The Jackall Chubby Minnow is a new release fishing lure from Jackall Bros that our staff have recently field tested and gave the thumbs up. The build quality is in line with previous expectations from Jackall - the construction is good and it's fitted with quality hooks and split rings. Being 35mm long with a slim profile and weighing in at 2.3 grams it's pretty much in the mico lure category. That said it's casting performance is excellent for it's size and exceeded our expectations - it's size is deceiving.
Jackall Chubby Minnow Specs
Length: 35mm
Weight: 2.3g
Bouyancy: Suspending
Jackall Chubby Minnow Field Test
We tested out the Jackall Chubby Minnow near the mouth of the Onkaparinga river in South Australia, the day was still with no breeze. Due to the size of the lure we used 4lb braid as the mainline and a 1.8m leader of 4lb fluorocarbon. Being near the mouth of the river the water was clear - this enabled us to watch how the lure performed in terms of running depth, action and suspending ability. The Chubby Minnow really surprised us with the first cast - the distance we got with the lure was further than expected, a metallic "click" could be heard as the lure was cast. The colour we tested was the HL Gold and being a solid colour we couldn't tell while out on the field test if it was a casting mechanism that was built in. On returning to the office we looked at the brown suji shrimp colour which revealed a steel ball held in place by a magnet in the middle of the body of the Chubby Minnow. On casting the ball moves to the tail of the lure shifting weight to the back (where you want it for casting distance) and when the fishing lure hits the water the magnet locks the ball back into place in the middle of the lure. The mechanism works well because the casting distance was very good (exceeded our expectations).
Various retrieves were trialled with a slow roll being the preferred speed resulting in a nice wobble (not as tight as the wobble on a standard Chubby). A pause in the retrieve resulted in a natural suspend with a slow rise after a few seconds, the lure was balanced meaning that Jackall have tuned the weight system well and the magnet holds the steel ball in an optimal spot. The natural slow suspend means the Jackall Chubby Minnow will hang in the strike zone for a few seconds ready to be slowly retrieved and paused again. Alternativley a quick jerk will result in an erratic motion that mimics an injured baitfish, with a longer pause of say 7 seconds the lure will suspend then slowly rise ready for another erratic jerk. The retreive you use will depend on what's happening on the day, our vote is a slow roll with 3 to 4 second pauses for good measure - the lure seemed to run at a depth of about a metre on this retrieve.
We didn't expect to catch any bream in the area we were fishing as it's been hard going with the cold weather, we did get a few follows by juvenile bream and managed to catch a few salmon trout. We did fish a few mud flats and shallow banks and the Chubby Minnow performed well, we would have also tried it alongside any pontoons or barges but there aren't any in the river so we couldn't but would recommend the lure for these areas - it will dive just deep enough for the fish to see it from their shelter spot - add a few seconds pause and you should entice some strikes.
Jackall Chubby Minnow Rating
All up casting ability for it's size and good centre of balance on retrieve and while suspending were stand out points. If you chase bream we can recommend trying the Jackall Chubby Minnow.
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