The SW Hypor Shad is a pin tail style jerk bait - that is instead of having a traditional fork tail, it just tapers away to a single thin tail. Its my favourite bait for chasing Reds on the Coffs Coast in the 6" and 8" sizes, and its also been dynamite on the last couple of trips done to Stanage Bay.
I think its safe to say Im just a little bit addicted to chasing Coral Trout in shallow water. I thought Reds fought dirty when they had the chance, but Trout take it to a whole new level! And they certainly respond to the Hypor Shad.
For the 8" model, a 5/0 to 7/0 hook size works well with weights from 1/4oz up to 5/8oz. It can handle heavier if you need too.
The 6" really wants a 3/0 to 5/0 hook size with weights up to about 1/2oz. It too will perform with bigger weight, but the size star anything much bigger than 1/2oz starts making the jighead to plastic ratio look a bit weird. The fish probably don't care, but I know I've got to like the look of my lure if I want to fish it with confidence.
Rigging the Hypor Shad is nothing special, just rig it as you would any normal jerkshad style plastic - but keep it straight! It kills me how often I see a bent up plastic on a jighead. If you rig them straight they will still flick and dart eratically when jerked (thats the beauty of this classic style), but if nice and straight, when you burn it, they track well with a tight snake, just like a baitfish fleeing and high speed!
Theres a ton of ways to fish the Hypor Shad too. The good old free fall or on the drop is a great place to start - I mean you're likely going to be doing it every cast anyway! From there, try short erratic flicks and jerks, and after a few of them bringing it up into the water column, pause and let it free fall again. You can do this with a more subtle flick retrieve too and see what fish respond to best. When letting it drop back down, try occasionally free spooling as well - this will be dependant on a few things, the main one being how far up in the water column you've brought it. If you aren't lifting it a long way before letting it drop, you likely wont ever need to free spool, but if you bring it a fair way up, free spooling will allow the plastic to sink faster and more vertically, where as not free spooling but just pausing and letting it sink, will make it sink slower and on an angle towards you. Fish are going to respond differently all the time, so trial a few things and see what happens, then replicate when you get action.
A couple of other options are the super slow technique - let it sink all the way to the bottom, and give it little hops with the occasional longer than normal pause; or the super fast technique - burning it through the water so it snakes at speed like a fleeing baitfish.
We found that we caught fish on every single one of these techniques at one time or another at Stanage.
