Mike Bucca's Bull Shad 6" Swimbait Review

Bait: Bull Shad
Manufacturer: Mike Bucca
Length: 6"
Weight: 1.75 ounces
Type: Slow Sink
Price: $55

 Mike Bucca's Bull Shad is a three-joint, four piece, hard resin, shad immitation swimbait.  The overwhelming majority of swimbait manufacturers place their focus on producing trout imitation baits.  Although they work in the Southeast, they do not give off a shad-like swim or profile.  Enter Mike Bucca and his Bull Shad.  The poster child for rugged-simplicity, Bull Shads offer little to aesthetically-demanding bait collectors, focusing instead on high quality components and functionality.  Owner hooks, Hyper Wire split rings, and massive, internal, hook hanger swivels, these baits are built with the highest available quality components.  The exterior is purposefully spartan with a muted, purplish-hue and an extra-large 3D eye.  Dead ringer for a weathered Gizzard Shad.  In the water, the Bull Shad swims with a seductive undulation as convincing as any swimbait I have seen.  It has yet to fail that companion anglers comment with disbelief and astonishment on the realism of this bait in the water

In the field, this bait performs to a an extraordinarily high level.  I have tested the Bull Shad extensively in both rivers and lakes and found it equally impressive in each scenario.  The Bull Shad is very effective in rivers as it offers a large profile meal that triggers the feeding mechanism of opportunistic, quick-strike river fish.  A key asset of the Bull Shad is the ability to traverse current seams without rolling over.  It never ceases to amaze me at the size and numbers of fish that will attack this bait; even small Shoalies and Spots not much bigger than the bait will unload upon it.  Aside from black bass, Striped Bass annihilate Bull Shads with unnecessary aggression.  Lake fish share equal love, or hate, for the Bull Shad.  Rolling the bait past isolated points and structure produces monstrous strikes from ambushing predators.  The Bull Shad is most dangerous around schooling fish.  Realism and size make the Bull Shad stand out among schooling threadfin and will often outperform conventional lures for numbers.  On a recent trip to Allatoona my Bull Shad pulled three nice bass from a school, while my friend, using normal tackle, came up empty.  An erratic, stop and  go retrieve elicits vicious strikes when cast into moving pods of fleeing baitfish.

Bottom line, this is one of the most effective swimbaits I have ever used and at $55 it is quite the value considering the price of other offerings.  For the swimbait elitists, it is no visual masterpiece, but it is readily available and does not cost a car payment.  For the beginning swimbaiter, this is by-far the best entry swimbait you can buy.  It has quickly become my confidence swimbait; so much so, that I recently sold off all of my other swimbaits.  To have actual success with swimbaits you must commit to throwing them all day.  You will quickly gain that confidence with the Bull Shad.  You can get your own Bull Shad through Mike Bucca's website Mike Bucca's Bull Shad.