NLBN vs DOA: What Gets More Bites? (2024)

I enjoy different products being compered the way you did thanks 👍🌴😎🇺🇸

Excellent presentation Pat. Thanks for the great information.

After field-testing artificial lures for over 50 years, I have found that all lures don’t have the same action, but more importantly, when given the proper action for each specific lure, as it’s designed, you will find out what makes a specific lure most effective. As a disclaimer, I have been on the DOA Pro Staff just about since the company started. I was invited to join them, but I did not seek them out. I was buying their products a couple of years prior to meeting Mark Nichols, and I had some extremely good success with his lures.and that is the reason I use them today. In my opinion, the CAL Shad elicits more strikes when the lure is sharply twitched. I’m not talking about a sweep of the rod, which can be effective at times, but a short, sharp twitch. Prior to using the CAL Shad, I was using the Love’s Lures Swimming Minnow that no longer is made. There really weren’t any other shad style bodies on the market here at the time. I specifically asked Steve and Bill Love to increase the durometer reading on the plastic of that lure so that when I let the lure fall the tail will wiggle minimally. Crippled baitfish do NOT wiggle their tails when they are wounded and in the process of dying. This specific action or lack of action other than a natural fall is one of the things that trigger strikes from predators. Predators seek out weak or wounded baits to eat, and the largest of the species even prefer feeding on dead bait on the bottom. So, IMHO a super soft lure that has a lot of action may not prove to be the most effective. I would bet the NLBN would fare best in the winter when the slowest action is necessary. That might be a better time for testing this lure. But when you end up getting the tails bit off twice as often, not only do you pay more money but you also spend less time fishing and more time changing baits. No doubt, the NLBN can catch fish, but I’ve caught fish on a clothespin before, so fish aren’t that intelligent but they rely on their natural instincts, and the entire effort of using artificial lures is to mimic the real thing, and a dying minnow doesn’t kick its tail while falling.

Great stuff Pat! Thanks, very informative!

Always helpful to me 🙏 thank you Pat

An excellent review, Pat! Your thoroughness is much appreciated and I did not detect bias to slant the outcome one way or the other. I pay little attention to all the marketing hype and giddiness of the cult like sheep each time a new lure is introduced. One other point about the NLBN not being very durable, and that’s the wasted time having to change the bait more frequently that results in lost fishing time. You’ve said less time should be spent on fussing over lures and their colors. Instead, choose a confidence bait that works based on that angler’s experience, and focus on finding the fish. That message is solid and worthy of being repeated, especially to newer Insiders when the marketing hype ramps up each time a new lure or color is launched. 👏👍

Thanks for the report Pat. I started using the DOA CAL Shads several years ago while searching for an effective paddletail that’s also a good value. The DOA CAL Shads are both. You get 12 baits for around $5 and I’ve caught many many fish with them including multiple 30” redfish and my PB 14 snook in one day. I disagree with your assessment of their cast ability. They are more dense than the average 3” paddletail and cast quite a good distance when rigged on a 1/8 or 3/16 jighead. For these reasons they were my go to paddletails until Salt Strong developed the 2.0 and Mulligan which are my current go to paddletails. The reason I switched is the main negative you stated. You must fish them at a faster pace or apply sharper twitches to get the tail working which makes them less effective when trying to fish slowly. And once I saw the 2.0 swim on the fall I was sold. Great content and discussion Pat.

Great video. Is there a reason why you didn’t use the 2.0 (or even the Mulligan) instead of the DOA? The tail may kick sooner with the 2.0. The 2.0 would still would have the same rigging options as the DOA. The 2.0 may have been harder to cast into the wind than the DOA. Just curious.

Last edited 8 days ago by Mark R Johnson