| Back in the mid-90's Jerry Rago started tinkering with lures to try to
make something that big striped bass and carnivorous, over sized Sierra
brown trout would eat and that they hadn't seen before. It started by
rebuilding and adding parts to big jointed Rapala lures and soon he was
carving his own wooden plugs to entice the big fish. Jerry probably spent
as many hours in the 'lure lab' as he did on the water and after each tweak
and modification it would be off to some body of water for some test
casting. If the bait swam the way he thought it should then it was time to
try it on some fish. One of the first wooden baits he made was a rat,
similar to what we offer at Tackle Warehouse, and on the first test cast
at a local park, he caught a five pound bass. That was all it took for him
to continue to refine the original design and produce the Generic Rat,
already credited with an 18.9 pound bass at California's Lake Castaic.
Jerry Rago's next endeavor at big fish baits turned out to be what is known
today as the Generic Trout Hard Bait. As with all his lures this swimbait
went through years of testing and refinement until it is the big fish
producer you can fish with today. This lure has a swimming action that
largemouth and striped bass can't seem to resist, and the thin tail kicks
just like a real trout swimming along. Jerry believes that the big fins on
his Generic Hard Trout are a part of the secret why fish attack this
swimbait, it adds more realism and makes it look different than other
swimbaits that have no fins visible.
After much research and development on his previous lures Jerry took
some of his ideas on big baits and proceeded to develop the 3D Generic Soft
Trout swimbait. He stuck with the large, visible fins and poured his baits
with lighter colors so more light would show through the baits when a big
fish viewed it from below. He believes that is a key element with the 3D
Generic swimbaits, whether its because with more light showing through the
body of the bait the fish cannot get a very distinct view or it resembles
the light from a trout's naturally shiny slime coat and scales. Whatever
the reason when a big fish commits to taking one of these baits it goes all
the way and hammers them hard. There are three sizes of these swimbaits for
different waters and conditions.
Recently, the Generic Bluegill swimbait has been released on the fishing
world and unsuspecting fish everywhere. There have been some good fish
caught on these swimbaits as well and more on the way. There are currently
two sizes of the Bluegill swimbait and several colors. These baits
naturally swim upright and can create quite a stir when thrown along ambush
points and over deeper structure. The Bluegill is one of Tackle Warehouse's
best selling swimbaits. Jerry is currently in the 'lure lab' working on
some more ideas and after seeing what he can do with a little bit of plastic
and metal we can be sure it will be good. |