Poland is no stranger to lurebuilding manufacturers. It probably has as many lure production companies as Japan does. They all seem to be fitting in the same category: foam crankbaits. There are of course some rare sightings of hard plastic hardbaits. As I said…. Rare!

Dorado Triada company has a very vast array of hardbaits, ranging from the very small, as the Dorado Magic 1.8cm, which is probably the smallest production crankbait I own, to big cahona pike jerkbaits, that are very popular in Europe.

For this review we chose Dorado Invader I4, which is a very versatile lure, and can be found in either floating and sinking version, which is a plus in my book.

I say it’s a very versatile bait, because it can be easily fished really efficient in both flowing water and still waters. This lure is stable in very fast flowing currents, and it can be fished at a very slow pase in lakes for e.g.

Packing is as simple as it gets… Nothing fancy, just what it takes to keep the lure safe.

Finish: As you’d expect from a Polish foam lure there’s nothing spectacular about it at first sight, but it has some really interesting detailed patterns, probably the best minnow patterns I’ve seen on a lure. No 3d eyes, and no detailed carved scales, but that’s just for the fisherman to notice. The fish will never notice these details. I’d have to say I’d love a few highly reflective metallic patterns amongst their actual colors. Other than that, the coating is as tough as it gets. Much tougher in time compared to much higher priced JDM lures I own. I have some Dorado lures for more than 2-3 years now, and even after lots and lot of fish caught they still looks like new, which is a real bonus.

Dorado invader 4cm - a very nice array of patterns

This is a shad type of crankbait, which has a typical shad design, nothing fancy, just the essentials for catching fish. The lip seems to be polycarbonate, and is as tough as it gets.

Terminals: At this price I didn’t expect high quality trebles, but Mustad has trebles much better than these, at the same price-point, like the 3551 , I would certainly prefer the other, as they are heavyer wire construction, sharper, and I wouldn’t probably go to the trouble of changing them. They have the same trebles as the Krakusek, and they bend quite easily. I’ve lost a good sized trout because I was lazy changing them. Other than the trebles, the split rings look to be tough, and … you guessed it: it has thru’ wire construction, which make them ideal for saltwater fishing as well. Saltwater is probably the ultimate battering test a lure can get. I’ve had some plastic lures fail on me even in freshwater… So you understand where all of this is coming from.

Mustad produces much better trebles at the same price point.

Casting and diving depth: Even though they don’t feature long casting system, 8 out of 10 casts they fly like they had the system, without tumbling through the air. It’s most likely because the line tie is in front of the lure, considering it’s a deep diver. The 4 cm invader is really castable on a light to medium-light outfit. You’ll be able to fish the sinking version on finesse baitcasters if ever faced with the challenge, but you’ll be limited in casting distance. You’ll most certainly be able to cast the 5cm one, and very well for that matter.

Notice the polycarbonate lip is stamped with the Dorado name

Dorado makes the invader in lengths up to 14cm, with which they brag of catching lots of double digit pike and catfish. The 4 cm version dives up to 1.6-1.8m on a very long cast.

Action: They got me on the first cast. I instantly knew they would be killers. They have a medium-tight wobble: not to tight, but not to wide either. I’d say just perfect. I would love if they all ran true straight out of their packaging, but I would be lying if I told you so. Some of them need a little twitching, but in the end you’ll get them running.

Video:

I mainly use them for lake trout, chub, and have to mention zander (walleye) and asp as well. It’s a good lure, that I don’t leave home without, especially when fishing those finicky wild lake trout. It certainly does the trick for me. Try them out, they might work for you as well.

They also have really good match the hatch patterns for what trout and other fish are foraging upon.

Trout seem to like them

Conclusion: Invader is a cheap lure, for every pocket. I prefer action over the lure’s actual outer-looks in any given day of the week. They’re a must have in my tackle box. The more patterns the merrier. As Dorado mentions on their website: “These lures are designed to catch fish not anglers!”. I would have to agree with that saying.

About Andrei

Professional angler, rodbuilder, lurebuilder, if it's about fishing you name it, he does it. He hates "relaxing", and takes each day as a challange. Whenever he's got a spare moment he's either fishing, cycling, hiking or training his ass at the gym. He's fishing for more than 20 years now. Strictly on artifficial baits from the age of 7, he's always on the look out for the newest stuff and techniques out there.

