RatRumble : The Waking Dead – Illude’s Zombie Rat (continued)

Drawing Power: When fishing the Zombie, it was clear that this rat makes use of much of the design of the original Rad, but the lip design combined with the resin gives the rat a unique character. The large profile of the Zombie displaces a lot of water as it moves side to side, and while it is possible to walk this bait, most of my strikes came when simply retrieving the bait at slow to moderate speed.

My favorite way to fish the Zombie is a with a straight retrieve with the rod tip up over shallow water and alongside structure

My favorite way to fish the Zombie is with the rod tip up. A 45-degree angle keeps the lip higher out of the water so that it rocks back and forth and unlocks the loudest knock possible. I found this technique to be extremely effective at drawing fish at night, in low light, and even over open water in the middle of the day. The combined knock and splash of this straight retrieve draws fish in and throwing in a pause or two can sometimes shift followers into strikes.

A closer look at the float of the Zombie. The Illude hand poured tail also floats to create a perfectly level overall stance

In bright light the Zombie also has another trick where it is superior to the Rad Rat, and that is in low-speed crank down mode. With the resin and coffin lip combo I found the Zombie very easy to crank down at lower speeds, and it presents extremely lifelike under the water as it rocks back and forth and causes the hand poured floating tail to absolutely come alive in tantalizing whipping s-pattern.
I discussed this, and the distinctions between the wood and resin rats with Lendl and he helped provide additional background as to the differences.

Though known as a big fish technique the Zombie will yield bass of all sizes and is also surprisingly effective mid-day

“Resin and wood... It’s a continual battle to design a resin bait that can produce the sound and the responsiveness to retrieval speeds as a wood bait. The two definitely have their own pros and cons, but in comparing the two, the resin zombie double against the wood Rad double each do certain things very well at certain retrieval speeds,” Lendl explained.

There is no denying the drawing power of the original wood based Rad Rat but the Zombie has some unique tricks of its own

“Resin does really well cranking at medium to high speeds, whereas wood will only crank well at high speeds. But where the wood excels is at the ability to wake with an obnoxiously loud knock and bubble pops. So you have your pros and cons but both can be very versatile baits, and of course there are the obvious benefits of wood over resin including sound and responsiveness to reel speeds. Where resin has advantages over wood include durability, castibility & crankability. While one-to-one resin is much heavier than wood it does carry some mojo of its own.”
 

The “mojo” that Lendl describes is on full display in the Zombie rats. The nearly 4oz. weight makes them easy to cast with just about any purpose-built swimbait rods, and the ability to crank down these rats at slower speeds made them more versatile for drawing underwater strikes.

When I compared the drawing power of the original Rad Rat and the Zombie, I did find that I was able to draw more strikes with the original, but when I combined the number of crankdown fish I was able to catch with the Zombie with those caught topwater the total number was nearly identical.

When it is windy or the water is choppy the Zombie can be cranked slower than a wooden rat, making it very versatile

Interestingly when comparing the Zombie Double and the Zombie Triple it was the Double that drew more strikes than the Triple, by roughly 30%, over the course of nine months. Ultimately it really depends on the fish in your local water, and what they are more drawn to. I found that when fish were more aggressive, and in the middle of the day, the Zombie Triple was truly in its element.

There are times that fish will test the Zombie Double and Triple, and other times they just absolutely crush it

Vitality: Illude equips each Zombie rat with quality Gamakatsu hardware and unlike some other rats there is no need to swap out the hooks. The joints, and hook hangers, are handmade from thick gauge wire and held up very well through viscous strikes.

The wire hardware is hand made and holds up very well to the most viscous strikes

The durability of the Zombie rat bodies is also excellent due to their resin construction, and while the hooks will scratch the finishes, and rash up the baits, they do not gouge the sides like on many wooden rats. Even a double tap to the head won’t stop this zombie from waking forward, and they hold up extremely well to the very best that bass can dish out.

While I love dark colored rats for night fishing I prefer a white bellied rat for use in the daytime

Regardless of the brand of rat if I could only have one, I would prefer a bait with a white belly as I find this colorway typically draws more strikes in the daytime. The Zombie is no different, and I found it to be among the most productive rats in the daytime, and like other rats it also draws explosive strikes at night.

Bait Detail: For comparison a feature and dimension breakdown of the Illude Rad Rat as detailed by our Swimbait SkunkWerx division