Date: |
10/05/05 |
Tackle type: |
Lures |
Manufacturer: |
Mattlures |
Reviewer: |
Cal |
Total Score: 8.58
Introduction: The swimbait craze is alive and well and growing across the country. Despite the availability of these type of baits in the saltwater industry for decades, bass lure manufacturers across the board have been scrambling to rush to market, their version of these ultra-realistic and effective big fish baits. In the process, many manufacturers have taken the design and production of these realistic baits to an entirely new level. Enter Mattlures, a small company in the heart of monster bass territory, Southern California, who've been producing their own interpretation of the swimbait for the last
two seasons. This year, they debuted a line of baits that's destined for big fish! Pull up your trolling motor, sit back, and enjoy as we introduce to you, the MattLures Baby Bass Series of swimbaits.
MattLures Baby Bass Swimbait Specifications
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Type |
Soft Plastic Swimbait |
Size |
4.5" (1.4 oz) |
Colors/Patterns |
4 different colors |
MSRP |
$12 |
Impressions: Matt Servant, founder and president of MattLures, has been making his own baits for the last 15 years and carrying out his own research and development in the lunker filled waters of Southern California. Just a short two years ago, he went into business for himself making his own custom swimbaits for the industry at large. It is a
painstaking process as each of his baits are individually poured and hand painted. Even the lead heads underneath the bait are custom made on 3/0 Mustad Ultrapoint hooks.
MattLures debuted in the tackle industry with their very realistic and much sought after Bluegill Swimbaits. Just this past summer, after a full year of testing and tweaking, they released their Baby Bass series of swimbaits featuring 4 1/2" baits with very realistic fins, gill plates, mouth profiles, and coloring all in a profile that is very conducive to luring and tempting those hungry bass.
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The MattLures Baby Bass Swimbait comes in 4 color patterns, Striped Bass (top left), Largemouth Bass (top right), Smallmouth Bass (bottom left), and Yellow Perch (bottom right)
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Shortly after the release of these baits, yours truly ordered several for our very own research and evaluation. When the baits arrived, I was very impressed with the careful coloring and intricate detailing in these hand poured baits. Matt Servant has even gone through the effort of creating a
scaly texture on the outside of the baits for that extra degree of realism. Quality exudes from these baits down to the realistic eyes and protruding gill plates. The texture of the plastic is soft and supple, something, we can only assume, that will slide around easily and realistically within a fish's mouth. When I shared the discovery of this product with my fellow TT Editors, we couldn't wait to hit the water and fish these baits!

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Detailing of the bait's plastic body is superb. Note the realistic fish scale pattern on the bait. The MattLures Baby Bass also has a ring at the bottom just
underneath the gills for fastening of an after market stinger hook.
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The Field Tests: We threw our MattLures BabyBass Swimbaits on a number of different rods including, but not limited to our G.Loomis BBR965C GL3, Kistler Helium He76HC, Daiwa Japan Heartland-Z Hama Heavy Carolina Special, and Daiwa Heartland-Z Hama Spinnerbait Special. For reels, we used a variety of round baitcasting reels finally settling on our Daiwa Millionaire Ringa 103L for it's 90mm cranking handle. One thing we found was this bait was just as effective on traditional swimbait gear as it was on standard, heavy action bass rods. Given its relatively light weight for a swimbait, we chose the lighter gear for ease of all day testing and more fish fighting fun!
Complete test rig for MattLures Baby Bass Swimbait Field Tests
|
Rod |
Daiwa Heartland Z Hama Spinnerbait Special |
Reel |
Daiwa Millionaire Ringa 103L |
Line |
12 lb Yozuri Hybrid |
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One of our MattLures Baby Bass swimbaits (largemouth bass color pattern) hooked onto the guide of our Daiwa Heartland Z Hama Spinnerbait Special
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Casting/Pitching: As one might expect, casting this 1.4 ounce swimbait was hardly an issue. What we came to appreciate, however, was given its relatively small size and weight as compared to traditional swimbaits, making precise presentations was much easier. One of our favorite methods of presentation was pitching our Baby Bass Swimbaits up close to structure and letting them spiral down like a dying fish to entice strikes - a presentation we'd be hard pressed to make with a 5 or 8 ounce swimbait!
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More detail
close-ups showing the fin color detailing on our test baits
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