The Mattlures Shad and Minnow mark a departure for Mattlures from the garage pour style baits to a more polished, aluminum mold look. If I am not mistaken, these guys are coming out of the same factory that the Black Dog baits and Reaction Strike stuff is coming out of.

The shad pictured here is the 4.5" model which weighs 1.2 or 1.4oz depending on if it's slow-sink or fast-sink. There is also a 2.5" model which is quite small.

There are three colors: American Shad, Gizzard, Shad, and Threadfin Shad. The lures come stock with the belly treble you see in the photo. The hooks are sharp, but I am not a huge fan of the brand. I see a lot of these with rolled tips out of the package. A 2-pack clamshell of MattShads will run you $13.

My test baits swam good. Nice and true out of the package. There's a little bit of body wobble on these baits which looks good as well. The spot pattern on the American Shad color looks a bit like a sardine to me, but it's not bad. I tested the fast sink bait and it was very cast-and-retrieve fishable. You could work the MattShad 3 feet deep or 20 feet deep. 15lb test feels about right.

I think the MattShad will be a steady producer but not something to rock your socks off. The $6.50 per bait price tag is $2 under what a Hudd Shad costs and I felt like it was a little high for a China OEM type bait. JMO. Give it a try, let me know what you think. I do think these will get bit.


http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/lures/shad/mattlures_shad/mattlures_shad_side.jpg

I'm glad to see that. Aluminum molds are a whole other step above RVC silicone molds and produce much cleaner and durable baits at lower waste costs. Good job Matt! I'm excited to see the baits are coming in a 2.5" series. I don't know about the 4" because I think the Hudd Shad is pretty tuff to beat. But I have some stufff up my sleeve for those 2.5s that shouldn't be legal...}(

This lure looks great and Rob says it swims well, I know I need some. It looks like a Japanese Iwashi (sardine) so I need to get some of the 4 inch ones for seabass here.
Just for everyones info, silicon molds can produce as much detail as any alum. mold. There are many types of RTV, which stands for Room-Temperature-Vulcanizing. The cheaper/lower quality RTV, (hobby grade) is not great, but gets the job done. The type I work with is only sold in 55 gallon drums, and costs over $3,000 per drum, but you can get increadible detail.
Where can I buy my mattshads? I too have have some evil plans for them...;)

Yeah, good point. Forget to mention the whole detail thing. He's completely right. The detail on the typical "garage" handpours can be just as good as the aluminums in done right. But Matt's waste and bait finish as a whole will be more consistent with aluminum. Plus aluminum doesn't wear like silicone will with more baits. Once again, awesome job Mattlures.