Silent Assassin by Daiwa

Silent Assassin

Japanese engineered Ever Green XV-5 offers the perfect shad-profile, jerkbait crossover hardbait for more fish on clear and pressured waters 

Cypress, CA (July 11, 2022) – Known for their extraordinary multispecies fish-catching abilities, there’s just something special about shad-profile crankbaits and jerkbaits. After all, whether we’re talking big green or brown bass—and stripers, wipers, walleyes, or white bass—they all eat various shad species like threadfin and gizzard. You’ve seen the clouds of bait balls on electronics and birds following the surfacing fish fodder. Simply, where’s there’s shad, there’s gamefish—and once located, you better have on a bait that looks and acts like the predominant food.

SHAD

Enter the Ever Green XV-5 crossover, a shad-bait unlike anything on the market. A brand-new take on the shad-profile crankbait design—like a lot of Ever Green’s other cutting-edge baits—the XV-5 finds its origin on pressured, Japanese waters where anglers are constantly having to find the next big thing.

So, Ever Green is proud to introduce a radical new take in shad-profile crankbait design at ICAST 2022. The lure is sure to please the most discerning anglers looking for that perfect cross between crankbait and jerkbait to ply shad-infested waters.

Again, designed in Japan to service bass anglers used to difficult, discerning bass on waters like famed Lake Biwa, the XV-5 was painstakingly designed and tested to catch fish when other methods fail—even $30 artisan-painted jerkbaits, which Japan is also known for. The bait does not feature a knocker or internal rattle—also a plus for targeting clear, water pressured fish. The tight wobbled produces all the vibration and sound necessary to draw the lateral line detection of bass, stripers, wipers, white bass, walleyes, and trout.

Daiwa/Ever Green Senior Marketing Manager, Marc Mills, comments, “Ever since Ever Green started designing and building baits our first concern has been to create lures which look and act realistically. Now, in addition to that challenge, we’ve also explored more effective combination of colors and actions that provoke predatory fish.”

In terms of body design, the shape of the XV-5’s body looks just like a shad with a tapered tail, V-shaped concave belly design, and slightly fatter midsection.

Speaking of colors—although Ever Green is considering a color expansion after the initial bait launch—the XV-5 is available in six predator-provoking hues—in spot-on forage-mimicking patterns including Cold Shad, the slightly-transparent Ghost Threadfin Shad, Flash Hasu, Secret Ghost Chart, and Bluegill Chart Belly.

You’ll immediately appreciate its picture-perfect-profile, a dead ringer for the real thing. Equally impressive is the XV-5’s signature tight wiggle. There are numbers of other realistic-looking shad-profile baits on the market, but none tuned this perfectly and capable of summoning so many bites.

COLD SHAD

BLUEGILL CHART BELLY

GHOST THREADFIN SHAD

SECRET GHOST CHART

FLASH HASU

With sophisticated internal balance and weight, the XV-5 also casts like a bullet. Daiwa/Ever Green recommends throwing the bait on either spinning or baitcasting gear with Daiwa J-Braid and a green and brown J-Fluoro Samura Hidden Concept fluorocarbon line to feel the slightest movement of the bait and anticipate bone-crushing strikes.

One very special design feature is the inclusion of a middle hook on the bait. That’s right, in a marketplace of shad-profile crankbaits with only a front and back hook, the Ever Green XV-5 features three sticky-sharp trebles—with the addition of a middle hook—to ensure hookups no matter how slight the bump or nudge is from fish… All we can say is that design feature has been a long time coming.

Cast, pitched, or trolled, the XV-5 runs two to three deep like real shad riding high in the water column and busting the surface. For walleye and striper guys, the bait can also be trolled on leadcore to increase its use at various depths in the water column.

FEATURES & SPECIFICATIONS

• Crossover shad-crankbait design – part crank, part jerkbait
• Five initial shad/panfish colors in the bait family
• Unique placement of three hooks—versus two—for maximum hookup potential
• Slow rises on the pause
• Silent – no knocker – for pressured fish and clear water
• Runs 3’ top 7’ deep
• 3 ½-inch length
• 5/8 oz.

Available November 2022. MSRP: $18.99.

For Daiwa’s latest color catalog and/or information on Daiwa dealers in your area, call Daiwa’s Customer Service Department at 562-375-6800 or e-mail inquiries to: CSR@Daiwa.com. The URL for Daiwa’s web site is www.daiwa.us.