Sometimes Smaller Really is Better: The Gantarel Jr. Swimbait (continued)

Design & Ergonomics: The Gantarel Jr. is the easiest of the three baits to fish and yet it doesn’t require anglers to make any feature sacrifices. You can still attach a drop weight on the chin or a trailer hook on the tail (though I never found this necessary), and you can fish the Gantarel Jr. on just about any non-finesse rod. I preferred fishing the bait on braided line but in a pinch you can easily fish the bait on 12lb. and above monofilament, just double check those knots.

Durability on the Gantarel Jr. is excellent, and over extended use I found that the only areas showing wear was the sides of the bait from treble hook scratches and loss of feathers on the dressed hooks. Both of which did not reduce the effectiveness of the baits to any measurable extent. There are a lot of good colors to pick from and the matte finishes and new RT patterns are stunning. Interestingly the two patterns that performed the best for me were not the flashy finishes but rather the much more muted RT Spawn Gill and RT Carp patterns, but like all baits trying to match the hatch in your local body of water is key.

A frog rod can easily handle the Gantarel Jr. swimbaits

Price & Applications: The Gantarel Jr. is marketed as being just as lethal as its big brother, just in a smaller size, but I found it was not only more fishable, but more effective almost across the board.

While the standard Gantarel and Gigantarel acted as natural culling mechanisms fishing a Gantarel Jr. doesn’t necessarily equate to catching small fish, and during the field tests the three largest bass I caught with these lures over the last three months, two sixes and an eight, were all caught on the Gantarel Jr. bait.

The Gigantarel delivered quality fish but much fewer strikes than the Gantarel Jr.

In terms of price the Gantarel Jr. is also the most affordable Gantarels at $31.99 each, eight dollars less than the standard, and eighteen dollars less than the Gigantarel. There are a few competing options out there but none that offer the same level of features and finishes that the Jackall lineup boasts. The most serious competition comes from the Lucky Craft Real Gill which is really aggressively priced at $19.99 each. We are in the process of testing that bait now but thus far the Jackall Gantarel Jr. has continued to deliver the best cast to catch ratio of any 5” class S-Pattern bluegill swimbait we have tested to date.

Ratings: (We've re-calibrated our ratings standard for 2008 and have included a key at the bottom of the following matrix as a guide):

Pluses and Minuses: