The SPRO KGB Chad Shad 180 glide bait has rapidly grown in popularity, largely due to its accessibility to fishermen seeking high-end glide baits. SPRO and KGB Swimbaits have collaborated to create a bait that blurs the lines between mass-produced affordability and high-end performance. This review delves into the design, performance, and overall value of this sought-after lure.
Design and Ergonomics
The Spro KGB Chad Shad 180 is a 7-inch bait that weighs 2.4 ounces. This collaboration bait is made between Spro and the legendary glide bait maker Kevin Brightwell and his team at KGB Swimbaits. This lure was designed using many of the features present in the original Chad Shad Glide Bait. The original version of this bait is now known as the 7-inch TSG Glide.
The Chad Shad also has an oversized eye and a brush style tail. The Chad Shad 180 is equipped with rotating hook hangers, genuine Gamakatsu branded hooks, and a mass production variant of the popular brush fiber tail. It's a semi-soft plastic tail shredded to resemble brush fibers, but all one unit and slid into the back of the bait. This tail unit is glued in and no spare is provided in the packaging, but if SPRO were to offer spares - especially in different colors - that component may prove more popular than the bait itself!
One big advantage this bait has over its original resin counterpart (besides availability) is the fact it can be produced with translucent or "ghost" patterns. Resin is a solid colored material where as ABS plastic is clear, making such patterns possible.
Performance and Application
This bait sinks with an ROF of 3 to 4 feet per 10 seconds and is great for fishing a variety of shallow and offshore cover. This allows for a natural shad presentation that will be sure to fool some of the biggest bass in the area. A fast chopping retrieve gives the bait a harsh darting action, while a slow steady retrieve gives it a smooth gliding action. Both are great for tricking shallow and deep bass into committing. The lighter weight of this bait makes it a great option for making accurate casts around thick cover.
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There are numerous ways to fish the Spro KGB Chad Shad 180, however, my favorite is around shallow cover. This can be a great way to catch trophy bass that are keyed on larger baitfish. My favorite place to throw this bait is around shallow cover with deep water access. In the fall, fish are often positioned both shallow and offshore. Shallow water ditches are another great location to catch giant fish on the Spro KGB Chad Shad 180. As the fall progresses, bass chase baitfish into the backs of creeks. They will often use these ditches as ambush points to feed on this bait. Shallow ditches that protrude off of main river or creek channels are great locations to look for this scenario. Throwing this larger profile bait can lead to some giant bites, so having the right setup is crucial for landing these fish.
Ease of Actuation: Click our reel over to begin your retrieve and you'll be happy to know you can make this bait dance any number of ways. If you prefer to chop your retrieve, the Chad Shad 180 can do the erratic. If you like to wind and stop, the Chad Shad 180 can do the glide off to the side. If you prefer to just wind at varying speeds, the Chad Shad 180 will swim slow or fast.
Matching Gear
I like to throw this bait on a longer, more parabolic rod with a medium gear-ratio reel. One of my favorite rods to throw this bait on is the SPRO KGB Signature Series Casting Rod. Spro started collaborating with a few different anglers to bring technique-specific rods to market that are tailored to use with their baits, as well as other lures like them. Their latest rod design collaboration involved Dean Rojas, designer of the beloved SPRO Bronzeye Frogs.
The SPRO KGB Swimbait Rod is designed specifically with the SPRO KGB Chad Shad in mind. This glide bait quickly became a cult favorite and a best seller on Tackle Warehouse. The Chad Shad weighs 2.4 ounces, which makes it too heavy to fish on standard bass gear. The big and stiff swimbait rods that are required for baits over 4 ounces are far too heavy to use with this lure as well. SPRO and KGB linked up to bring this 7 foot 9 inch heavy power, moderate action rod to life. It is simply a pleasure to fish with; especially in comparison to many of the other swimbait rods I’ve fished with. This rod is light, long, strong and has a moderate action. This makes it great for fishing the 7-inch Chad Shad and other similarly-sized baits. Casting it doesn’t wear you out. It loads up well on the hookset. The action absorbs surging runs from the fish to keep them from tearing off of treble hooks. The moderate action of the rod also makes it easier to work the bait. Instead of having to twitch the tip like you would with a stiffer rod, little chops of the reel are all that’s needed to get the bait walking back and forth.
