What is the cheapest way to buy these soft plastic “weedless paddletails on jig heads” lures? (Black Minnow, Sandeel V2 Weedless etc.)

I was tidying up some of my affiliate links on here the other day and I got to thinking about the proliferation of these soft plastic paddletail “systems” - paddletail lure bodies which are designed to fit onto specific jig heads and weedless hooks. My first experience of these systems as such was the original and absolutely lethal Fiiish Black Minnow, indeed contained within my rather large photo library are many, many shots of serious bass caught on these amazing things. Fiiish are a fantastic company and not for one second am I going to try and deny that the Black Minnow didn’t heavily inspire my thinking behind pushing Savage Gear to make our own versions with some specific differences (one jig head design, different way to secure the weedless hook to the jig head, a couple of options for securing lure body to jig head, inbuilt rattle, different kind of lure body material etc.),=. In due course we came out with the Savage Minnow Weedless and the Sandeel V2 Weedless (there are J-hook versions of both, but for the purposes of this blog post I am going to stick with the weedless versions which I fish with so much).

The reason my tidying up some affiliate links got me to this blog post was that I realised I didn’t know what the most cost efficient ways are to go about buying these lures might be, and especially when there are often a few different ways to go about it - complete, pre-rigged lure, various components bought separately, combo packets etc. I don’t pay for Savage Gear lures that I fish with, but I am a consumer just like you, I buy plenty of fishing tackle because I am a hopeless tackle tart, and with anything I buy in life I’d like to get the best price possible. So is there a clever way to buy these lures and save a bit of money?

There are plenty of these types of lures out there these days which were all at least inspired by Fiiish taking a bunch of components, improving them and making them work together as a system, but I am going to stick mainly with the lures I know and fish with. I hope what I have written below makes a bit of sense, and please excuse any mathematical errors I might have made. My belief is that anglers tend to prefer buying pre-rigged lures, but is it the cheapest way to buy these types of lures? Please note that my working with Savage Gear hasn’t remotely detracted from how much I like and admire the complete Fiiish Black Minnow system. I have gone with the prices from the Veals Mail Order website because I affiliate link to them and they list all the items I want to talk about, but to buy via mail order you will generally need to add on the postage costs. It goes without saying that you should support your local tackle shop wherever possible. Let’s have a look then……………..

A 10lb+ bass on the Black Minnow

Fiiish Black Minnow 120 No.3 with the 18g Search jig head. This lure is roughly the same size and weight as the Savage Minnow Weedless 12.5cm/28g below:

  • £6.00 each - if you buy the Combo pack for £8.99 (two lure bodies, one jig head, one weedless hook, one of the lures is pre-rigged so you get a spare body, keep reading for how I arrived at this)

  • £8.00 each - if you buy the Double Combo pack for £16.00 (two complete Black Minnows)

  • £6.44 each - if you buy a packet of three bodies for £7.15, two 18g Search jig heads for £6.49, and a packet of 4 x 120 size weedless hooks for £3.19. Go this way and you will end up with two complete Black Minnows, one spare lure body, and two spare hooks.

Savage Gear Savage Minnow Weedless 12.5cm/28g “ready to go” 2+ 1 packet for £8.48:

  • £5.68 per lure - let’s call this the price of one complete Sandeel V2 Weedless 11.5cm/22g if you buy a “ready to go” 2+1 packet for £8.48 and now you’ve got one spare lure body (worked out as per the Sandeel V2 Weedless above). This is how I got here: £8.48 for two lure bodies with one jig head and one weedless hook (one is pre-rigged), so divide the £8.48 by 3 to give us a price of around £2.84 for each of the three components in the packet (2 x lure bodies, 1 x jig head with weedless hook attached).

  • £5.99 - one pre-rigged lure which you can buy individually

  • £4.94 - the cost of each Savage Minnow Weedless 12.5cm/28g lure if you buy the separate components, but let’s say you rig the three jig heads up with three bodies - this now leaves you with two spare lure bodies which you have already paid for. This is how I got here: £7.98 for a packet of five 10cm Savage Gear Savage Minnow Weedless Tails/lure bodies (this is the correct size for the Savage Minnow Weedless 12.5cm/28g, and yes, I know, it should be easier to understand and if I get my way in the future it will be!) so it’s roughly £1.60 for one Tail/body if you buy that packet of five. £10.00 for a packet of three 5/0 18g Savage Gear Savage Minnow Weedless Jigheads (the correct size jig heads with three weedless hooks already attached in the packet) which makes it £3.34 for one of these jig heads with weedless hook attached. £17.98 is the total cost for the two packets of components which you obviously need to make the lures up.

