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After taking a look at wLure's excellent trout swimbait and chunky sunfish swimbait , let me turn your attention to another interesting Chinese swimbait they offer. The HS6 from wLure is an affordable sunfish imitation lure, not frequently seen in the United States. (More after the jump) Design The HS6 is a 4 inch swimbait, shaped after a basic sunfish pattern. wLure offers 4 unique patterns for this lure, including a black crappie one (seen in my photos). They all look pretty great, especially for a bargain Chinese swimbait. The joints are rather unique for a swimbait. Instead of using the typical hinge metal joints found in many swimbaits, wLure has opted to go with a flexible band of tough material to link the swimbait. It's pretty unique but doesn't seem to detract from the motion of the lure. Price The HS6 is priced fairly competitively, at a little over $7 with free shipping from wLure. For this price range, a comparable model is the H2O Academy Sports line of swi...

After watching the buzz over the umbrella rig for largemouth, called the Alabama Rig, Swarming Hornet, Power Tackle, Bait Ball and more , I decided to make my own. Inspired by some fantastic creations at Tackle Underground and other custom fishing lure websites, I visited Lowe's and cranked out a few custom, Alabama-rig style lures. These are pretty lightweight and certainly wouldn't handle a huge fish very well. However, they swim great in the water with flukes on and are pretty easy to cast. They do have a tendency to snag on the bottom, as any massive rig of umbrella lures would certainly be at risk for. A faster retrieve in shallow water helps avoid this. Furthermore, in some states (California, etc), angler's cannot use more than 3 hooks on a line. Thus, on my four-wire DIY umbrella rig, the 4th one has no hook, only a soft plastic teaser. I put together a little video showing off how I made this homemade version of the Alabama rig. Enjoy!