The MAGDRAFT was a category-defining introduction to the swimbait world, a tournament-ready tool that brought legions of new admirers to the game. Elite Series pro Kenta Kimura has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of its deadliness. He’s used the 6-inch, 8-inch, and even 10-inch versions in competition and when guiding on the record-setting waters of Japan’s Lake Biwa.
Despite his love of the big bait game, the lure that has Kimura most excited these days is the new 5-inch version of the MAGDRAFT. While it looks like a proportionally smaller version of its larger brethren, it’s been radically redesigned to maintain the originals’ best qualities in a downsized and slightly different package.
“There are times when that smaller profile is definitely preferred,” he said. “It’s important on Biwa in the wintertime and mixed bag fisheries. Whether you’re fishing for spots down south or smallmouth on the Great Lakes, that smaller profile makes a big difference.” He said that on TVA fisheries it’ll be a situational tool, while up north on bodies of water like Champlain will almost always be his first choice, due to baitfish size and the size of the fish he typically encounters.
Again, in the package the lure resembles a shrunken version of the larger MAGDRAFTS, but Kimura said that the magic lies in the differences.
“It’s not just downsized,” he explained. “Look at the tail. If you put it next to the 6-inch version you’ll see that the bigger MAGDRAFT has a bigger swing and stronger action. That limits the number of speeds that you can reel it. The 5-inch is much more user-friendly. It’ll run right at anything from a dead slow retrieve up to medium-fast.”
To allow fluid motion and maximum strength, the Megabass engineers also strengthened the harness, added a larger O’Shaughnessy-style bend treble hook, and redesigned the way the harness holds the magnet within the bait.
Kimura has been especially impressed with the harness. He’s skipped the new MAGDRAFT to the furthest regions of massive boat houses and has yet to have the harness separate on the cast. That maximizes his number of effective casts and hookups. But it’s not just under overhanging manmade cover that this lure excels. It’s a virtually all-purpose minnow imitator, useful from the pre-spawn through the late fall, around everything from grass to rock to open water, where it calls sight-feeders from a distance.
He also appreciates that you don’t need specialized tackle for this approach. He uses a 7’ medium-heavy baitcasting rod and premium 16-pound test fluorocarbon. One piece of equipment where he does vary from some anglers is that he uses a 9:1 reel.
“I’m not a fan of slow reels,” he said. “You can always slow down.”
He says that it’s a little bit harder to feel the vibration of the 5-inch than the 6-inch model, but he’s confident that the tail is moving, so he waits for some change in pressure to know that there’s a fish involved. It can be used from super-shallow down to about 7 feet deep, but he’s usually retrieving in the middle of that range.
“When I feel anything, I set the hook,” he added. “They never nip it. When they hit it, they tend to eat the whole thing. The head shake does that.”
As for colors, Kimura tends to keep it simple – either Albino Pearl Shad or White Back Shad, in all ranges of water clarity. Indeed, he’ll fish both the 5-inch and 6-inch versions in remarkably dirty water, bouncing them off cover where fish gravitate. Next up he’ll be working on a Freestyle version of the 5-inch MAGDRAFT, which will do double duty not only as a swimbait but as a bulky trailer for swim jigs and vibrating jigs.
