, swimming with a subtle back and forth motion while I reeled my Curado 300E as slow as I could stand. You lose the V wake at such a slow speed, but there is still surface disturbance emanating from the bait. 

On the contrary, the bait will handle the burn without much issue. Keep the rod tip down to have the bait burn 2-3 ft under the surface, and you will notice a bit of a wider swim along with some slight hunting action.  Hold the rod tip up to froth the surface of the water on the burn, with an accentuated swim and loud sloshy action. The bait did pull slightly to either side on this specific retrieve, but i did not have any blow outs. 

The Munk becomes a crank down when using the rod tip down and cranking at medium or faster, and will get down 2-3 ft on a long cast. Again, the swim becomes slightly wider as the head knocks back and forth a bit further. It does float pretty hard, so an underwater twitch or pause is difficult, but a short and snappy pause might be something to try. 

My preffered way to utilize a topwater rat is to walk it, and the Munk accepts varying cadences in this manner. The walk itself is tight, and the head will turn 180s on itself while staying relatively in one place. The bait also throws a decent splash if ya get more aggressive with the twitches.  I found short and firm twitches to be the best, and I could walk the Munk either slow or fast. On the slow walk, you do want to twitch the bait firmly, as a softer pull tends to cause the head to dive as opposed to pivot. Either way, it didn't take much to get the hang of it. 

I fished the Munk on a Leviathan 7 ft 9 custom Heavy, paired with a Curado 300E and 20 lb Izorline Copoly. Any 7 ft 6 to 8 ft swimbait rod with a decent tip would do, and I'd personally stay on the shorter side for more accurate casting and easier walking. Copoly is generally what I use for all of my swimbait fishin, but this bait (along with most other topwater rats) would be just fine on mono or braid if that is your preference. I'd stay away from fluro unless you're intentional cranking it down. 

Hope you enjoyed Today's Review. My life has been crazy lately (put in 85 hours last week) so the videos haven't been priority #1. I will try to stick to Sundays, but sometimes a vid will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday. Come fall, things should be back to normal, but these next few months will be touch and go. Thanks for sticking with me.