When I decided to get onboard with the swim-bait craze, I browsed around until I couldn't take it anymore. So many choices, so many factors to take into account. I'm on the East Coast so I narrowed my search for a smaller swim bait to get me started. That's when I ran into the Megabait Charlie. There were several different sizes to choose from but I decided on the four-inch (.6 ounce) model. It possesses a very realistic look and actually has the feel of a real fish. I was excited to throw my first actual swim bait. On my next trip to the lake I planned to take an hour or so to get to know this lure at some of my favorite spots.
When I got to the lake the wind had slightly kicked up. I went to my first stop and pulled out Charlie. On my first cast, I noticed that the wind didn't really have any effect on the distance I could cast this bait. I suspect that had something to do with the tungsten ball weights inside the hollow chamber. Charlie casts like a bullet. On my initial retrieve I could feel the bait diving just a bit and could feel the tail kicking. The tail section has slits on both sides, enabling a back and forth swimming motion that I could see very well as it got closer to the boat. Charlie has a diving lip, sort of a shallow crank bait lip that allows it to dive down two to four feet and imparts great action to the bait from head to tail.
I had one fish follow it back to the boat at the first spot, but that was it, so I went to my next spot. It was a rocky, main lake point. I made a few casts with Charlie and each time I retrieved it, I was curious as to why this thing just wasn't getting absolutely hammered. It looked so realistic that I was sure at least one fish on that point would eat it. After a few more unproductive casts, I decided to see how Charlie did when I let him suspend and worked him like a jerk-bait. That was the key. The fish seemed to be in a negative feeding mood and didn't want to make a long run to chase something down, but if I put it in their face and let it sit for a few seconds at a time, they would react to it. The strikes were coming as I started another pull, right after the pause. The four-inch size attracted big fish as well as small ones. I had finally caught some swim-bait fish. After the bites on that point subsided I motored back to my first spot where I had only the one bass follow the bait earlier. I employed the jerk-bait technique with long sweeps and pauses of five or six seconds and immediately started getting bites. Most of those bites were of the smaller variety but I was getting some action anyway and was glad of it.
All in all, the Megabait Charlie in my mind was a pretty good bait. It gave me a couple of different options for my retrieve and also is a suspending bait, which obviously helps in certain situations. A lot of the swim-baits out there today can't boast the suspending feature but Megabait has done a great job with the Charlie. It is a very versatile bait and after many a fish caught, it's holding up rather well.
Please practice Catch and Release.