May 08, 2014
By Ned Kehde
For several years, some Midwest finesse anglers have been intrigued by the soft-plastic baits made by Reins Fishing Tackle.
Because of the interests that these anglers exhibited, we published a brief description of Reins' Fat Rockvibe Shad on Oct. 21, 2010. Since then, a finesse angler or two have occasionally petitioned us to keep the Midwest finesse anglers up to date with what is transpiring in the finesse world in Japan, which is the home of Reins.
Recently Reins began manufacturing its Bubbling Shaker in five new colors, and one Midwest finesse angler suggested those new colors might provoke us to write a few words about it in our Midwest Finesse column. His suggestion spurred us indeed.
The Bubbling Shaker is a ribbed-style worm, which the Japanese finesse anglers like to affix to a drop-shot rig. But most Midwest finesse anglers will use it on a Gopher Tackle's Mushroom Head Jig or similar jig.
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It is manufactured in three sizes: three, four, and five inch.
It is endowed with a small cone-shaped head. Its bulging torso is encircled with a series of ribs. Its tail and the junction of its torso and tail are also surrounded by ribs. In the water and during the retrieve process, the ribs generate air bubbles, and many anglers contend that these bubbles catch the eyes of largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass. The junction portion or joint section is narrower than its bulbous torso and tail. The tip of the tail is graced with a tiny piece of soft-plastic that the folks at Reins call "a unique bubble pin tail," and, according to the anglers associated with Reins, this tiny tail attracts bluegill and sunfish, and those bluegill and sunfish attract the attention of largemouth bass. Ultimately some of those largemouth bass will attempt to engulf the Bubbling Shaker.
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The design of its body and tail will allow the entire bait to quiver and ripple when it is affixed to a jig with a small hook and retrieved with all six of the retrieves that Midwest finesse anglers employ. And we think that the three-inch Bubbling Shaker will also work alluringly with the jig-and-bobber presentations that Steve Reideler of Lewisville, Texas, and Rick Allen of Dallas, Texas, wield at various waterways in Texas.
The Bubbling Shaker is impregnated with salt and a shrimp scent.
It is available in 13 colors. The five new colors are Icefish Holo, Kito Kito Shad, Neon Wakasagi, Purple Weenie, and Watermelon Red Flake. The other colors are Watermelon Seed, Green Pumpkin, Moebi, Scuppernong, Blue Gill, Miso, Green Pumpkin All Stars, and Baitfish SP.
A package of 14 three-inch Bubbling Shakers can be purchased for $5.49, as can a package of eight four-inchers and package of seven five-inchers.
Footnotes
(1) For more information, please see Reins' website at reinsfishing.com . and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvyvLqjJT4o .
(2) Anglers can read about Reideler and Allen's jig-and-bobber tactics at this link: http://www.in-fisherman.com/2014/04/01/midwest-finesse-fishing-march-2014/.
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