Shankas
Reckless Abandon Lures
www.shankas.com
(781) 864-7154
By Ron Powers
It’s doubtful that when Nick Crème unleashed the first soft-plastic worm on freshwater bass enthusiasts in 1949, he could have predicted that one day the lure’s descendents would consist of 14 ½-inch tuna tamers. But, if you’ve spent any time trolling the wash from Crab Ledge to Cape Porpoise in search of “Charlie” and the gang, you’ve witnessed a revolution among the rank and file – soft-plastic stickbaits are ruling the tuna world!
One of the latest examples of this ilk – the Shankas – is earning a well-deserved reputation of being one of the best of the lot. This lure has become a bona fide bluefin catcher because it has blue-blood roots. After all, who better to design a killer tuna lure than a Massachusetts charter captain who lives, breathes and dreams of pursuing pelagics? Captain Rob Green of Elizabeth Marie Sportfishing Charters in Scituate has been putting patrons in the thick of tuna, stripers and cod for some 30 years. Long ago, Rob and first mate Dave Teixeira recognized the value of incorporating slim-profiled stickbaits among the more typical tuna arsenal of squid bars and daisy chains.
“These lures imitate what the tuna feed on, which are usually slim-profiled baitfish,” said Captain Rob. “Tuna mistake these baits for mackerel, herring and sand eels.” And it is the latter, sand eels, or more appropriately the skyrocketing population of sand eels in recent years on tuna hunting grounds such as New England’s Stellwagen Bank, which have attracted almost unprecedented numbers of school- to medium-sized tuna. While there seemed to be no debate as to the effectiveness of these soft-plastic baits, in Captain Rob’s eyes, the available models that were on the market were lacking. It was little wonder that this was the case, after all, the spectrum of stickbaits were for the most part designed for striped bass and not really built for bluefin.
It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention, and Rob Green was desperate to find a tuna-grade soft-plastic stickbait that suited his needs, so he decided to make his own. “The learning curve was a steep one for Rob and me and the going was slow at first,” recalled Dave. Marathon sessions in their basements became routine, and they slowly learned the intricacies of soft-plastic properties, injection molding and color selection. Eventually, they hit their mark, and they had two prototypes, a 10 ½-inch model and a 14 ½-incher, but the length of the baits only tells part of the story; it’s the substance of these lures that really wows you. Hold one in your hand, and it’s apparent that these lures have some major heft to them.
For colors, they crafted a spot-on sand eel imitation, a green-glow color, a black-with metal-flake model, and a host of additional hues such as pink, pearl and squid. But the most important step was still to come. It made no sense having a bait with all the right moves, color and shape mated to an inferior hook – the lure had to be outfitted with a hook that could handle the war of attrition that a battle with a bluefin often becomes. When you first look at their 10/0 and 12/0 hooks, your reaction may be, “Hey, I’ve seen that shape before!” Again, the Shankas flaunts its freshwater roots; the hook is a dead ringer for a weedless largemouth bass hook, albeit a bass hook that is sized at 10/0 or 12/0 and has the mettle to withstand 45 pounds of drag! No doubt Nick Crème would be proud!
The advantages of a weedless hook cannot be overemphasized. Tuna are among the stealthiest and spookiest of piscatorial predators, and a single strand of weeds draped on a lure will make it look unnatural and often cause the tuna to slink away at the last second. There is nothing more frustrating than trolling for an hour without a hit and then realizing that you have been dragging sauerkraut all over the ocean. The Shankas-and-hook combo sheds most weeds easily.
A side benefit to the hook design was the inherent improvement in the action of the Shankas. The low-slung hook acts as a keel and allows the lure to track true, even under previously unimaginable speeds for stickbaits. Tuna can swim at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour, and the rub against many of the competitive soft-plastic baits has been that a slow-trolling speed was necessary to avoid the lure turning over and appearing unnatural. As any diehard tuna fisherman will tell you, there are times that a quick clip is best for the speedy tuna, and the Shankas will troll comfortably all day at 5 knots!
You can have your Shankas any way you want them, just the bodies, or pre-rigged with leader material and hook. For leader choice, Rob and Dave experimented with a number of different materials and manufacturers, and they decided upon pink Yo-Zuri Hybrid fluorocarbon, which had the best properties of toughness and transparency. There are big plans ahead for the Shankas and its parent company, Reckless Abandon lures. A jighead is on the drawing board for the Shankas, and it is a typical Rob and Dave collaboration in that it is overbuilt, made from one solid piece from point to eye. This will be just the thing for those desiring a deep presentation or a longer-casting version. Also, Rob is partnering-up with a major scent/taste manufacturer from New England and will soon offer a scented version in a concoction that will be specially brewed just for the Shankas.
If you are a striper hound, I know what you’re thinking, “How will this thing work on linesiders?” Check out the Shankas website – the pictures say it all. I gave a buddy of mine, who is a diehard Cape Cod Canal rat, a package of the sand-eel-colored 10 ½-inch models, and the next day my voicemail was abuzz with messages asking me how he could get his hands on more.
Somewhere, out there, I imagined Nick Crème smiling!