Hey, Keith here. I've been hooked on soft-plastic swimbaits since I threw my first Bass Assassin Shad back in the 90s. That side-to-side dart just under the surface never gets old.

So when a news release announcing a new plastic crossed my feed, I made a special trip to the bait shop and grabbed a pack of Zoom's latest creation.

Shad have been thick lately with the fall migration kicking in, so, wanting to match the hatch, I chose the Natural Shad color.

Despite my initial enthusiasm, it sat in my tackle box for a week. When I finally got around to fishing it, it broke every habit I had.

I'll admit it, I'm a sucker for soft-plastic twitch baits.

Ever since I threw my first Bass Assassin Shad in the 90s, I've loved working them close to the surface and watching them dart left, then right, in that sporadic, wounded-baitfish way.

Ever since dropping the new Rock-N-Roll Minnow in my tackle box, I'd been itching for a chance to fish it. That chance came the following weekend, and it came from the most unlikely place: the microwave man. 

He showed up to fix our microwave and finished early, which left me with a few free hours before I had to be anywhere.

I wasn't about to waste daylight driving anywhere, so I just walked out back to the bog.

The bog is a shallow, swampy pond on my property that I can always depend on to put a few bass on the bank.

When I walked up, I stopped to just watch before making a cast. This time of year, I can usually spot minnow activity on the surface, and that tells me exactly where the bass are working.

Sure enough, about a minute in, I spotted an explosion in the center of the pond. That told me the bait was grouped up farther out in the deeper water. 

That's common down here from now until winter. Shad start pulling out of the shallows and stacking up in the center portions of lakes and ponds, and the bass follow them out there.

I whipped the Rock-N-Roll Minnow out toward the commotion and worked it back like I would a fluke: jerk, jerk, jerk, then let it fall.

The action wasn't doing much for me. Then I remembered a video I'd watched of a guy fishing this exact bait, saying it's best fished with no jerking at all, just a straight reel.

So I switched it up and started reeling it in slow and steady.

After about 10 casts, it happened. I was reeling at a slow, even pace when the bow in my line straightened out.

I set the hook, fought the fish for about a minute, and slung a one-pound bass up onto the bank before tossing it back.

I kept casting to that same pocket of activity in the center of the bog.

The bite stayed a little slow, but I ended up putting six bass on the bank, the biggest weighing in at three pounds.

Every one of them came the same way: a slow, steady reel with no pause and no jerk. The lure mimicked a dying shad perfectly, fluttering and circling at random moments all on its own.

I own a tackle box full of soft-plastic swimbaits, but I don't have anything like this one. Working it is actually similar to the retrieve on a Micro King—just let the built-in action do all the work.

The built-in lip separates this bait from every other soft-plastic twitch bait in my box, and it changes how you need to fish it.

One thing I like about the Rock-N-Roll Minnow is that it isn't a one-trick rig. Here's how I'd choose between the options depending on the water you're fishing.