Where we are now – ima Shaker Flat-sided Crankbait in Captain Karl’s favorite color, Plemmons.
Where we’re headed – a prototype of the ima Shad. Release Date Not Yet Decided
You can consider the ima Shad to be pudgy but not fat. The top and bottom is rounded but it does have somewhat flattened sides. So it isn’t completely round. The biggest difference is the Shad’s going to be more of (but not entirely) a rounded body crankbait whereas the Shaker is a flat-sided crankbait. The Shad’s not going to run any deeper. Both are shallow-runners, although the Shad’s a slightly smaller bait than the Shaker.
- Captain Karl Bunch: I use the Shaker a lot. Earlier I had talked using the Roumba as a shallow-running crankbait which gets about a foot deep. Some days you will find that’s not deep enough to get bites. So when there’s a need to go deeper, the Shaker is the bait I tie on.
The Shaker runs 4-6 feet deep, depending on retrieve speed and line diameter (I like to use 10 lb test with it). It has lots of wobble, and surprisingly, it comes through the edges of grass lines a little bit better than many other cranks. The Shaker has such a wide wobble that it helps keep itself clean of grass and sheds debris. It also comes through wood pretty good, and it floats. So if you feel it hitting a limb, you can stop it, and it will float up so you can snake it over the limb and it won’t hang up.
In terms of water clarity, I have fished the Shaker from clear to stained to muddy water, no problem. As the water gets muddier, I just throw on a brighter color. One of my favorite ‘go to’ colors is Plemmons. The Plemmons color seems to work in just about any water clarity.
- Michael Murphy: Earlier, I talked of using the Flit jerkbait in colder water, and I mentioned my preference for using the Rock ‘N Vibe when the water ranges between 45 to 55 degrees. That’s also close to the water temperature range when I prefer throwing the flat-sided ima Shaker. More precisely, the 50-60 degree range, both in spring and fall when the water’s in the fifties, is when I do best with the flat-sided Shaker. I typically use it when shad or any type of baitfish abound.
Both the Shaker and the prototype ima Shad have computer-board lips. This is a lightweight, ultra thin lip material that creates a lot livelier action than other baits with a thicker, heavy plastic bill on them. In river systems, where there’s a lot of water current, the Shaker and Shad work especially well, since the light, thin lips let them produce superior lure action. Whenever there’s any water current, they mimic baitfish swimming in the current. Even little streams and creeks that you can’t get a boat into, where you wade, the shallow-running Shaker and ima Shad do well because the moving water just activates them. In these moving water situations, you don’t have to do a whole lot to do well with these two baits.
The difference I’d say when it comes to the ima Shad prototype versus the Shaker, the Shad’s more of a rounder version, and that makes it even more of a summer type bait. So when the water is even warmer, say when the water temperature’s 55 to 65 or even up to 75, that rounder shape and the little different action makes the prototype ima Shad even more of a summer bait – especially in rivers or any water current situations.
