Duo Realis Spinbait 80
Spybaiting with the Duo Realis Spinbait 80
First time I saw this lure was watching YouTube clips on bass fishing in Japan. I was immediately interested, it’s a finesse approach to finicky bass that’s suspending or hugging structure. One of those lures you leave in the box for the “real tough days when they just aren’t biting!”
I see myself as a reasonably well rounded angler but I know I have weak points and I can name them out loud right here: Finesse worming, dropshotting and dead sticking structure. I just don’t have the patience for it, especially when tourney angling and every minute counts. It’s insanely hard for me to “waste time” fishing the techniques knowing full well it could deliver my bag for the day. It’s a major flaw in my angling approach as a tournament angler and I have been working to better myself but it takes time and lots of self-control! I have vowed to delve in head first this winter and focus on it to better myself.
Enter the Spinbait 80, here is a finesse hard bait technique where you won’t die from boredom and get to cover some water as well. I immediately went on the hunt and started looking for places I could source them. My options were importing from the USA or Japan at a nasty price to boot. I decided to hold off just due to amount of money I would have to spend for a single lure! Seems like the technique was only taking off in the USA and is the “next big tournament secret” – Haha I was sceptical.
A couple of months later, by complete accident I saw a local retailer teasing them on their site. I saw this as my opportunity and phoned as soon as I could. I ordered one lure at a whopping R205.99 if I remember correctly. EISH! Yeah it was tough for me to shell out that much for a lure weighing a mere 8grams, that’s unproven in our waters and something that you could lose with a single cast! The lure arrived the week before a friendly comp and I was reluctant to test it out on that specific day as I had to focus and fish my strengths. However, this lure just looked too good! Like I said in earlier articles, I like to look at a lure and ask myself “If I was a bass would I eat this”
It has such an appealing silhouette and shape I just had to tie it on and give it a shot. The guide on the back mentioned 8lbs fluorocarbon with a light spinning setup. :/ I have major issues personally with sub 10lbs lines- I just don’t have confidence when fishing with them.
SO I tied it onto my medium casting rod with a baitcaster spooled with 12lbs fluorocarbon. It casted great got awesome distance and the lure’s action was enticing. I have to mention that it drops like a rock. If I have to speculate I would say more than 1m per second. It dives like the sub in Red October! If you are going to try to count this lure down you will have to familiarise yourself with the drop rate.
After doing a few casts and checking the action etc. I started proper casting to some rocky structure. On the drop at about 2 ½ M first fish on! Wasn’t big, a dink of about 500g but at least I knew they liked it! Couple of casts later a nice fish was landed of 1.3kg J Great! It works well, on the slow steady retrieve back to the boat it was inhaled along the ridgeline at 3m. One of the great things about this lure is it wants to keep the depth. If you reel it in slow enough just to get the blades spinning it should keep good depth all the way back to the boat.
I managed many more fish on it over two trips and after about 15 bass the paint started to peel off L I was a disappointed. GRR!
R205 bucks and it’s looking like a lure rage-dragged through rock piles. The peeled paint revealed an ultra-bright silver/chrome primer beneath which wasn’t all bad. Still looked like a fish! I did some research and asked the retailer as well, apparently only some of them start to peel, if it’s a factory fault or just crappy paint I don’t know.
At the end of the second trip I snagged my Spybait on a 6M rock pile and it lodged between two rocks. No amount of fiddling or trying to rescue my bait with the lure knocker could get it loose. I had to break it off. Needless to say I was a bit moody after that.
I was not finished delving into this new bait and only started to really understand its mechanics and build some confidence with it. I searched far and wide and could not find another Spinbait anywhere. Apparently the importing company was sold and it’s now owned by Sensation. They advised me it would take about 4 months to get everything up and running and import again.
I took to the bassfishing.co.za forum and a forum member in the Cape helped me find more stock. Suburban Tackle in Ottery has stock! I found them on google and with the help of the friendly staff ordered 3 more! My wife insisted she wanted one too….
They stock the normal Spinbait 80 which is like the one I lost, 8grams and 80mm length as well as the G-Fix model which is 10.5grams (3/8oz) and also 80mm. The G-fix is intended for baitcasters and supports a slightly thicker line too. It will also run a bit deeper due to the weight increase.
If you are looking to buy be sure to contact Suburban Tackle on tackle@suburban.co.za or 021 704 3458 they sell for R194.99
They will help with a smile! They also stock loads of other stuff including Live target Baitball series lures.
Pros:
It’s a great looking lure – perfect slender silhouette
The treble’s straight from the pack is quality and sharp
Our bass like them
Fun to fish with
Big and small bass will eat it
Great colour schemes
Heavenly action
Cons
Crazy expensive!!!
Intended for real light lines
Paint peeling
Doesn’t seem like it will handle a lot of beating
Not readily available
Like any other open treble bait, it will snag easily – Cast with care.
Verdict
It definitely has its place in my tacklebox. Is it a game changing tournament secret? I don’t think so. It is something I would typically throw when the bite is tough. At this price point it is harsh to recommend this to anyone only wanting to try it out. It might be worth it to rather wait for some copies of the bait by other manufacturers at a better price point.
The technique does sound mundane but it really is fun to fish with and beats the boredom a bit when the conditions call to take it slow or dead stick. It has delivered fish after fish without allot of time spent learning the technique. I will continue to fish with them and update the blog as needed. I am very excited to see if it can produce quality fish in winter.