View all posts by Andrei →

Jackall is amongst the fastest growing tackle companies from Japan, one of which have made it to the US market. They always seem to amaze us with radical design, and last but not least the newly established collaboration with Shimano.

Jackall has all lures listed as bass lures. Of course that Japanese fisherman are known for their finesse tactics, but a crank so small will more likely get used in a trout, chub or even perch fisherman’s tackle box.

As you might already know, or know not, there are probably a handful of small crank-baits that get to the diving depth of this one. I know only a few, at least a few that I like: Jackall Diving Chubby of course, Lucky Craft Deep Cra-Pea, HMKL Crank 33 DR (This is the smallest of the lot). These are the ones I know of. If you know of any other small deep divers, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll make sure it gets reviewed.

Packing: Not the most impressive packing we’ve seen so far, but it’s enough to make it stand out on the shelf, especially with that BIG FAT Chubby logo. It’ll keep the lure safe during transport, even though it might get some treble scratches, as they are not secured. You know what they say: “It first needs to catch the fisherman in order to catch the fish”.

Sturdy enough packaging for transoceanic flight

You have to love that BIG CHUBBY LOGO

Finish: Most of Jackall lures are plastic, with a highly intricate inner and outer design. Diving Chubby are equipped with ultra-realistic 3D eyes, and they even added scales to the lure’s body. They feature very lifelike patterns both natural and stand out of the crowd patterns.
Jackall even went the extra mile to design the Chubby’s gills, which are carved like. They feature both hi gloss coat finish and matt finish on their lures.

The finish holds up pretty well for a Japanese lure (the finish is not the JDM lure’s strength), and after fishing them for a season they look amazingly good.

3 must have collors. The MAT Chartreuse is blinding.

Terminals: Jackall chose a non-traditional way of placing the treble attachment rings. Use oval split rings, these are normally 50% more powerful than the same material round split ring.
Trebles seem to be Owner Stinger, definitely not cutting corners, not even on the smallest of lures.

As Owner accustomed us to… trebles are needle sharp, and will not straighten out easily. This is all I need in my trebles. What I had trouble getting used to was the color of the trebles. I actually hate silver trebles. I sometimes have the impression they scare fish away, and go the extra mile and change them. I guess they are salt water proof trebles, by the looks of it, probably with the growing popularity amongst bream fishermen in Australia.

Better view of the trebles

I almost forgot to mention they feature Tungsten weights, and a long cast system. For this size it’s quite impressive of the amount of features they managed to squeeze in.

The split ring is a detail not to be forgotten... Oval rings offer up to 50% more power than traditional rings. Don't really know how much that would count when fishing with lines up to 8lb

Casting&diving depth: Our casting tests put them in front of their class, straight A’s all the way. You can easily cast them on a bait-casting equipment if ever needed. I’d like to mention that if you throw them down wind you’ll be amazed how far they will go. The Tungsten weight and the long cast system make it worth the price, especially when fishing clear bodies of water, and it helps keep the trebles of the line while casting. You’ll make it run every cast.

They dive up to 2.3-2.7m on a cast, and much deeper on a long troll.

The bill is thick enough to pass the test of time, and long enough to keep it deep

Out of the box performance: I have 4 of these lures, and all of them swim true. You’d be amazed of how i’ve got the first one:).

It’s actually a funny story: Was fishing on a nearby lake with Razvan for perch. He got hung up on something, and after a harder pull it got unsnaged. 2 seconds later he was fighting a fish. The fish wasn’t hooked on his lure, but on another, the one he unsnagged . You couldn’t even tell the lure’s color, that’s how covered in algae it was. And upon all of these it had a very thick wire leader attached to it (on a lake with no pike).  I didn’t say anything:D… but when I saw the split rings were oval I instantly knew it was a JDM. Of course I didn’t tell Razvan, until he offered me the lure…  which looked awful. He thought it was some unworthy crankbait, considering it almost didn’t have hooks on it and was all covered with greenish-black algae.

This is the lure Razvan caught. It takes a lot of time to scrape the finish of a Jackall Diving Chubby

After cleaning it up, and searching for it for a good couple of hours in the Internet I finally found what it was. One year later when I started catching good sized chub and trout with it of course I had to order some more.

They all perform perfect right out of the box, no twitching needed for them to run true.

