Words & Images: Stephen Vidler
I was recently sent a box of new lures from Hooked Up to review for some coming issues. One of the first lot of lures I received was from Yo Zuri and straight out of the packet there was no surprise with the usual extremely high quality finish of the little Yo-Zuri Rattl’n Vibe Mini. As the name suggests its a new micro version of the well-established Rattl’n Vibe coming in at 40mm and 5g and offering a great alternative to a small metal blade in the form of a lipless crankbait.
Aesthetic & Features
Not only are the colours highly imaginative and wide ranging but the durability of the paint and designs of these lures is typically excellent. The paintwork, including highly reflective finishes with UV and luminescent additives are amazing. I have some Yo-Zuri lures that I have been using and abusing for over a decade that have largely retained their amazing finish and these new lures appear to be of the same high quality. Little additions of colour and reflective glare are often only really apparent once the lure is in the water. The fleck of electric blue on the Matte Crawfish and the metallic flash on the gold and silver versions stand out like beacons in all types of water conditions.. This small lure may, at first glance seem fairly stock standard aside from the very nice colours and finish but as soon as you start to fish it its points of difference become apparent.
On The Water
These Rattl’n Vibe Mini are extremely versatile, they offer great castability for the weight and remain really well balanced through the air which aids in accurate casting. Once in the water the Vibe really comes into its own. It can be simply retrieved at a slow to moderate pace or erratically wound with sharp twitches of the rod where it retains its vibrating action and straight tracking but, as with most smaller vibes it creates amazing fish attracting ability when allowed to drop to the bottom and retrieved with various rod action.
I fished these lures in highly pressured Gold Coast waters, without leaving the confines of city limits with great success. Each species of fish seemed to have a preferred method of retrieve to excite them but once I had somewhat worked it out they were certainly very committed to eating these things. Short, moderately paced ‘hops’ proved the undoing of the flathead whilst long, rapid lift and drop retrieves drove the resident bream crazy. Once I wandered over to some freshwater the slow, long lift and drop managed to entice some quality Australian bass that are renowned for being very fussy and ‘spooky’ in this area.
I was pleasantly surprised when they out fished some high quality and well-known metal blades in the same location on the same day. The relatively slow sink rate of these lures compared to the metal blades is a real winner, once the technique was sorted allowing the lure to fall slowly with slight pressure on the line while falling either had the bream inhale them on the drop or smash them at the very first movement after settling on the bottom. The Rattl’n Vibe Minis have enough weight and shape design to be easily fished in fairly strong current, deep water or windy conditions whilst still achieving a moderate, fish enticing pace on the drop.
The colour range is typical Yo-Zuri- original and effective. There are colours including some really cool UV paints and, as stated, the finish and durability is second to none for mass produced lures. I did fish mainly with the metallic gold (GBL) and silver (BT) but did well on the Matte Crawfish (MCF) as well. The silver (BT) lure was looking like a winner after landing a nice 40cm Javelin fish (Grunter) on the second cast but was last seen heading north attached to what I strongly suspect was a quality mulloway that busted me off on 6lb gear.
I can’t wait to take a few down south once it’s ok to travel back and forth again ad I have no doubt plenty of other species will fine these lures just as attractive, particularly yellowbelly and redfin.The hardware on these little lures is of the highest quality, good split rings and very strong, sharp hooks. I don’t think I would even upgrade the hooks chasing big goldens. All in all a very impressive lure with a great range of colours for almost unlimited species. I look forward to throwing a few more around and can’t imagine myself fishing anywhere without a few of these in the tackle box to get things happening.
