Home // Jerry Rago

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.