As a tackle reviewer, the amount of gear that shows up and accumulates on my boat over the course of several months can be overwhelming. While I try my best to go through each and every product and give it time on the water, in many cases, stuff gets discarded, sent back, or given away without ever getting wet.

Sometimes, I receive a product I’d like to test and write up but I find it’s either out of production, too difficult to source, or the details of its availability are just too fuzzy. One such product is this paddletail minnow that I found laying in a forgotten compartment within my boat. Its name? The “One’Up Shad”. That’s right, it bears a similar name to the hardbait from 3:16 Lure Company – a tidbit I found somewhat amusing.

This product showed up on my boat, and stayed there, after sharing time on the water with a very good friend of mine. This friend knows my affinity for JDM tackle AND big baits, so he brought these baits along as a “I betcha never seen these before” kind of challenge. Well, he was right, I hadn’t seen them before and my intial thought was, “oh, not another paddletail bait”, but after seeing its name, I knew I had to at least try them.

Well, before my friend departed, he left me several packages of the product, but of course, they got lost into obscurity amongst the pile of “stuff to check out” on my boat. Just recently, on a tackle testing trip to Lake Pardee with Zander, I remembered to pull them out to have a look.

Pardee is a favorite place for us to go to check out new baits for while the fishing can be very difficult due to the ultra clear water, this clarity affords us the unreal opportunity to really see what a bait is doing in the water on a full length cast. In fact, the only thing stopping us from going there more often is a complimentary VIP pass at the gate!

But back to the One’Up Shad. At first inspection, the bait is somewhat unremarkable. The colors are farily opaque and the shape of the bait is reminscent of an oversized Slug-O – remember those? The difference here, of course, is this bait has a paddletail AND a somewhat distinct joint in the middle of its body.

While distinct, this joint is no where near as thin and fragile as that of the Imakatsu Javallon. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized, this probably affords the bait a very unique swimming action.

Onto the end of the line it went aboard a Dobyns Rods 804CB paired with an Abu Revo Elite Aurora series reel. I spooled the Revo with 12lb test Toray HiClass fluorocarbon. Not necessarily an ideal combination, but amidst the Crankbait Rod wars, you have to make due with the rods you’re dealt.

After a few test pulls alongside the boat and remarking of the bait’s sinuous action, I made a cast to shore alongside some semi-submerged brush (Pardee is currently at full pool). I watched the bait and noticed the same swimming action we saw at the side of the boat, was happening on my medium paced retrieve. This bait has some moxy! Then, about two feet behind the bait, a large, dark shadow emerged and just as soon as I noticed it, it slowly sank back down into the depths.

Whoa! Whatever it was, it was BIG! This experience is typical of Lake Pardee, only this fish was darker than anything had seen previously and so dark, I could not make out any markings. Just it’s overall shape – literally as if it were a shadow.

A few casts later, it was on and I was able to pull up this healty, but significantly smaller largemouth bass.

I’m told these baits were made several years ago. I’m not certain if they are still made, or where in Japan you can or cannot find them, but if you are over there, and come across these baits, AND are into the paddletail style products, I suggest you buy as may packs as you can afford. I know I will now be guarding mine very closely

Sharing the same fishing waters with local manufacturers can lead to some unexpected surprises. The California Delta is a huge waterway, yet we often run into people we know while out on a field test.

Recently, one such chance meeting turned into an impromptu product preview when we ran into Grant Olguin of Black Dog Baits out fishing the Delta to field test some new baits. We recognized him from afar as he’s sporting a new logo’d wrap around his faithfull BassCat boat.

Grant Olguin from Black Dog Bait Company out fishing the Injection Punker on a late afternoon out on the California Delta

Grant was happy to see us and immediately looked side to side to see if anyone was looking. When he was satisfied the coast was clear, he suggested we tie our boats up together because he had some new stuff to show us!

We’re already aware of the new, injection Punkers, but this was our first chance to really get a good look at the bait side by side against the original Punker and with the Jr version at least, there is a size difference.

The new injection Punker Jr. (bottom) up against an original wood Punker Jr. (top). Note the injection version is much more streamlined. We've found it much easier to walk than the original.

Grant had on hand, an entire collection of new colors for the injection molded Punker Jr. but we failed to get a photo of the new color selection because of the next bait Grant pulled out. It was a prototype 4″ billed Shellcracker.

But what really excited us was this new 4" billed Shellcracker

Grant introduced it by acknowledging our “Year of the Crank” theme and asked us what we thought about it. Well, it didn’t take me long to grab it from Grant, tie it on and toss it out.

The bait is a floater and will be available in both a silent and rattled, injection molded body. They’re toying with the idea of some limited run wood versions as well, but the idea around the bait is to provide something smaller for those anglers who like the idea of big baits, but still cannot get their heads around the massive size of the majority of products.

The new 4" billed Shellcracker (front) up against an original sized version.

The new 4″ Shellcracker is essentially a jointed crankbait and on about my 4th cast with the bait (mounted on a Dobyns Rods 684CB) I got a hookup while slowly cranking the bait back to the boat along a weedline, but as I knelt down to lip the fish, it took one final lunge and got off the hook!

I know, I know, I should have swung him, but I was afraid of snapping the rod as it was a good three or four pound fish, and the 684CB is a pretty light rod. It was bad enough I was fishing a bait that probably weighed about one ounce on the poor thing.

So anyway, the picture opportunity was lost and I had to give the bait back to Grant as it was an early prototype. He tells us they’re still working out some final things with regards to colors, price point, and production runs but they hope to have the baits ready in time for ICAST 2009.

The 4" Cracker fishes just like a crankbait only if you retrieve it REALLY slow, it will wake across the surface in tantalizing fashion. This is one 4" option we may actually fish - especially during our Year of the Crank!

Lastly, there’s another bait he showed us but that we cannot talk about yet, but it’s safe to say this bait is a departure from what Black Dog Baits currently offers and it is quite the little number. Stay tuned for some official release news on this new bait as soon as we’re given the green light!