What a craze. Everyone’s looking for a 3pk of baits, which most sell for at least $10 a package. What are they hoping to buy? Something that for the past year has been deemed the Holy Grail of Bass tackle.
Most people are paying over $3 on average for a piece of plastic, and I’m not talking a hard plastic bait. if you haven’t seen them first hand, they’re a soft plastic bait. I’d wager the pike love’em. 
From all the buzz, that seems to be the rage. Look on eBay and you’ll see guys shoveling out huge amounts of cash for those baits. Is it worth the investment? Not in my eyes.
Now, even Berkley has a swimbait coming out, and yes, you guessed it. A 3pk for $9.95. If you act now, you can pre-order them before they hit the stores and vaporize.
Where does common sense start & stop with these baits? The everyday fisherman probably can’t and most likely won’t fork over the cash for these baits. At the very least, they’ll look for cheaper alternatives and hope for the best.
Interestingly enough, the recent Bassmaster Mag. I received in the mail today has an article on page 20 about Basstrix and their main distributor. Basstrix has essentially lead the way for the swimbait craze. In the article, Basmaster apologizes for directing it’s readers to Basstrix’s distributor. The reason being? The online company is requiring all buyers who order the paddletails, buy a matching dollar amount of other tackle. So in essence, you buy 1 package of Paddletails for $9.99, you have to buy something else for the same price. 
That’s sound business for you. 
I applaud Bassmaster Mag. for running the article and taking a stance against a company who’s trying to gouge it’s customers. 
I doubt very little the retraction will do much to deter people from chasing those baits. Looks like we’re reliving the Chatterbait craze. 
Bassmaster offers a similar product for people to buy, but even still the replacement costs $11.99 for 3 baits.
I believe I’ll pass. 
Do swimbaits like these work? I’ve seen them do well. I personally own the Reaction Innovations swimbait. They are a fine minnow imitator, and I recommend them.
I cannot for the life of me, and my emmense Pike following, justify buying a 3pk for $9.95.