Reviewed: Berkley Powerbait Twitchtail Minnow

New for 2012, the Twitchtail Minnow was introduced by Berkley at this year's ICAST as a promising multipurpose finesse lure. How does the Twitchtail perform? I've spent some time fishing it to find out.

What is it?

The Twitchtail Minnow is a 3" multi-color lure with close to neutral buoyancy. It comes in 15 colors and is sold in packs of 12. Here's what Berkley has to say at their ICAST booth.



The Twitchtail is advertised as a dropshot lure, but shape and buoyancy make the Twitchtail well suited to splitshot and top water presentations too. It reminds me of common crappie lures like the Bobby Garland Baby Shad, but in a large size suitable for bass.

How did you fish it?

The color I picked to try the bait is clear gold/black back. I used a Gamakatsu #4 Octopus hook in a way I like to call backwards-jig-hooked. This hook method starts the point on the top of the lure and exits the hook through the nose of the lure. This hooking method helps keep the lure right side up while falling and keeps a smaller hook from being pushed out of a fish's mouth by the plastic of the lure. I used 8 lb Trilene Professional Flourocarbon line as my leader on Nanofil main line. I fished it on a dropshot, splitshot, and unweighted in creek, river, and lake settings.

What did you find?

The near neutral buoyancy and small size give this lure a lot of flexibility. I caught small and large mouth bass while the lure was at rest, falling, and being retrieved.

Unweighted the lure falls very slowly at about 2 or 3 inches per second. The lure is heavy enough that it casts a reasonable distance unweighted. I found no weight worked well in shallows and through heavy cover. In one instance it caught me several large mouths by jerking it below an algae bloom, and on another by letting it sit still in some reeds.

With a BB splitshot the lure falls at natural-looking 1 foot per second rate. I used a BB a foot up the line almost exclusively while I was at my local creek to catch small mouths. The BB allows the lure to be used either as a bottom bait in up to 10 ft of water or on a slow retrieve.

Running a larger splitshot caught me some of my biggest bass on this lure. By running it on the bottom like a carolina rig the bass were quick to bite. Dropshotting on an 1/8 oz weight was also effective.

Small Mouths for dinner caught with the Twitchtail

I also took some time to fish the Twitchtail sans tail to good effect. I found removing the tail made the lure better for retrieve style fishing and I did not notice a reduced catch rate.

Pros and Cons

Pros: Very flexible and a high catch rate, including some medium size bass. I think this lure will work moderately well in just about any presentation or situation.

Cons: A moderately fast retrieve caused the Twitchtail to twirl unnaturally. Nose, Jig-style and worm-style hooking methods did not cut down on the excess roll. I didn't use a front-weighted swim jig, but that may be the only option to cut down on roll.

The Twitchtail caught a number of smaller fish, including rock bass and fallfish. This might be a pro or a con depending on your attitude toward catching smaller and less desirable fish.

Would you buy it?

The Powerbait Twitchtail Minnow is now a go-to lure in my tackle pack next to my Yum Dinger, Southern Pro Triple Tip Grub, and Power Honey Worms. I'll be trying some other colors as my current supply dries up.