Arizona Custom Baits' Twitch Fish Fluke

Jon Shook of New River, Arizona, is the proprietor of Arizona Custom Baits, and he recently sent the Finesse News Network a Blue Ice Twitch Fish Fluke.  It is their latest creation.

In the vernacular of power anglers, it is described as a soft-plastic jerkbait, which has been part of their repertoire for decades.

Power anglers usually affix a soft-plastic jerkbait to a big extra-wide-gap hook that is embellished with a bait-keeper, such as Mustad's KVD Grip-Pin Hook, or something like a large Gamakstsu round-bend hook with an offset shank. And it is often rigged onto the hook with a style that is called Tex-posed. Sometimes the hook is weighted, and at other times, it is not weighted. At times they affix it to a Carolina rig and to a drop-shot rig. They also wield it on a donkey rig, which is a double-fluke rig, and according to Shook, it is a tactic that a goodly number of black bass anglers in the Western states like to employ.

In the eyes of Midwest finesse anglers, the Twitch Fish Fluke looks like a shad-shaped worm with a forked tail, and a shad-shaped worm without a forked tail has been part of our repertoire since April 1, 2006. And we affix it to a mushroom-style jig with an exposed hook. It is interesting to note that Shook wrote in an email on June 13 that some Western anglers that he knows have begun to use mushroom-style jigs and Midwest finesse tactics with fluke-style baits, and others have been affixing them to shaky-head jig.

The Twitch Fish Fluke is four and five-eighths inches long.

Its head is a half of an inch long with a circumference of about fifteen-sixteenths of an inch. The tip of the head is flat. The sides and chin or mandible portions of its head are flat. The top or predorsal area of the head is somewhat curved. From side to side, it is five-sixteenths of an inch wide. From its mandible to the predorsal area, it is a quarter of an inch high. Near the joint of its head and torso, the head is seven-sixteenths of an inch high.

In the eyes of most black bass anglers, its torso exhibits an abstract image of a gizzard shad or a threadfin shad or a skipjack herring or a blueback herring. The torso is embellished with 33 ribs, and the size of the ribs diminishes significantly as they approach the junction of its tail. This ribbed section is three and a quarter inches long. The circumference of the torso at its largest spot is about one and three-quarters inches. The circumference of the torso near the junction of the tail is about nine-sixteenths of an inch.

The back or dorsal area of the torso is ribbed and nearly flat, and it is endowed with a slight groove. At its widest or thickest spot, it is seven-sixteenths of an inch wide.

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The belly of the torso is furbished with a significant hook slot. It is about one and nine-sixteenths inches long. It is a half of an inch deep at its deepest spot.

Its tail is flat and forked. It is thirteen-sixteenths of an inch long. Its skin is relatively smooth.

It is manufactured in the following colors: blue ice, bluegill, cotton candy, green pumpkin, hologram shad, lime ice, pearl, purple magic, silver shad, watermelon red, and white ice.

It is a scent-free bait, and to the delight of most Midwest finesse anglers, it is not impregnated with salt.

Beginning on July 6, anglers will be able to purchase a package of six for $4.69.

Endnotes

(1) Here is a link to Arizona Custom Baits' website: https://www.arizonacustombaits.com/store/.

(2) Here are two links to previous Midwest Finesse columns about Arizona Custom Baits: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/arizona-custom-baits/#ixzz5I8Yxz4ve; http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/arizona-custom-baits-fat-worm/.

(3) When Midwest finesse anglers affix the Twitch Fish Fluke to a small mushroom-style jig, they can employ it with all six of the Midwest finesse retrieves and slight variations of those retrieves. Here is a link to a Midwest Finesse column that explains how to execute those six retrieves: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/six-midwest-finesse-retrieves/.

(4) Midwest finesse anglers have been customizing soft-plastic baits for more than a half of a century, and some of them might customize the Twitch Fish Fluke by removing the forked tail, which will make it about three and eleven-sixteenths inches long.