Jerry Rago Bait Ball

The Jerry Rago Bait Ball is Jerry Rago’s (famous swimbait designer) take on the Alabama or Umbrella rig phenomenon which has swept the nation.  The bait made the splash in California in mid-2011 and appears to have worn out its welcome as it appears to be discontinued (no longer on Ragobaits.com).

Product Details:

Colors – Currently available in Shad

Weight – 25 grams (FLL’s weight)

Price – Around $19.99

FLL’s Take

The Rago Bait ball is a unique take on the umbrella rig and has its differences than many other brands in the market.  The first identifying factor of the Rago Bait Ball is the enormous head on the bait.  The head is close to 2” long and 1” in height.  While most other rigs the head is made of lead, this is a composite/epoxy type material making it exceptionally light for the size of the bait.  But with the larger head, the Rago Bait Ball probably has one of the better paint jobs than other umbrella rigs on the market.  Unfortunately we have not fished the bait enough to comment on the durability of the paint on the Bait Ball.  The other unique factor of the Bait Ball is that the wires are fixed in an open position (unlike many others where you can bend out to the preferred area).  This allows the individual baits to be kept separate and not interfere with each other.  In addition the center wire is considerably shorter than the 4 outside wires which is a great place to put a blade of some sort to provide some flash to the bait.

We took the Bait Ball to the California Delta looking for stripers and largemouth bass.  The bait was successful in catching a number of short/schoolie sized stripers and a few largemouth to 2 lbs.  The one thing which we immediately noticed with the Rago Bait Ball is that it swam in the upper water column than the typical umbrella rigs.  We had started with 3/16oz jig heads but with the large head on the Bait Ball and relatively no weight to it, this naturally pulled the bait towards the surface.  To compensate for this, we upped the size to 1/2oz on the jig heads and this allowed us to get the bait to some deeper depths.  What this basically means if you are trying to fish shallow with an umbrella rig, this is a great option.  If you are trying to fish down 10 ft or deeper, we would recommend an umbrella rig with a lead head.

As for the wire locations we really didn’t have an issue with the fixed locations.  In California one can only have three hooks on the umbrella rig.  This forced us to choose on where to put the baits.  We opted for the hooked baits on the two side wires and the lower wire.  On the upper wire we put a dummy bait (no hook).  Surprisingly enough, probably 90% of the fish caught was on the bottom wire.  We also upped the size of the bottom wire’s jig head and had lighter jig heads on the sides and no weight on top for the bait to rig to swim properly.

The one area which we did not like on the Rago Bait Ball rig was the swivels used to attach the jig heads to the umbrella rig.  The swivels are probably strong enough to withstand some decent sized fish, but they are simply too small.  The size of the swivels made it extremely difficult to clip on to our existing jig heads.  I find it surprising that they would put such small coast-lock swivels on the bait.

FLL’s Rig

Reel: Abu Garica C3 5500

Rod:  7’6” H Original Carrot Stix

Line: 25lb Berkley Big Game