I'd been fishing this bait over the course of several trips and felt a few, non committal bumps, but that all changed one morning. Instead of a bump, I felt that tell tale double tug. My heart raced as I swing and felt the reassuring weight of the fish at the end of the line. I watched my line rise off in the distance. The fish was going to jump and because it was so far from the boat, there was little I could do to prevent that from happening. When it broke the surface, I could see it was at least five pounds and all I could think was "stay on, stay on" and it did, for the first jump. On the second jump, a little closer to the boat, the fish threw the bait and the battle was done. Point fish.

A feisty little gill eater

Two casts later, instead of the double tug, this time I felt a dull knock and a sudden weight at the end of my line. I pointed the rod at my bait, reeled in slack and swung hard - just in case. Sure enough, it was another fish. I thought for sure I had this one, but on its first jump, it also threw the bait. I was 0 for 2. My natural inclination was to lay blame my failure on the style of bait, but I paused for a moment and played each battle back in my mind and thought, perhaps it was the rod. Keep in mind, the iRod IA784C-H is designed as a frog rod and has a lure rating of up to three ounces. But just because the DSS Shad falls within the rod's lure rating doesn't mean they're a good match. I felt like I needed a rod with a faster taper to drive the hook of the DSS Shad home.

A look at the wide head of the DSS Shad

Honestly, I was deceived by the bait's relatively small size and took for granted the rod upon which I chose to fish it would be sufficient. My next time out with the bait, I changed things up relying upon my first generation Edge Rods Black Widow 807-1 swimbait stick (featuring the same build as the Flip 787-1 reviewed back in 2014) paired with my newly acquired Shimano Japan Exsence DC SS HG. The 807-1 is built with a mod-fast taper, not ideal for a jig-style hooked, soft swimbait, but it is rated up to five ounces in lure weight and is much more stout than the IA784C-H. It just felt right. I spooled the Excence with 50lb Threadlock and installed a topshot of 25lb Gold Label Fluorocarbon - both lines are made by Seaguar.

 Dialed in with the proper rod, reel, line choice, the fish started coming into the boat

That first trip back with my re-adjusted soft swimbait combo, it was as if the fish knew. The bite had grown tough again. Finally, some time around mid-day, after hours of casting the bait to no avail, as my concentration waned, I felt it - that double tug action! I was caught so off guard, I fumbled at reeling in the slack but swung anyway, felt the pressure, and then boom - nothing. Now I was about ready to blame the bait, but just as that thought entered my mind, I felt that tug again! I quickly began reeling and the battle was on! What happened is, through the force of my hookset with the 807-1, I turned the fish's head and pulled it toward the boat. It was swimming right at me! A quick net job by Zander and the fish was in the boat. The DSS Shad's hook was firmly planted in the roof of the fish's mouth. This was the proper rod, reel, line combination for me with this bait.

The pre-rigged DSS Shad features hand painted finishes

Durability : Finally in proper synchronization with bait, line, rod, reel, and more active fish, I found a groove with the DSS Shad and began to land more fish. Not enough to tear up the bait, but enough where one DSS Shad showed some visible teeth marks. My feeling is durability on these baits is pretty good and one advantage a pre-rigged bait like the DSS Shad has is there's less opportunity for the bait to tear because nothing is sliding around in the body of the bait and no hook points are being torn out of the plastic.

When they want this bait, they want it