Q. What made you come up with the concept for the Lucky Craft GDS Mini SSR? |
Swindle: I was looking for something that was a mix between a crankbait and a topwater that could be worked on top of vegetation, around shallow docks and on rocks. I needed something that would run extremely shallow and have a little wobble and rattle. I wanted that in-between version and that’s what we got with the SSR. . |
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Q. What makes it different from other Lucky Craft crankbaits? |
Swindle: It’s the shallowest-running bait in the crankbait series. It has a feather on it and is designed more as a high-floater, which a lot of Lucky Craft’s crankbaits are not. Most of them are made to be suspending. This bait is a high-floater and designed to be worked right near the surface. |
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Q. How would you work this bait and in what conditions? |
Swindle: The best conditions for this bait are early in the year, around late April or early May when you can fish around shallow vegetation, milfoil or hydrilla. This is a great bait to retrieve right on the top of grass. It’s also great to throw into holes in the grass where fish may have been spawning. It’s almost impossible to work a spinnerbait through this thicker stuff because you have to reel it so fast. A topwater isn’t quite as effective either, so you can take the GDS Mini SSR and reel it right through this thick vegetation. |
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Q. Where in the water column does the GDS Mini SSR run (how deep)? |
Swindle: A couple inches will be the absolute maximum depth. |
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Q. How do the fish react to the different ways you can work this bait? |
Swindle: It’s a pretty aggressive strike when you get fish to react to it, much like a topwater bite. The fish are going to blow it up at the surface. It’s real exciting – a big adrenaline rush. Sometimes, with a regular crankbait underwater, you can’t really feel the fish bite it. When they come up on the SSR, it’s a completely different strike. |
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Q. What other tackle would you use when throwing the GDS Mini? |
Swindle: I throw the SSR on a seven foot, light action rod with 15 – 17 pound monofilament, because it allows for better accuracy when casting. I use a 6:3:1 reel, because it has a pretty fast ratio. The soft tip rod allows me to finesse it around the grass pretty comfortably, yet have the length and the sturdiness needed to land a giant. |
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Q. Have you thrown the GDS Mini SSR this year and did it work like you thought it would? |
Swindle: The SSR is new and just recently came out, so I did not throw it in any tournaments this year. I have used it some while practicing on my own on Guntersville and Logan Martin, to name a few. I’ve watched the fish react to it and I’m really impressed with it. It works exactly like I planned for it to. |
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Q. In your opinion, what are the best colors to use when throwing the GDS Mini SSR? |
Swindle: I like the Chartreuse Shad – it’s still one of my all time favorites. I also like the Aurora Black because it seems to be a great shad imitation color. |
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052 |
077 |
112 |
238 |
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Aurora Black |
Original Tennessee Shad |
Chartreuse Rootbeer |
Ghost Minnow |
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250 |
270 |
286 |
299 |
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Chartreuse Shad |
MS American Shad |
Mad Craw |
Japan Craw |
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Q. How does it fit into the Lucky Craft product arsenal? |
Swindle: I think it fits in well simply because it is one of a kind and very unique. It has a fierce application and there are going to be tournaments won with this bait. It will be a specialty bait when fish are in the shallow grass – it will be the only bait to throw. |
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