Application: I’ve mainly used them for chub, perch and trout. Had success on all of them species. Especially when they hung deep. This is my deepest diving small crankbait so far. I’m still on the lookout for deeper small stuff (if you know of any deeper don’t be shy on leaving us a comment).
As you’ve seen it has a nice aggressive, but tight wobble on both vertical and horizontal axis. It delivers a lot of flash, and the tungsten weight along with glass rattles incorporated make a lot of noise, calling fish from a distance.

Video:

Action: As you can see from our video it has an appealing action. I can vouch for it’s fish catching abilities, and have caught some really large chub over the last year.

Conclusions: All the possible and impossible features a crankbait could have in a really small package. Good attractive action and design, long cast system, good trebles that don’t cross paths, and deep diving at this small size. Could you ask more from a small deep diving crakbait? I certainly couldn’t …. except… MAKE IT DIVE DEEPER ( a sinking version would suffice – hope Jackall hear my prairs). I give the Thumbs up to Jackall on this one, as it’s one of my all time favorites.

About Andrei

Professional angler, rodbuilder, lurebuilder, if it's about fishing you name it, he does it. He hates "relaxing", and takes each day as a challange. Whenever he's got a spare moment he's either fishing, cycling, hiking or training his ass at the gym. He's fishing for more than 20 years now. Strictly on artifficial baits from the age of 7, he's always on the look out for the newest stuff and techniques out there.

View all posts by Andrei →

Are fiberglass rods outdated? Will high modulus graphite take over? Can a graphite rod challenge fiberglass’s authority in cranking?

These are all common questions I bump into when discussing rod blanks with passionate anglers. And they are all pretty normal questions since fishing rods are tending to become more sophisticated day by day.

They aren’t just tools for landing fish anymore. Rods need to provide comfort, extreme sensitivity and amplify the adrenaline rush during fish fighting. That’s why they are becoming specialized, each one having a certain application in fishing.

Let’s have a look at some of the most important characteristics of a fishing rod, and see for ourselves if high modulus graphite will really make fiberglass disappear.

1.Blank Design and Presentation

The first thing you notice when you put your hands on a rod is the blank. Fiberglass blanks have a higher overall diameter, which means they are thicker. Being used to graphite blanks, you might find this unattractive. Get over it. You’ll find there’s more to fishing rods than just looks.
Besides, if you plan to go for a custom rod, there are many ways to hide this and transform the blank into an incredible looking rod. Split grip is just one option.

Two Seeker fiberglass blanks turned into beautiful split-grip rods

2.Sensitivity

This is graphite’s territory. Graphite rods are known to be extremely sensitive and delicate. In many situations this is a huge advantage. But sometimes, this extreme sensitivity can be fatal. Many tournament anglers complained that sometimes graphite can make you react too fast and lose fish.
It happened to me in many cases, when fishing for pike, asp, zander (wallaye), chub, even bass. Graphite made me set the hook too early.

In these conditions, fiberglass is the right move. It won’t loose you any fish plus it gives you the right amount of sensitivity so that you don’t feel like fishing blindly.

If you still feel like you need more sensitivity, you can go for a combination of fiberglass and graphite blank. This is meant to increase the sensitivity of the whole system.

3.Weight

Many people say fiberglass blanks are heavier that graphite. Technically, in most of the cases, this might be true. But for me this isn’t really an issue. I like to fish with custom built rods. In this case, a good rod builder will balance your rod in such manner that the extra weight will vanish.

Andrei working on a Lamiglas Skeet Reese blank

I have fished with old fiberglass rods that seemed lighter than other fancy graphite rods. We measured them on a scale and of course the graphite was lighter. The secret relies in balancing the rod. If your rod is balanced correctly, those extra grams won’t disturb you anymore.

Many of the new fiberglass series rods are built in the same manner. They’re not feather light, like you’d expect from graphite, but they won’t stop you from fishing comfortably.

4.Action

There is a common confusion made regarding the rod action. Fiberglass rods, because they seem soft, people put them in the moderate action range or below. This is very far from the truth. There are fast, moderate-fast, moderate or slow action fiberglass rods. And the same applies to graphite. Action has little to do with material, it depends more on the construction parameters.

