Thru and Thru, Savage Gear's New Trout Inspires Confidence (continued)

Field Tests: But of course, we all know that what looks good on the store walls in its packaging does not always translate to good action in the water. Even then, most of the better performing soft bodied baits, for some reason, tend to be the ones that look less realistic. Why is that anyway? Our testing ground for the Savage Gear Line Thru Trout was out on Lake Ouachita, Arkansas in November of 2013.

The bait's action comes from its three piece design.

Casting: The Savage Gear Line Thru Trout ranges in weight from three to three and a half ounces depending on which model you choose. I fished the slow sink version for our tests because it's the most versatile. To match this bait with a rod, it's always best to stick within the manufacturer's recommended lure rating (as labeled on the fishing rod). Having said that, I rarely do anymore when it comes to big baits because I don't particularly like fishing big, long, heavy, unbalanced rods anymore.

Each joint is reinforced with a nylon mesh to help the bait stay together.

If you're careful, and make use of gentle, underhand lob casts, you can usually get away with stretching the limits of a stick. This will put you out of warranty though, so angler beware. For the Line Thru Trout, I fished this stick on an Okuma EVX Graphite Rod rated up to one and a quarter ounces in lure weight (model number EVX-C-751HA) matched with a Citrix CI-273LXA reel spooled with 55lb Daiwa Samurai braid and topped with a 30lb Sunline SuperNatural leader.

Did we mention it features a line through rigging system?!?

While rated to a maximum of only one and a quarter ounce (1 1/4 oz) in lure weight, the EVX-C-751HA is a surprisingly capable stick for throwing both the floating and slow sink version of the Line Thru Trout. It's with the moderate sink that this stick begins to feel a little over taxed. The CI-273LXA handles this bait fine as well although with its 7.3:1 gear ratio, it's not the first reel I'd choose for a bait like this - I'd prefer something slower so I don't have to be as mindful of how fast I'm turning the handle while fishing the bait.

On the back of each bait is printed the bait's rate of fall - no more guessing.

Rate of Fall: As mentioned above, this bait comes in three rates of fall - floating, slow sink, and moderate sink. The floating bait is indeed a true floater and will sit on top of the water catching any little bit of current there might be. The slow sink descends at a rate of about one foot for every two seconds while the moderate sink descends at approximately one foot per second. Both sinking versions of this bait will come to rest on the bottom perfectly upright. Neither toppled over in our tests of the baits. Best of all? The fall rate of each bait is printed right on the bait so there's no need to guess which bait is what after you've pulled taken them out of the packaging and stacked them in your tackle box!

A profile shot showing where the line goes in (at the mouth) and where it comes out (just behind the head).

Retrieve: They can be easy to rig, look as realistic as a real fish, and be super affordable and easy to get, but the moment of truth with each and every big bait is how well it performs in the water once you start turning the handle of your reel. All it usually takes is a simple pull test next to the boat to gauge a bait's performance and when Zander and I did this with the Line Thru Trout, both of us exclaimed... well, I can't repeat that here, but let's just say we were both very pleasantly surprised.

Rigged and ready to go.

The Line Thru Trout by Savage Gear has an action as smooth, snaky, and realistic as any three piece hard bodied bait we've fished yet - maybe even better. The tail of this bait moves and flexes so natural it's really difficult to describe unless you see it in the water and when you do, you'll probably say the same thing we did.

In the water, this bait has a very realistic swimming motion.

The other big deal with this bait is with that hook coming out on top of its head, you can fish this bait like a traditional soft plastic big bait that's rigged with a jig style hook. Just let the bait sink to the bottom and deadstick it, or crawl it ever so slowly back to your position on the boat or on shore. This bait has amazing potential.

And creates quite the wake.