YUM F² Salleemander.

The beginning of summer 2010, YUM rolled out 4 new baits using the new F² Ferocity attractant. Among these new baits, the YUM F² Salleemander, a 6" salamander style soft plastic, which is by far the most effective salamander I have thrown to date. The YUM Salleemander comes in packs of 8, will run you around $5.00, and is available in 12 color selections:

"Black Neon," "Watermelon Red," "Junebug," "Green Pumkin," "Watermelon Seed," "Black Blue Shadow," "Lina Pumpkin Chartreuse," "Cajun Neon," "Bama Bug," "Bama Magic," "Ultimate Craw," and 'Bream."

The color selection shown in the picture above and throughout this review is the "Watermelon Red," which performed well in our field tests fishing pristine to slightly stained water conditions in sparse to heavily weeded areas. This color selection worked like a charm under these conditions, however I suggest keeping a couple packs of Salleemanders in a few different colors to better refine the bite on a given day.

Two additional pre-existing baits from YUM have been infused with the F² attractant, the YUM Dinger and the Money Craw.

Rigging

The YUM F² Salleemander can be rigged and fished in a number of fashions; Texas Rig, Carolina Rig, Drop Shot, etc. As the Salleemander is most effective when fished through lily pads and around structure (downed trees, docks, etc.) the Texas Rig will most commonly be the most effective approach with this bait (pictured below).

To Texas rig the Salleemander you will need an offset shank 5/0 Texas Rigging hook. I personally prefer Gamakatsu, but any brand will do the trick. The first step is to push the tip of the hook through the nose of the bait to the crook of the shank and push it out the underside of the bait. Now slide the bait all the way up the hook until the eye is flush with the nose (shown below).

You should now have the offset section of the hook through the nose of the bait and coming out of bottom of the bait (show above). Now lay the rest of the hook over the top of the bait and eyeball where the hook will be able to travel through the belly of it without causing it to stretch or bend. Push the hook through the body of the bait at this mark until it is all the way through (shown below).

Now that the hook is all the way through embed the tip of the bait back into the back of the Salleemander so that the tip is shielded, this will stop the hook from getting caught up on the weeds and structure (shown below).

This is a basic Texas Rig, and will allow you to present the bait in heavy cover when fishing without weight. Adding this bait to a Carolina or a Drop shot rig will incorporate the same basic hooking technique.

Design

The YUM F² Salleemander is constructed of dense soft plastic material, which will lead to you getting moderate mileage out of this bait. In the time that we've spent fishing these and catching a considerable amount of bass the bait held up very well with a couple of shortcomings (discussed more in depth later on).

The Salleemander has a thicker body than you will see in most salamander style baits on the market today which makes it a pleasure to rig and adds some extra weight for extended casts as well as adds to the overall durability.

Shown below you can see the design of the legs on the Salleemander. These are quite possibly my favorite aspect of this bait. The legs are designed almost like the "thumper tail" of a swimbait sticking out of the side. When retrieved slowly through the water or allowed to sink slowly, the arms will oscillate creating the illusion of a salamander paddling through the water. Combining this with the tail design on the Salleemander really makes for a tantalizing presentation.

The tail on the Salleemander (below) is another feature that you won't see on any other salamander style bass bait on the market. This, like the legs works to displace water and create turbulence that drives bass crazy. Letting the Salleemander free fall through the water will cause the tail to kick back and forth, which, in combination to the paddling legs really makes for a great overall presentation.

Field Test

As always, before giving an opinion on a bait, rod, reel, etc. the team at BASStard Fishing put the Salleemander through its paces on the water in an array of fishing conditions. We threw this bait on 6'6" - 7" baitcasting outfits with 30 - 50lb Berkley Fireline Braid. Given that this bait is best when fished in heavy weeds and timber the heavy line is a must when fishing the Salleemander. All field tests were performed using a basic Texas Rig with a 5/0 Gamakatsu Texas Rigging hook.

We caught all of our bass (as well as some pickerel) fishing ponds, backwaters, and coves with no current and moderate to heavy weed cover. Two main presentations were found to be most productive.

The first is to cast your Salleemander on the top of a heavy lily pad mat that will keep it from sinking. Now twitch and swim it across the top almost like you would with a rubber frog. On hot days when the bass are cooling out under these mats this technique will trigger some agressive topwater strikes; if you don't get a strike over the top let the bait fall over the edge and sink slowly under the mat. A lot of the time you will stir up some interest while dragging it across the top and the second you allow it to sink down on the outskirts of the mat the bass will come out and inhale it.

The second approach is to target underwater structure. This is for areas with more sparse lily pad cover where you can allow the bait to sink more easily. This will most commonly be done around shorelines with downed trees and submerged stumps or tires. You can also add a small split shot 6-12 inches up the line to increase the sink rate to target deeper structure. The idea here is to cast the bait out to the structure and let it fall on slack line, the action created by the legs and tail discussed above will do all the work here. Once you have reached the bottom try a combination of slight jigs, lifting the bait a few feet off of the bottom and allowing it to sink back down, and a steady retrieve of varying speed.

Combine these two techniques appropriately for the area you are fishing and you will be sure to land a solid stringer of bass on the YUM F² Salleemander.

Shortcomings

This bait has two shortcomings that we noticed in the hours of field testing. Shown below is the Salleemander which I caught a few bass on Texas rigging in heavy lily pad cover. While fishing the heavy weeds it is always important to embed the tip of the hook back into the plastic body of the bait to keep it from hooking up in the cover, however after landing a few fish the hook will rip through the back of the bait making it impossible to keep rigging like this. This is a common problem when fishing all types of soft plastics, which isn't a big problem with simple baits such as stickbaits and ribbon tail worms, but with the Salleemander it needs to be rigged in the manner illustrated above to achieve the correct action.

This isn't a deal breaker by any means, but certainly something to keep in mind. This problem can be remedied by holding a lighter to the back of the bait for a few seconds to melt the plastic back into place.

The second problem that we observed in this bait is the tendency for the legs to rip off, this didn't happen too often, however it rendered the Salleemander relatively useless when it did.

Overall BASStard Rating

-Happy Bassin' (Discuss This Article and Much More On The BASStard Forum!)

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                  YUM F² Salleemander         YUM F² Dinger          YUM F² Money Craw

                                                               
                                                              Gamakatsu Texas
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