A difference between fiberglass and graphite blanks is the comeback rate. Fiberglass has a slower comeback rate. This translates in more vibrations after the cast. I don’t recommend fiberglass to beginners, because it can take some time until you master the casting technique. But once you do, the advantages will start to show.

Fiberglass are wonderful rods for landing lightly hooked fish. You have less chance of pulling away the treble hooks out of a fishes mouth. Besides, it will help you tire a fish very quickly. It will absorb all the jerks in the fishes battle and turn the balance your way. This is one of the reasons why fiberglass rods are making a huge comeback among bass fisherman.

Lately I started using a fiberglass rod more often when stream fishing. There are some medium sized rivers near my home town, where I usually fish for zander, asp or catfish.

The Lamiglas blank did a great job tiring this catfish

I started out with… of course… graphite rods. In the strong current the fish weren’t able to absorb the lure well enough and this resulted in a lot of missed fish or bent hooks. When you wait a whole afternoon for that big one to strike, it can get pretty ugly when it gets away. No picture, no believers.

River zander gives up to the fiberglass baitcasting rod

The fiberglass rod helped me hook and land more fish. The fights were shorter and the number of hooked fish increased. Plus I lost fewer lures, due to line breaks. And this gets us to…

5. Applications:

What are the main applications for fiberglass? Fiberglass rods are recommended for crankbaits, spinnerbaits or suspending jerkbaits. You normally fish this lures in spring or late autumn, but the fiberglass applications range is much wider.

For example spoon fishing is amongst my favorites with fiberglass rods. It gives my lures a more natural presentation. Trout and pike are the main target when fishing spoons.

Beautiful trout I caught in Norway using a 6'6'' Seeker fiberglass rod

Professional bass anglers usually use fiberglass when throwing crankbaits. Some say that graphite cranking rods are also an option. I think this mainly depends on the fisherman. Try them both and see which one fits you best. Me, I’m all fiberglass for the above applications.

I also suggest you try jigging with a fiberglass rod. Sounds crazy, right? It is, a little bit. But you might find it interesting and useful in certain situations. I first tried it with a friend’s Seeker rod. We were on a lake with a lot of perch and zander. I had missed a lot of fish, because they didn’t attack my soft baits decisively. All I felt in my graphite rod were small taps. Every hook setting was a disaster. No fish at the end of the line. You can easily get frustrated after a while.

First cast with the Seeker, a perch. Sheer luck, I said. Second cast, bang…a 3 lbs zander. Damn! The graphite rod was just too stiff for the light, finesse presentations needed in that particular case. The 3” grub on a light jig was more successful with a fiberglass rod. The fish reacted immediately to the more natural and appealing lure presentation.

This situations are pretty rare though. Normally a graphite rod is all you need for jigging. Just keep an open mind, there are other options too.

5. Toughness

Every fisherman loves his tackle. I try to be very gentle with mine. But accidents do happen. And fishing rods are not immortal. There are a lot of cases when you drop your rod on the ground, fall on it or hit it hard with different objects. Usually with graphite, after this happens, you end up with a travel pack rod. You have no option but to buy a new one.

Seeker, Lamiglas and Batson, some of the fiberglass rods manufacturers out there

High-modulus graphite is more brittle than fiberglass. If you’re pretty clumsy, like I am, then buying a fiberglass rod can be a good decision. It is by far more resistant than graphite and I strongly believe the two of you will have a long journey ahead.

6. Price

Price is one big advantage that fiberglass has over high modulus graphite. Fiberglass is inexpensive. You can easily find fiberglass blanks at prices that range between 40-70$. I even bought some Batson blanks which I really enjoy fishing with, for less than 20$. Bottom line, fiberglass is more affordable than graphite.

This is another reason why I think you should give this material a try. It’s not a big investment, and even if you don’t like it, you can make someone happy by giving it as a gift.

Remember:
One of the most important things in the whole fishing experience is your rod. Try to match the material with the type of fishing.

Give fiberglass rods a second chance. They are far from the old fiberglass rods our grandparents were used to, which felt lifeless and insensitive. If you decide to use quality components, they can make fishing more pleasant than most graphite rods.

Do you fish with a fiberglass rod? Which type? Are you planning to get one?
I would love to hear from you in the comment section bellow.

About Adrian

Professional angler, web enthusiast and tackle fanatic. Always in search for new things that can improve his fishing.

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