Rago's Byron Velvick BV 3D Rago Swimbait 7"

"At the very mention of his name, big bass tremble!" - a bass addict

Well, maybe not tremble, but big bass often open their mouths and suck down one of his baits!

Jerry Rago's hand poured BV3D is 7.0" and weighs approximately 3oz.

There are no other big bass bait designers that can match Jerry Rago's accomplishment in designing lures that specifically target hawg mawed, barrel bellied bass.  From his first bait he made in 1994 until now, his baits and baits he helped design have probably accounted for more big bass than the baits of any other designer.

Jerry Rago's first bait, oddly enough, was his original rat bait he was inspired to make when he saw a rat running out in front of his car.  Taking that first lure to a nearby pond, the first fish that hit the rat was a five pound bass.  Using that same rat bait at another local pond yielded another five pound bass.  After the success of that first bait, the floodgate of successful designs was opened and a new era of big bass bait designs poured forth.

Let's take a quick look at those new designs. He started off partnering with another incredible big bait designer,  Scott Whitmer. The Rago-Whitmer or Whitmer-Rago swimbaits were big in the U.S. in the late 1990's and huge in Japan . Rago and Whitmer shipped and sold as many or more big baits per year to Japan than most big bait companies do worldwide in any five year period.

Jerry Rago also worked with the original Osprey designers to develop the early Osprey baits. This design is still the basis of the current Osprey baits. Osprey has been among the best selling big baits for the entire 2000-2010 decade. They remain one of the best selling and best fish catching big baits in the world.

Jerry Rago later produced a few big baits under his own name that were coveted by the lucky anglers who were able to get their hands on them. These include the generic trout and the amazing “Live Trout”. The “Live Trout” has put more than ten double digit bass in one California big bass hunter's boat and many other anglers have reported huge success on it; not only on bass, but on stripers and large brown and lake trout as well.  However, because these were individually made, these were not sold in the same numbers as the Huddleston Deluxe Trouts, Ospreys, or AC Plugs, to name a few other big bass baits.

Just a few years later Rago designed the "Tool."  The Rago Tool is considered by many to be the best swimming hard big bait of all time.  It is said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and today's SPRO BBZ is a virtual duplicate of the Rago Tool.  Rago did not receive any credit for designing the BBZ,  but it's easy to see that the BBZ shares the Tool's heritage when you place the two side by side.

The BBZ from SPRO is another of the best selling big baits of all time. SPRO was able to mass produce and market a bait looks almost as good to the angler as the Rago Tool.  Tens of thousands and maybe more of their version of the Rago Tool  have been sold. 

Rago's Rat, which he designed in 1994, has two brothers in his big bait line up, the Swamp Rat and the Mouse.  These baits are still being thrown when anglers want to try something "a little different".

Cementing his reputation as a big bass bait maker has been the back-to-back wins of Skeet Reese using the SKT Swimmer to nail down the Smith Mountain Elite Series, and Byron Velvick's win of the 2010 Clear Lake Elite Series using a BV3D to produce a lake record total of an incredible 98 lbs. 6 oz.!

If you are serious about big bass, use stout tackle, tie good knots, and make sure there is a Rago bait on the end of your line!