Doomsday Tackle Company's C-Shad 3.2

Subtleness and immaculate simplicity lie at the heart of Midwest finesse fishing. Consequently, a diminutive and delicate soft-plastic swimbait has played a role at a variety of waterways that Midwest finesse anglers ply. Our history with it stretches back to the 1970s, when Mister Twister created its Curly Tail, which is a grub, and in the 1980s, when it created the Sassy Shad.

Since then, the swimbait world has made gargantuan changes. These changes occurred when lure manufacturers began employing computer-assisted-design systems and other modern-day tactics to create a new genre of swimbaits.  Initially, the modern swimbaits were too large for Midwest finesse applications, but that is no longer the case.

Will Stewart, who is the president and chief operating officer of Doomsday Tackle Company in Chatham, Virginia, said that Doomsday's new C-Shad 3.2 should be an effective swimbait for Midwest finesse anglers to employ at various times of the year and at a potpourri of waterways across the nation.

According to Stewart, their original reason for creating it was to provide anglers in eastern Tennessee with a state-of-the-art soft-plastic bait to affix to their Damiki rigs, which is a popular wintertime rig for smallmouth bass anglers to use at reservoirs such as Cherokee Lake, Tennessee, and the other clear-water reservoirs that stipple the landscape of the Appalachian Mountains. In essence, a Damiki rig consists of an Erie jig affixed to a C-Shad 3.2 or a similar soft-plastic bait, and during the dead of the winter, anglers employ it vertically in deep-water with a deadstick presentation. They use 3/16-, 1/4-, and 3/8-ounce jigs with 1/0, 2/0, and 3/0 hooks.

To begin this endeavor, Doomsday worked with a real threadfin shad and a concept called JDM (Japanese domestic market) type of styling. Ultimately, they created a unique three-inch soft-plastic bait that exhibits many of the characteristics of a threadfin shad.

In short, it is not an absolute replica of a threadfin shad, but its torso possesses the profile of a threadfin shad.

From a side view, its tail is forked like that of a threadfin shad, and it is about the same size of a threadfin shad's tail. The back of the tail, however, possesses the configuration of what Stewart describes as a boot. The boot allows the tail to flutter subtly as anglers present it to their quarries. Stewart says that subtle and diminutive movements lie at the heart of the C-Shad's effectiveness.

Its snout, eye socks, and gill membranes are similar to that of a real threadfin shad. Its eye socks contain a three-dimensional eye, and rather than possessing a pupil, each eye sports the Doomsday logo.

It is devoid of pectoral fins, pelvic fins, and an anal fin. But it is graced with a minor dorsal fin.

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Its belly consists of a Mylar insert that flashes and shines, and Mylar is the brand name for a special type of stretched polyester film.

Stewart notes that its head and dorsal area is solid and relatively thick, and it is solid and thick enough to become firmly affixed to a jig.

It is manufactured in the following colors: Baby Gill Flash, Black Back Flash, Brown Flash, Clear Pearl Flash, Green Back Flash, Pearl Blue Flash, and Pearl White Flash.

It is not impregnated with salt and scent.

Besides affixing the C-Shad 3.2 to a Diamiki rig, Stewart says it is very effective when it is nose hooked onto a drop-shot rig. He calls it the only true shad-shaped drop-shot bait in the marketplace. What's more, some anglers are wielding it on an Alabama rig. Several other anglers have been rigging it on a small shaky-head jig. Stewart said he field-tested it in the Ozarks, where he rigged it on a small jig and employed a slow and straight swimming retrieve, which is similar to the retrieve that the late Charlie Brewer of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, used to use and the one that Midwest finesse anglers still use. At waterways that are devoid of gizzard shad and threadfin shad and have a bountiful population of bluegill and green sunfish, the Baby Gill Flash is the color that Stewart recommends anglers use with a small jig and straight swimming retrieve.  (One of the cardinal rules of Midwest finesse fishing is: use the lightest jig possible.)

Stewart said that anglers can customize it by using a pair of Faskars scissors and remove the Mylar insert, and it will create a slim swimbait that replicates a three-inch fathead minnow or creek chub or dace.

It is durable enough, Stewart says, to withstand substantial donnybrooks with at least seven or more hefty largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, or spotted bass.

A package of six costs $6.99

Endnotes

(1) Here is a link to Doomsday's website: https://shop.doomsdaytackleco.com/products/doomsday-c-shad-3-2.

(2) Here is a link to the gear guide that we published about Doomsday's Reaper:http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/doomsday-tackles-reaper/.