A 2.8-inch Electric Shad Sexy Impact.
July 16, 2020
By Ned Kehde
We published a Midwest Finesse gear guide about Keitech’s 3.8-inch Sexy Impact on Mar. 19, 2015. It was a rather superficial gear guide and nowhere near as elaborate as they are now.
Recently, when we were working on a detailed gear guide about Keitech’s 3.5-inch Easy Shaker, Mike Czaplinski of Branchville, New Jersey, who is the proprietor of KeitechUSA, also sent us some samples of the 2.8-inch Sexy Impact.
Czaplinski told us that the 2.8-incher was created a decade ago, but it wasn’t introduced to anglers in the United States until 2019.
At our first glance and after several extended periods of examining and working with the 2.8-incher, it looked to be the epitome of Japanese finesse fishing, which is different and subtler than Midwest finesse fishing. In our eyes, Midwest finesse fishing is rather rudimentary. Therefore, we need to be aware from time to time of the elegant, intricate, and sophisticated ways of our piscatorial brothers and sisters in Japan.
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So, we immediately decided that the 2.8-inch Sexy Impact was worthy of a Midwest Finesse gear guide.
Here is a detailed description of its artful characteristics.
It is 2 7/8 inches long.
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The tip of its anterior section is flat and festooned with a slight indentation. It is circular shaped with a diameter of one-eighth of an inch and a circumference of about eleven-sixteenths of an inch. It is embellished with a slight indentation, which is where a Midwest finesse angler will insert the hook and bait keeper of a small mushroom-style jig.
The anterior section is 1 1/8 inches long. It is adorned with a series of distinct but minute rings or ribs. At its widest spot, which lies about three-eighths of an inch from the anterior’s tip, it has a width of a quarter of an inch with a circumference of about one inch and a height of a quarter of an inch. It is somewhat cylinder shaped until it nears the junction with the posterior section.
The anterior’s dorsal area possesses a hook slot that is three-quarters of an inch long. It begins at five-sixteenths of an inch from the tip of the anterior section and ends near the junction with the posterior section.
The dorsal and ventral areas of the anterior are slightly convex.
The first five-sixteenths of an inch of the posterior section is thin with slightly indented sides. Its dorsal is less than one-eighth of an inch wide. The ventral is one-sixteenth of an inch wide. Its circumference is five-eighths of an inch, and it has a height of one-quarter of an inch.
The next portion of the posterior section becomes a tad thicker, and its circumference increases to three-quarters of an inch around its thickest area with a height of one-quarter of an inch.
The epidermis of these two portions of the posterior is endowed with a series of delicate rings or ribs.
As the posterior section approaches the junction with the Sexy Impact’s tail, it becomes dramatically smaller. It possesses a cone-shape. It is slightly more than one-sixteenth of an inch long. Its height quickly diminishes from three-sixteenths of an inch to one-eighth of an inch. Its epidermis is smooth rather than being encircled with rings or ribs.
Its tail is needle shaped and five-eighths of an inch long. It is encircled with a bevy of very minute rings or ribs.
It is available in the following hues: Ayu, Bold Bluegill, Electric Shad, Green Pumpkin, and Morning Dawn.
It is impregnated with a squid scent, and it is not buoyant.
In the eyes of Midwest finesse anglers, it is a state-of-the-art stick-style bait, which they will rig on either a 1/64- or 1/32-ounce mushroom-style jig with an exposed number four hook. It is a shallow-water rig that will allow anglers to efficiently probe lairs in one to 10 feet of water with what we call a no-feel presentation. And they can present it to their black-bass quarries by employing all six of the standard Midwest finesse retrieves or slight variations of these retrieves. And as they execute these retrieves, the tail, posterior section, and a portion of the anterior section will subtlety gyrate and undulate.
Endnotes Here is a link to KeitechUSA’s website: https://www.keitechusa.com/keitech-soft-baits/keitech-sexy-impact/sexy-impact-2.8/ . Here are links to four Midwest Finesse gear guides that focus on Keitech’s Crazy Flapper, Custom Leech, Little Spider, and 3.8-inch Sexy Impact. They were published on Feb. 26, 2015, Mar. 19. 2015, May 13, 2015, and April 13, 2017. https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/keitech-usas-little-spider/155790 ; https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/keitech-usas-3-8-inch-sexy-impact/153521 ; https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/keitech-usas-3-8-inch-sexy-impact/153521 ; https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/keitechs-crazy-flapper/154132 ; https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/keitech-usas-custom-leech/156067 . Here is a link to a Midwest finesse column that explains how to employ those six retrieves with the 2.8-inch Sexy Impact affixed to a small mushroom-style jig: https://www.in-fisherman.com/editorial/six-midwest-finesse-retrieves/153946 . When anglers tell us that they are curious about our no-feel presentation, we tell them if they can readily feel a Midwest finesse rig during a retrieve that the weight of the jig is too heavy. We want it to somewhat replicate what a very slowly sinking jerkbait feels like when it is being retrieved with a twitch-and-pause cadence. In the weeks to come, we will publish gear guides about Keithech’s 2.5- and three-inch Live Impact, 2.8-inch Electric Shad, and two- and 2.5-inch Swing Impact.
