How to Fish the Bull Shad Swimbait

About the Bull Shad

Despite numerous bait makers producing high quality trout imitations, there was a void in the big bait market for shad swimbaits. When the Bull Shad Swimbait was first released, the best alternatives were trout profile lures with shad coloration, in stepped Mike Bucca a Georgia angler who witnessed magnum spotted bass feeding on Gizzard shad as big as 9" long. His creation the Bull Shad has become one of the top big baits for catching trophy bass in the Southern United states.

How to Fish the Bull Shad

From Triton Mike Bucca

7" & 8" Bull Shad

The 7 and 8 inch Bull Shad swimbaits are favorites for trophy hunting with the 8 incher being the overall favorite. When using these size baits you are looking for quality fish and not quantity, these are trophy sized baits designed to catch big Trophy bass especially the bigger 8 inch Big Bull. Both of these baits work extremely well at slow crawl speeds as well as normal retrieves. The Bull Shad Swimbaits Slow Sinking have a rate of fall (ROF) of about a 5-7 feet per 10 seconds and you can wake them with the rod tip up high and a semi normal retrieve. These baits also stand-up nose down on the bottom in a feeding pose and can be effectively jigged on the bottom.
I throw both of these baits on a Dobyns 795ML Swimbait Rod designed by Legendary Trophy Hunter Mike Long. The 795ML is a very balanced swimbait rod which is important for throwing swimbaits is because a balanced rod simply makes throwing these heavy swimbaits more comfortable to throw for long periods of time. There are quite a few reel choices out there with the top of the line choice being the Shimano Calcutta 300 or the Shimano Curado 300E. For the 7 and 8 inch Bull Shad I would recommend 25lb braided line.

5" & 6" Bull Shad

The 5 and 6 inch baits are by far my best sellers as not everybody has 7" & 8" shad in the waters they fish or having no experience with big swimbaits, they lack the confidence to throw the big stuff. I personally started off with 6 inch sized baits before I moved onto the bigger sized swimbaits. These baits are more so for quantity vs quality. That's not to say that you can't catch a trophy on these sized baits because many anglers including myself have caught quite a few big quality fish on these sized baits.
The 5" Bull Shad really shines on schooling fish whether it be bass, or smaller hybrids or white bass. The slow sinking version of the 5" Bull Shad is specifically designed to be fished with a slower retrieve and typically right on top of the water to imitate a fleeing shad. The 6" slow sink you can work at semi slow to fast retrieves. For equipment I recommend a 4 power rod such as the Dobyns Champion 734C, any reel should be suitable, just adjust the speed at which you turn the handle for the reel's gear ratio. Personally, I always recommend fishing heavier line than necessary because you definitely don't want to break off the baits, nor do you ever wanna lose a trophy sized fish. Especially because striped and white bass love these things too.

New Picasso Special FX Shock Blade

New Picasso SpecialFX Shock Blade

The new Picasso Special FX Shock Blade looks absolutely incredible! Check out what Monster Fishing Tackle had to say about it:

The Picasso Special FX Shock Blade is hand tied using 100% natural buck tail and a mix of premium feathers. Picasso utilized the extent of their resources when designing the new Special FX Shock Blade - including the finest materials available today - no synthetics were used on this lure. The result of their labors is a unique action never before found in a bladed jig; it is sure to attract bass that otherwise would be difficult to catch. Like the original version, the Picasso Special FX Shock Blade incorporates a patent-pending design that keeps the lure down in the water column without rising up toward the surface. Instead, the Shock Blade maintains it's plane even when retrieved at high rates of speed.

Sweet! You can get yours today at Monster Fishing Tackle.