6 shad tips for predator anglers
Reading time: approx. 10 minutes
The rubber fish is probably the most popular and at the same time most used predatory fish bait.
Predator fishing with rubber fish is becoming more and more popular and extensive.
More and more shads are coming onto the market, more and more techniques are being developed and more and more fish are being caught with shads.
So that you don't lose track of the incredible selection, we would like to give you our 6 best rubber fish tips for predatory fish fishing so that you can get started quickly and easily!
1. How big should the rubber fish be?
Rubber fish for predatory fish fishing are available in various sizes.
Starting with tiny rubber fish with only 1 - 3 centimeters, up to rubber fish of more than 30 or 40 centimeters.
But which size should you choose if you want to fish for perch, for example, or perhaps for zander or pike?
In the following overview, you can see exactly which rubber fish you should choose for your target fish!
Soft baits for perch, chub or asp should ideally be between 3 - 7 cm in length .
Rubber fish for targeted zander fishing are perfect in sizes 7 - 12 cm.
Rubber fish for fishing for pike like to have a size from 12 cm.
And if you want to fish for catfish with shads , you can easily start at 20 cm.
2. What color should the rubber fish be?
There are now rubber fish in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of different colours, shades and decorations.
Starting with simple, one-color rubber lures, right through to extremely complex, very realistic color variants, which can hardly be distinguished from real bait fish.
Featuring 3D eyes, glitter, flavor and more.
As you can see, there is an extreme selection when it comes to rubber fish, where you can quickly lose track of things!
To make your choice easier, we recommend that you choose rubber fish according to the weather and the turbidity of the water!
This is also very simple, because we only distinguish between 4 different situations
1. Clear water & sun - here we recommend the use of very lifelike rubber fish , which look very similar to real prey or bait fish. Colors like white, silver or transparent have also turned out to be extremely catchy!
2. Clear Water & Clouds - On such fishing days, we recommend you to use more muted colors like brown, dark green or black . These are a perfect bait choice on cloudy days in clear water!
3. Cloudy water & sun - On these days, more flashy colors are extremely popular with the predatory fish! A bright green, white, but also red tones can be extremely effective here!
4. Cloudy Water & Clouds - These are the days of fishing when your soft lures should be giving their all when it comes to bait color! Flashy, fluorescent, the main thing is eye-catching! A bright orange or green are real fish magnets here!
3. Shovel Tail or No-Action?
The so-called shovel tail is typical for rubber fish.
This is responsible for the action of the shad, i.e. the running behavior and also ensures that the shad generates pressure waves under water , which the pike, zander or perch can perceive with their side line organ and is thus made aware of the shad.
The size of the blade tail thus determines how many or how large the pressure waves are under water.
However, there are often days when the predatory fish do not like this type of bait at all!
So-called no-action shads , i.e. rubber fish without a shovel tail, should be used here.
But what we found out is that rubber fish with a medium-sized paddle tail , i.e. one that does not generate too much but also not too little pressure waves, is often the simplest and best solution.
So you don't have to buy extra shads here either, but you can confidently rely on us and you can be sure that in 95% of the cases you always have the right shad with you!
4. Rubber fish with jig hooks?
When fishing rubber fish, there are two ways to hook them.
On the one hand, there is the jig hook with a jig head.
This is pushed from the front to the back through the rubber fish so that it looks back at the upper end.
It is important that the hook on the back of the rubber fish comes out straight and in the middle, otherwise it loses its natural running behavior and no longer runs cleanly under water.
With the size of the jig hook, you should also make sure that the hook is not larger or longer than 1/3 of the bait fish length, otherwise this will make the bait fish too stiff and it will lose its natural running behavior under water.
>>> With the orange shad in the picture above, the hook is definitely too long and should be replaced with a shorter jig hook.
Each jig hook also has a so-called lead head at the front, which is available in different sizes.
You should determine the size of the lead head based on three factors.
1. On the current when fishing in the river. The more current your body of water has, the heavier the jig head should be.
2. At what depth you want to fish or how fast you want to reel in the rubber fish. For example, if you want to reel in the soft plastic lure in mid-water rather than on the bottom and rather slowly, you should choose a relatively light jighead between 3 - 5 grams.
3. How far the rubber fish should jump. If you want to let the rubber fish jump over the bottom using the idler method, the weight of the jig head decides how big and how fast the jumps are. A light jighead will make bigger and slower jumps, while a heavier jighead will tend to make small and fast jumps.
5. Rubber fish with offset hooks?
The offset hook is an ingenious alternative to the jig hook, as it more or less disappears in the shad and, in combination with a Cheburaska lead head, gives the shad an even more natural and seductive action!
Compared to the usual jig hook, the use of an offset hook offers a big advantage as well as a big disadvantage!
The advantage of the offset hook is that the tip of the hook is in the back of the shad or disappears there.
This offers the great advantage, especially on weedy waters, that little or no weed gets caught in the hook and the bait can be guided better!
The big disadvantage, however, is that missed bites occur much more frequently if the predatory fish such as zander or pike does not catch the rubber fish properly or does not bite properly, so that the tip of the hook is pushed out of the rubber fish and the hook can grip the fish's mouth.
6. Guide rubber fish correctly?
Just reel in, laze around, pluck, twitch, everything is possible with a rubber fish!
For us, 3 variants have turned out to be extremely successful!
Variant 1: The simple ejection and rewinding with a few breaks in the crank. Especially when fishing for perch or pike, this type of baiting is extremely promising!
Variant 2: The lazybones method. Eject, let it sink, crank once or twice, let it sink again and so on.
This variant is ideal for zander fishing and does not require much experience and can be used immediately!
Variant 3: Cast out, crank a little, let the line slack for a moment and hit the slack line lightly once or twice with the tip of the rod. Then crank again and so on. With this variant we have already been able to outwit many great pike, perch and zander! However, this option takes a little practice.
Of course there are many other ways to lead a rubber fish extremely seductively and to pull it through the water.
We just wanted to show you three relatively simple but still very effective options and give you a helping hand!
I hope we were able to help you with this in choosing the right rubber fish.
My team and I wish you lots of fun and success!
See you soon,
Your Thomas Preihsl!
Successful rubber fish fishing in any weather
Rubber Fish Set - Bad Weather & Dirty Water
Rubber Fish Set - Bad Weather & Clean Water
Rubber fish set - nice weather & dirty water
