Bait Breath eX-Rider Shrimp Jr. Finesse 3.5

The Jr. Finesse version scales the eX-Rider Shrimp's back-slide action down for bait finesse tackle, keeping the long slide and snagless design in a lighter, more compact body. This gives the bait a believable, repeatable character in the water rather than a gimmick action, which tends to hold up better once fish have seen a few casts go past.

It suits selective bass holding tight to cover where a smaller, more subtle back-slide presentation draws a strike that a full-size bait won't. These are common enough conditions that it is worth keeping one tied on rather than treating it as a rare specialist choice for unusual days.

Skip or pitch it into cover on a back-slide rig and let it slide back under structure on the fall, working it the same way as the full-size eX-Rider Shrimp but with lighter tackle. Small adjustments to speed and pause length from cast to cast are often enough to turn a quiet spell into solid contact once the right cadence is found.

A 6-6.8ft light-to-medium bait finesse casting rod, a small baitcast reel, 4-8lb fluorocarbon or 8-14lb braid suit this scaled-down back-slide worm. Matching tackle in this range keeps the outfit comfortable to fish all session while still giving enough authority to control a fish once it is hooked.