For the good ole boys that like the “Made in America” mantra, this one’s for you. The SPRO KGB Swimbait Rod is made in the great old US of A using a 40-ton carbon fiber high modulus graphite blank, Fuji guides and a Fuji exposed-blank reel seat. The long handle is one of the keys to this rod working so well. Two-handed casts are almost always necessary with big baits, whether you’re lobbing a lure way out or trying to lay it between a pontoon boat and a dock. When you take into account the handle of this rod is 4 or 5 inches longer than a typical casting rod, you can actually see that this 7-foot 9-inch rod is really more like a 7-foot 4-inch rod from the forward grip out. It certainly fishes like one.
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This rod is also perfect for harnessed swimbaits like the Berkley Cull Shad and especially for the larger Megabass Magdraft. It is also great for large wakebaits, as long as they come in under 3 ounces. These two lure types, in addition to the glide baits it was designed for, pair well with this rod because of its strength and action. I think it would make for a good umbrella rig rod as well, though I haven’t tried it for this yet. It’ll be a little light for some of the bigger rigs, but something like a YUM Yumbrella Flash Mob Jr should work well on it. The long handle is conducive to the two-handed lob casts that are needed for umbrella rigs.
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I’m currently testing the RkCrawler rod that SPRO released a little while back as well; a 7-foot, 2-inch medium-action cranking rod built for for the Mike McClelland-designed crankbaits bearing that name but has doubled as a great finesse casting rod.
This rod is strong enough to cast the bait accurately, and parabolic enough to properly load up on fish during a hook set. This rod also features an extra long handle that makes casting these larger sized baits much more manageable. For a reel, I like one with a larger spool and 7:1 gear ratio. I like the larger spool because you are typically throwing this bait on thick diameter line. A larger sized reel also has bigger components such as the handles, making these bigger baits much easier to control. A 7:1 gear ratio reel allows you to work the bait aggressively as well as quickly catch up with fish after a hookset.
For a reel, you don't really need anything too large. Any 150 sized reel that can hold enough length of your preferred fishing line is fine. In my case, I kept it all in the SPRO family making use of their new Vortex-E casting reel in a 7.3:1 retrieve ratio. Note, this is a 100 sized reel, so if you want to do the same, you need to be comfortable with using braid or a braid plus leader line strategy. Otherwise, you want a relatively fast reel when tossing glide baits - or at least I do. The bait comes with a bare line tie (no split ring).
I am comfortable with a braid to leader connection and in the case of these tests, spooled the Vortex-E with a healthy supply of Sunline's FX2 braid in 50lb topping the braid off with a leader of 18lb Sunline Shooter.
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Castability and Rate of Fall
Rigged up and ready to go, the Chad Shad 180 is a very easy bait to cast especially with the rod and reel combo I was using. Those unfamiliar with baits of this size will require an adjustment period, but this bait is far easier to sling and cast all day than a more traditional sized big baits. Note that although the Chad Shad 180 is made of ABS plastic, the internal weights are fixed, so there is no sliding weight mechanism to aid in casting. A nice, easy, smooth casting motion is recommended to avoid instances of your bait tumbling through the air and potentially fouling your line during the cast.
The ABS Chad Shad 180 is weighted to fall perfectly parallel at a rate of about one to one and a half seconds per foot. For comparison, a slow sink resin bait is usually somewhere around one foot per two seconds.
Pricing and Availability
$59.49 is the retail price of this bait - less than some JDM baits of similar material, but more than some of the even more accessible mass produced glide bait options out there today. The SPRO KGB Swimbait Rod has quickly become a favorite of mine. I’ve dived into the big bait world a lot more the last few months, and this rod in particular has made the process far more enjoyable. Throwing large lures often means no bites for long periods of time. That makes this the perfect rod for the angler looking to get into big bait fishing. It’s capable of handling most glide baits, wakebaits and harnessed swimbaits. The price isn’t astronomical, at $280.
There are purists in the big bait world that will never touch an injection molded ABS bait. There are others in conventional circles that scoff at the idea of spending $200 or more on a bait you have to refresh your social media feed not just daily, but by the minute, just to have the chance at purchasing. However, those of us in the middle, who understand both perspectives but really just want to catch fish, now have the opportunity to fish a bait design and profile that's been, at best, elusive.
Conclusion
The Spro KGB Chad Shad 180 is a great option for both glide bait professionals and those who are just getting started. This swimbait’s lifelike action and unmatched drawing power make it a deadly weapon around trophy sized bass.
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