Weedlessness: If there's one disappointment with this lure it's the lack of a weedless guard. The exposed hook of the Stand'n Yabbie is so sharp, it easily catches on any obstruction that might present itself including tule stalks, branches and weeds. As an experiment, we pulled the jighead out of one of our baits and replaced it with a standard darterhead. The action with this new jighead was very erratic to where sometimes the lure would stand straight up and at other times, it would lie down horizontal with the claws barely floating up. The jigheads provided with the lure definitely contribute to its action.
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The Stand'n Yabbies jighead (top right) compared to a standard darter head (top left). On the bottom, the Yabbie rigged with a darter head for weedlessness (bottom left) or not (bottom right)
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Durability: We found the durability of the Stand'n Yabbie to be above average for a soft plastic lure. Given how fish really strike this bait hard, it's quite surprising to witness just how durable the bait really is, but given it does not move around on the jighead much, and the hook is already exposed, this could explain it all.
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A closeup of the Stand'n Yabbie's claw where you can just barely make out the air bubbles within the claw that help raise the bait to a defensive posture
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Application & Effectiveness: The River2Sea Stand'n Yabbie is particularly effective in rocky or rip rap areas where it can be bounced off rocks and made to stand on top of them just to be seen. Bass strike the lure with a vengeance. The lure is fast becoming a favorite in many of the local bass tournaments staged in the clear water reservoirs in and around Northern California thanks to the abundance of crawfish as natural forage for these fish. It is certainly a fun bait to fish and can be dragged, hopped, or, as we said, left to stand and wait for a bass to come by and engulf it. Now, if it only came with stock rattles.
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Bass really slam the Stand'n Yabbie
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Ratings:
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River2Sea Stand'n Yabbie Ratings (?/10)
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Construction/Quality |
As fine a plastic bait as we've seen |
9 |
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Performance |
There's no denying the ability of this bait to elicit strikes |
9 |
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Price |
Quite attractively priced considering the baits are all pre-rigged |
9 |
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Features |
Missing are the options of rattles and some form of weedless protection |
7 |
| Design |
Fantastic detail and action |
9 |
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Application |
Great around rocks and rip rap, less effective in weeds simply because of the exposed hook |
8 |
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Total Score
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8.50 |
Pluses and Minuses:
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Plus Minus
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| J Incredible Underwater Action |
L No weedless option |
| J Quality hook and jighead |
L Inability to effectively use the bait with other jigheads |
| J Very realistic appearance |
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| J Fairly durable for a soft plastic bait |
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Conclusion: When a bait garners as much attention as the Stand'n Yabbie did at a sport and tackle show, it's not a difficult decision to go ahead and purchase some to sample. Of course, there are always those reservations of being caught by the latest fad or gimmick, but fortunately, the Stand'n Yabbie came from a company with which we're already familiar and have grown to trust. River2Sea is certainly stirring the lure market with some very intriguing offerings at very reasonable prices, especially when compared to many of the high priced overseas manufacturers that have come to shore in North America. The Stand'n Yabbie is one offering from River2Sea that is both intriguing and effective. If you like fishing crawdad
imitators, you would do well to look into this bait. Until next time, keep collecting!
