Ready to Rumble: I fished the Nat Rat on board my Leviathan Omega Swimbait 8' Heavy matched with my 2018 Daiwa/Deps collaboration DR-Z2020XHL spooled with 50lb Seaguar Threadlock Hollow Braid and a top shot of 30lb Gold Label Leader. My connection strategy, as usual with big baits, was to use a snap. I'm at the point with my snap collection where it's about time to renew my stockpile and as things go with terminal tackle, I don't really remember which snaps were what brand, so I just ordered some that have the characteristics I like. The number one qualifier of which is a nice, round bend similar to that of a split ring.

The Nat Rat's somewhat narrow diving bill

Turns out most snaps have a more narrow shape to them, but VMC's Crankbait Snap does not. It has a nice, rounded triangle kind of egg shape that looks like it would allow good deal freedom of movement. I ordered the largest, size 3, snaps for my big bait use and when they arrived, I found them a tad larger than expected. I probably could have gotten away with size 2. As a side note, I did have a very hard time opening these snaps and had to resort to using my pliers to open them the first time. After that, I was able to operate these snaps with just my fingers.

This bait is super easy to cast on board the Leviathan Omega 8' Heavy Swimbait Stick

Dexterity: With all that out of the way and the Nat Rat attached to the end of the line, it came time to actually fish the lure. Casting is pretty straight forward, especially with a stick as capable as the Leviathan Omega Swimbait 8' Heavy. The Nat Rat sails through the air predictably and lands with a good, attention grabbing splash. That's right, when fishing big baits, that huge explosion of a splash down is actually a good thing. I can't tell you how many times I've had a fish hit my bait shortly after that splashdown without even moving the bait. One thing you quickly learn after throwing these ridiculously sized baits is that the commotion doesn't scare an actively feeding bass away, it attracts them. If a bass does get startled, it likely wasn't going to hit your bait anyway.

At rest right at the surface of the water

Once in the water, the Nat Rat sits in a very neutral position with most of the bait actually under water. Begin your retrieve, and it snakes at the surface very competently waging that tail back and forth as you'd expect. The Nat Rat is also very easy to snap back and forth in place, and if you give your rod a good tug or speed your retrieve, the bait will crank down very easily. In fact, all you really need to do is pick up the pace of your retrieve to get the Nat Rat to crank down. If you want to keep it on top, a slow retrieve mixed with a reel with a slower rate of retrieve is the best strategy.

It's all about that bass

I did notice when casting off the back of the boat, opposite the direction of our drift, I had difficulty keeping the Nat Rat on top. When I made my casts more forward of the boat, in the direction of our drift, it was very simple to keep the Nat Rat on top both with the rod tip up or down. This bait does perform better with your rod tip up, but also with a slow to medium speed reel. The DR-Z2020XHL comes with an 8.4:1 gear ratio which is a bit fast for this bait, so I ended up swapping it out with my backup, a 2016 Shimano Antares DC featuring a 5.6:1 gear ratio.

The single screw eye connector affords this bait's rear end a lot of movement

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