Never Judge a Book by its Cover, the unassuming Jackall Crosstail Shad

Total Score: 8.50 - EDITOR'S CHOICE!

Introduction: Jackall makes some very exciting plastics, some of which are extremely realistic and others that are designed for very specific techniques, like the Flick Shake Worm. The Crosstail Shad is one of the most modest looking baits out there, but take a closer look and these small plastic lures just might surprise you.

The Jackall Crosstail Shad is a 4" plastic designed specifically for the drop shot technique

Impressions: Jackall makes a ton of product across multiple categories, and unfortunately for domestic anglers not all of these offerings actually make it to the U.S. market. There are some products however that are so famous that there was little doubt that they would successfully cross over to the domestic market. Two such bait are the “Crazy Ninja Worm” and Crosstail Shad.

The Crosstail is very simple looking with no realistic head design, it looks like a cross between a worm and a shad bait

The Crazy Ninja Worm quickly rose up to become a popular choice for drop shot fishing with ultralight lines and is similar to the Jackall Superpin Tail worm which was introduced here in the States. The Crosstail in comparison features a more subtle profile and no realistic head design or even eyes.

The hand pours deliver very nice color transitions

From first glance the Crosstail really doesn’t look like much, in fact it looks more like a short worm than a shad. At only 4” in length this inconspicuous looking bait just doesn’t look like it would really be all that effective but as we have learned many times over, never judge a book from its cover.

The tail section features a cross design

The Crosstail Shad is employed by many pro anglers including light line specialists like Cody Meyer and Kota Kiriyama. Back in 2008 Kota used a number of Jackall prototypes to sack 93lbs. of smallmouth and earn his first Elite Series Win on Lake Erie. Kota primarily used a watermelon Crosstail shad and other Jackall prototypes soaked in Berkley Gulp Alive to target suspended fish with a drop shot rig…the secret was out.

Jackall's Superpin-tail shad is a much more realistic looking drop shot bait

Real World Tests: I’ve been fishing the Jackall Crosstail Shad for some time now but this year’s finesse fishing theme gave me an opportunity to fish this bait using a variety of different rod and reel setups. While I have fished this lure on baitcatsing gear I prefer to really go with light weights and light line and thus primarily use spinning gear with these lures. This season I fished the Crosstail Shad at a number of local lakes including Clear Lake, Lake Sonoma, and Lake Pardee, and have tested the bait in a wide range of water clarities and depths.

Rigging up to target suspended fish over rocks at Clear Lake