# favorite saugeye stickbait



## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Just throwing this out there,after all tis the season! I Use ALL stickbaits but everyones got there favorite, The last couple seasons mine has been a xr8 in either clown or gold/black/orange belley. Before this my fav was always a smith rouge with the red head or the red head with black stripes. I still use huskie jerks 10s and 12s but not like I used to,id say my fav colors in those are glass clown,and blue chrome...

Now last yr I came across some x caliburs twitchin shad(i think is the name) in a shad color with a chartruse gill area for 4 bucks each(usually 12 bucks or more).. Man I wish I bought everysingle one of them, Those things stick in any tempeture water I fish. And Ive hit enough fish on them to help gain the confidence in them......

Any body else have any odd ball sticks you like to throw. suspending or floating dont matter.... They all have a time and place, and most slow float anyways and gotta do some tweaking to get to stick.


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## debard (Nov 9, 2011)

Haven't saugeye fished with them, but I have a bunch of those XCalibur Twitchin Shads. They're very good baits if you can find them cheap like that.


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## NewbreedFishing (Apr 15, 2004)

I like the Excaliber EERatic shad DEJA VOODOO color

http://www.lurenet.com/brands/xcalibur-lures/xcalibur-eeratic-shad

and the Strike King KVD Wild Shiner in Olive Green or Ghost Blue

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Strike_King_Kevin_VanDam_Wild_Shiner/descpage-SKWS.html


I also like to use the smaller husky jerks for searching bass and crappie


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## Big Joshy (Apr 26, 2004)

plus 1 on the excalibur EE. they did cost more till they changed the name and the bill a little and made them cheaper and in more colors. anything with a chrome flash is hard to beat IMO.

I have used the spro MC sticks and they are good when the fish want a wider wobble. like in areas with current. the smaller version has a real nice action, though they are pricey.

I got one of the newer RC sticks to try out. I like the action, though they do suspend a little bit more nose down than a rouge. That can be fixed with some split ring changing. They also seem to run a bit shallower than a rouge, maybe 3.5 to 4 ft. Might be a winner in skinny water. They also cast really reallly well. We will see what the eyes think.

Two im also interested in are the newer KVD slash bait, and the storm twitch stick. But these might be too beefy for the eyes


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

question is which ones suspend (and suspend perfectly level) the best? Used to be a big fan of Xraps because they would suspend perfectly level, now they either sink or suspend extremely nose down . Got some rouges the other day that suspended almost perfect out of the box, but still a little nose-down. Also the rouges seem to spin out in current, where Husky jerks won't, but the Husky jerks don't seem to suspend anymore, every last one of them seem to float 

Definitely going to get some xcalibur's in the near future


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## jshbuckeye (Feb 27, 2005)

Favor the rogues, I had one dark gold one witha brown back and dark brown bars, it outfished all others and I fought for over an hour trying to get it back, I tied a bobber to the line before pulling, to come back following day with boat to retrieve it but the bobber was gone the following day. I just bought a fistful of suspender from bigfisherman very reasonably priced next fave will probably be one of the 2 he trew in for me.


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## Brownfish89 (Feb 27, 2012)

I bought a H J last night and it will float.
I had 3 older ones and checked in a bucket of water and sure enough they would suspend.


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## allbraid (Jan 14, 2012)

X-Raps #8 and #10s silver and black and all white, clown(red head) rogues, and HJs. I buy the Storm metal strips and add to my baits to tune them, I do this in the kitchen sink, wife loves it.


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

Brownfish89 said:


> I bought a H J last night and it will float.
> I had 3 older ones and checked in a bucket of water and sure enough they would suspend.


They all float now, and not like "sorta" float, like _float_ float. I guess it's ok if you use suspend dots/strips (available at R&R btw) but the last few i've had to put gobs of lead on in order for them to stay down


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## Big Joshy (Apr 26, 2004)

Maybe rapala just got sick of nasty letters complaining about how some of their suspending baits sink.

hey aj just had a though, anybody ever tried tungsten tape. Would take alot less, mabye even keep a better action since the weight would be more of a pinpoint placement.

http://www.golfgalaxy.com/the-golfworks-rubber-tungsten-swingweight-tape/ss12gwrubbertape/product

Im sure there are other types of this product out there as well.


