On my home lakes, the soft jerkbait and swimbait bites are just starting to turn on. I’ve been fishing with the Strike King KVD Perfect Plastic Swim’n Caffeine Shad for several weeks and it’s proven to be a very effective bait for a multitude of situations. There are 4 things that really stand out to me about this bait.
- Durable
- Soft
- Great swimming action
- Cool colors
Doesn’t tear up easily
The Swim’n Caffeine Shad is surprisingly tough when you consider how soft it is. It slides up the hook shank effortlessly without tearing and lasts for several fish catches. When rigged weedless, the hook point stays in place and doesn’t leave a big, gaping hole in the bait. I’ve found this to be very helpful because it cuts down on those annoying hang-ups when fishing around grass.
I’ve even put the same Swim’n Caffeine Shad on different hooks throughout a single fishing day and it still stays weedless and completely intact.
Very soft
When you’re talking about soft plastic baits, many of the durable ones are stiff and lack sufficient action. Fortunately, that definitely isn’t the case with this bait. It’s ultra-soft composition allows the bait to move freely throughout the water column while perfectly imitating a fleeing shad. Its paddle tail provides just the right amount of “thump” as it swims, making it a great choice when fishing around shallow grass.
The uncanny action also makes the Swim’n Caffeine Shad an outstanding addition to castable umbrella rigs. It kicks violently through the water as opposed to many soft swimbaits that have more of a gliding action.
Great scent
I’m not a biologist, so it’s hard for me to say that Strike King’s coffee scent catches more bass than other available scents. What I can say, however, is in my personal experience the bass inhale this bait. Very rarely have I caught a fish on the Swim’n Caffeine Shad that has been skin-hooked. Because of that, I’ve gained a lot of confidence with this bait.
Yes, I’ve tasted this bait as well. It sounds strange, but hear me out. When you bite the head section off to fit it onto a smaller, more discrete hook, you can taste how salty this plastic is—more so than many similar soft plastic baits.
Awesome color selection
When you look through the available colors of the Swim’n Caffeine Shad, you’ll notice there’s a color for almost every situation imaginable. Some of my favorite colors are the Watermelon Red Clear Sparkle, Green Pumpkin Sapphire and KVD Magic.
The bass are just beginning to chow down on bream in my area and I’ve found the Green Pumpkin Chartreuse Belly color very effective when targeting bass feeding on bream. I haven’t bed fished with this bait yet, but I have a feeling that the Green Pumpkin Chartreuse Belly color will be deadly when slowly dragged through bass beds.
I know winter is taking its sweet time leaving this year, but it shouldn’t be long before the soft swimbait bite comes into play for a lot of the country. Whether you want to fish the Swim’n Caffeine Shad over submerged grass, swim it over brush piles or drag it through some bass beds, I believe you’ll also be impressed by this bait.
Priced at $4.59 per 7-pack, you can find the Strike King KVD Perfect Plastic Swim’n Caffeine Shad at Tacklewarehouse.com and many retailers nationwide.