Do the same sums for the smaller Savage Minnow Weedless 10cm/16g and it comes out to this:

  • £5.00 - let’s call this the price of a complete 10cm/16g Savage Minnow Weedless if you buy a “ready to go” 2+1 packet for £7.49 so you’ve got one spare lure body as well

  • £4.99 - if you buy one of the individual, pre-rigged lures

  • £4.07 - the cost of each 10cm/16g Savage Minnow Weedless lure if you go down the separate packets of components route, and let’s say you rig the three jig heads up with three bodies - this now leaves you with two spare lure bodies which you have already paid for.

This 10lb+ bass came on the Sandeel V2 Weedless 11.5cm/22g lure…………do big bass always go for big lures? Me thinks not.

Sandeel V2 Weedless 11.5cm/22g “ready to go” 2+1 packet for £5.99:

  • £4 - let’s call this the price of one complete Sandeel V2 Weedless 11.5cm/22g if you buy a “ready to go” 2+1 packet for £5.99 and now you’ve got one spare lure body. I got here like this: £5.99 for two lure bodies with the one jig head and one weedless hook - one is pre-rigged - then divide the £5.99 (£6 to make it easier) by 3 to give us a £2 price for each of the three components in the packet (2 x lure bodies, 1 x jig head with weedless hook attached, I can’t think of a better way of deciding on the price of each)

  • £4.10 - the cost of each Sandeel V2 Weedless 11.5cm/22g lure if you buy the different components, but let’s say you rig the three jig heads up with three bodies - this now leaves you with two spare lure bodies which you have already paid for. I got here like this: £5.48 for a packet of five 9.5cm Savage Gear Sandeel V2 Weedless Tails/lure bodies (this is the correct size for the Sandeel V2 Weedless 11.5cm/22g, and yes, I know, it should be easier to understand and if I get my way in the future it will be!), so it’s £1.10 for for one Tail/body if you buy the above packet, then £8.99 for a packet of three 15g 3/0 Savage Gear Sandeel V2 Jighead Weedless (the correct size jig heads with three weedless hooks already attached in the packet), so let’s call it £3 for one of these jig heads with weedless hook attached. £14.47 is the total cost for the two packets of components which you obviously need to make the lures up.

Do the same sums for the larger Sandeel V2 Weedless 13cm/33g and it comes out to this:

So here are the cheapest prices for one complete lure I can find on Veals Mail Order if you follow my way of doing things above, with a few other similar lures I can find on their website for comparison:

  • £6.00 - Fiiish Black Minnow 120 with 18g Search Head (about 28g total weight)

  • £4.94 - Savage Gear Savage Minnow Weedless 12.5cm/28g total weight

  • £4.20 - Savage Gear Sandeel V2 Weedless 13cm/33g

  • £4.07 - Savage Minnow Weedless 10cm/16g (smaller and lighter, hence cheaper)

  • £4.10 - Savage Gear Sandeel V2 Weedless 11.5cm/22g (smaller and lighter, hence cheaper)

  • £4.66 - GT-Bio Roller Shad 125, bought as a 2+1 combo packet (125mm/23g, I think this is the jig head weight but I haven’t seen these lures yet, they do look rather nice)

  • £4.94 - GT-Bio Roller Shad 125, price for one lure if you buy a packet of bodies, hooks and jig heads (search “GT-Bio” on the Veals Mail Order website to find these components)

  • £4.00 - Drift Shoal Shad 30g (I don’t know who makes these lures, I think you need to buy a packet of two lures for £7.98, it’s the cheapest lure here)

  • £4.25 - Storm 360°GT Coastal Biscay Weedless Shads 12cm/40g (I think you need to buy a packet of two lures for £8.48)

If you are still with me then congratulations! I am not sure what I have proved other than a lot of these types of lures seem to come in around the same price and there doesn’t seem to be any noticeably cheaper or more logical ways to buy these lures to save some cash. I notice that the original Fiiish Black Minnow in a similar size and weight to most of the lures here happens to be the most expensive, but with how good they are and how many big bass they continue to land I think they are very much worth the asking price. It’s not for me to say what the best lures are when it’s always going to be very subjective anyway, but what I do like is that you can often hook and land multiple bass on one of these lures before the body rips up too much. Wrasse specialise in biting the tails off any of these lures though! I accept that soft plastic bodies aren’t as durable as hard lures, but I can’t imagine going out fishing these days without at least a few of some of these paddletail “systems” in my lure boxes - whereas I can imagine going out bass fishing sometimes when the only hard lures I am carrying are surface lures. My apologies if I have made some glaring mathematical errors above, but I think it all makes some kind of sense………..

Disclosure - If you buy anything using links found around my website, I may make a commission. It doesn’t cost you anymore to buy via these affiliate links - and please feel entirely free not to do so of course - but it will help me to continue producing content. Thank you.


Bass fishing, Fishing tackle, Lure fishingHenry GilbeySeptember 202229 Comments