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## jshbuckeye (Feb 27, 2005)

I change out hooks and add solder wire or craft wire to the hook shanks if they dont come close to begin with they go in the floater pile.


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## promag (Aug 21, 2011)

To those experienceing irregularities in suspending lures check the front nose to see if the lure has a leak. I've found issues with some xraps and hj's that just leak right out of the box. Also where the hooks are connected to the body of the lure. But I found that I get more of these issues fishing real rocky areas. I also have broken a few of the lips right off. My favorite for the action and ability to swim at high speed and equally at slow retrieves is the xrap. The thundersticks with mad flash are second. 

Promag


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## todd61 (Nov 22, 2009)

X-rap 10s are my favorite. Clown, silver/blue and glass ghost. I've never had any problem getting them to suspend once I give them a few good cranks to get them down. plus it seems like you can cast them a mile.


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

Aj get some x caliburs there NICE! Another thing ive notice when Im useing sticks, Is I catch alomost all my fish on sticks that have an orange belly unless im useing clown...

another bait I forgot I use to use is a small shallow running reef runner,mostly in october,early november when the water temps are still up a bit. And one that ive been meaning to try in that same time period is the shallow jr. thunderstick(original). They just look like fish catchers!!(BTW both of these are floating). And while on the topic of floating, Ive never really done good with the smaller original floating rapalas. Would think they would be an great early fall bait, but just havent worked out for me. I had one that I got a couple fish on early this fall but it was a fatter version(was rapala but had to be old never seen before or now) and it floated like a bobber and had the same style lip as the xr8??? It was blue/silver.


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

Saugeyefisher said:


> And while on the topic of floating, Ive never really done good with the smaller original floating rapalas. Would think they would be an great early fall bait, but just havent worked out for me. I had one that I got a couple fish on early this fall but it was a fatter version(was rapala but had to be old never seen before or now) and it floated like a bobber and had the same style lip as the xr8??? It was blue/silver.


I've done real well on the tri-treble floating rapalas in summer, however I tend not to use them because they won't cast but a fraction of what an x-rap will.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

acklac7 said:


> They all float now, and not like "sorta" float, like _float_ float. I guess it's ok if you use suspend dots/strips (available at R&R btw) but the last few i've had to put gobs of lead on in order for them to stay down


Yeah man no kidding, thats BS that they claim to suspend and they don't though. I was using a new one today in a local pond, and the water was crystal clear so I could see what was going on; the twitch action is good but man that thing floats!


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

yea aj they dont cast well at all. catch the wind and are light... When I get time ill Look up the exatct name and size of the x calibur im useing. You likeing to make LONG casts is just another bonus with this bait. Its just a hair bigger then a xr8 but cast way better... And like I said sticks Like no other bait ive used(unless self tuned)....

Oh and BTW bought a brand new clown xr8 and the darn thing sits vertical in the water,made me mad!!!!! Will have to throw it in my bass box...

Getting my fish on a hj10 now, Floats slowly but seems to be triggering bites, Clown has been my goto color


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## Saugeyefisher (Jul 19, 2010)

AJ, The lure is a XCalibur XT3, Ive been useing one of the shad patterns, But they sale the always killer chrome/blue,and a sourgape that looks bad... .


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## acklac7 (May 31, 2004)

the Clown rouges I got @ R&R the other day are now sticking absolutely perfect (water temped cooled so I put them back "stock", and whoa-la"). Been doing great on them lately, probably wont be buying any other stickbaits till I loose these


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## HappySnag (Dec 20, 2007)

Saugeyefisher
could you solve the floting problem,taking the mitel triple hook out and put on that ,jig head proper weight,1/16,1/32 or 1/8,

snag


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## Skippy (Dec 2, 2009)

Take a look at yours.. Due to the below posts I ordered in 5 of thoes Xcal EE minnows. Looking them over the first thing I saw was that 4 of the 5 had lips that weren't centered. Not by much but??? Planing on getting them wet this afternoon and check them out.


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