Sidewinder Super Shads Cod Squad 4″

## Sidewinder Super Shads “Cod Squad” Edition

UK sea anglers know that when you are drifting deep offshore wrecks or working rugged rock reefs, matching the hatch is only half the battle. You need a lure that stands out in the murky depths and can withstand the brutal jaw pressure of big, hungry predators. The **Sidewinder Super Shads “Cod Squad” Edition** is specifically curated to take the absolute guesswork out of your selection. It brings together a high-visibility, commercial-approved color matrix proven to drive cod, pollack, and coalfish into an absolute feeding frenzy.

The magic of the Sidewinder Super Shad lies in its legendary, often-copied-but-never-beaten swimming dynamics. Built with an internal lead jig head perfectly balanced within an ultra-soft, yet highly durable polymer body, this lure tracks perfectly through fast-moving tidal columns. The signature deep-thumping paddle tail kicks into gear at the slowest of retrieve speeds, sending heavy acoustic vibrations cutting through the dark water. This gives deep-dwelling fish a definitive tracking coordinate. Armed out of the box with heavy-duty Mustad ultra-point hooks and realistic 3D eyes, this pack is pure dynamite for boat drifting and heavy shore casting alike.

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### Technical Specifications

| Feature | 4-Inch Pack Details | 5-Inch Pack Details |
| — | — | — |
| **Brand** | Sidewinder | Sidewinder |
| **Model Profile** | Super Shads “Cod Squad” Selection | Super Shads “Cod Squad” Selection |
| **Lure Length** | 4 Inches / 100mm | 5 Inches / 125mm |
| **Lure Weight** | 25 grams per lure | 43 grams per lure |
| **Hook Specification** | Heavy-Duty Mustad 32786BN Ultra-Point | Heavy-Duty Mustad 32786BN Ultra-Point |
| **Pack Quantity** | 4 Lures per packet | 3 Lures per packet |
| **Color Assortment** | 1x Rhubarb & Custard, 1x Candy Red, 1x Orange, 1x Hot Pink | 1x Rhubarb & Custard, 1x Orange, 1x Hot Pink |
| **Primary Disciplines** | Offshore Boat Drifting, Reef Jigging, Heavy Shore Casting | Offshore Boat Drifting, Reef Jigging, Heavy Shore Casting |
| **Target Species** | Cod, Pollack, Coalfish, Large Bass | Large Cod, Trophy Pollack, Ling, Coalfish |

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### Key Features & Construction

* **Commercial-Proven Cod Matrix:** No more staring blankly at your lure box. The Cod Squad selection bundles high-contrast, fluorescent, and deep-tonal colors (including the legendary Rhubarb & Custard) that retain high visibility even at depths exceeding 100 feet.
* **Internal Lead Weight Balance:** Precision-molded with an internal lead ballast system. This eliminates the need for clumsy external jig heads, allowing the shad to maintain a flawlessly level, horizontal swimming profile on both the drop and the retrieve.
* **High-Impact Paddle Tail Action:** The engineered tail joint operates with immense flexibility. It delivers a wide, aggressive, body-rolling vibration that perfectly mimics a panicked sprat, herring, or juvenile pouting.
* **Mustad Ultra-Point Hooks:** Armed with premium, heavy-gauge black nickel hooks. These hooks refuse to flex or straighten under the raw winching force required to haul a double-figure cod out of heavy iron wreckage.
* **Hyper-Realistic 3D Strike Eyes:** Features prominent, deeply embedded holographic 3D eyes that act as a primary close-range target zone for striking predators.

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### Where to Use: Recommended Scenarios

* **Offshore Wreck Drifting for Cod & Ling:** The absolute premier home for these shads. When a charter boat drifts over a deep-water sunken vessel, dropping a Cod Squad shad down to the seabed and retrieving it slowly up through the lower 30 feet of the water column is the gold-standard method for intercepting big, predatory cod.
* **Reef Jigging for Trophy Pollack:** Ideal for working over shallow to mid-depth rocky reefs and kelp pinnacles. The hyper-vibrational paddle tail drives light-sensitive pollack absolutely frantic as the lure glides past their ambush points.
* **Heavy Shore Casting into Deep Rock Gullies:** Perfect for rugged shore anglers launching lures from deep rock ledges into clean tidal currents. The 25g and 43g internal weights provide superb casting ballistics to slice through coastal headwinds.

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### The Gerry’s Fishing Verdict

> The Sidewinder Super Shad is an undisputed legend in the sea angling community, and the Cod Squad pack simplifies big-fish hunting completely. Many generic shads look great on the shop wall but fail miserably on the drift because their plastic is either too stiff to swim slowly, or too soft to survive a single fish strike. Sidewinder has completely ironed out that flaw. The durability of their soft-plastic compound is exceptional, and the curated colors in this pack are exactly what we pull out of our own tackle bags when heading offshore. It is a premium, high-catching system that offers spectacular value.

**Gerry’s Pro Tip:** To trigger an absolute avalanche of aggressive hits when drift-fishing over wrecks, **you must master the ‘slow-wind and drop’ sequence rather than using frantic jerking motions**. Drop your Sidewinder shad straight down until you feel the lead thump the seabed or the iron of the wreck. Immediately engage your reel handle and start a slow, continuous, and steady retrieve for roughly 20 to 30 turns—do not twitch the rod tip, as a steady retrieve lets the paddle tail work with 100% mechanical efficiency. If you don’t get a hit, open your bail arm or free-spool lever and drop it straight back to the bottom to repeat. Roughly 90% of your biggest pollack and cod strikes will occur right as the lure transitions from the bottom or when it is halfway up the water column following the boat’s drift!

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### Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

#### Why is the “Rhubarb & Custard” colorway considered so deadly for UK cod?

Water filters light colors differently the deeper it goes, with reds and yellows turning to dull shades of grey. However, the unique, high-contrast separation of the bright pink/red tail against the vibrant fluorescent yellow body of the Rhubarb & Custard colorway creates a hyper-visible strobe effect in pitch-black, deep-water environments. Commercial and charter anglers have proven for decades that this specific visual contrast triggers an intense predatory response when nothing else works.

#### Can I fish these shads using a flying collar rig or a running ledger?

Yes, absolutely. While they cast beautifully straight off a spinning rod, the most effective offshore boat method is to fish them on a classic “flying collar rig” utilizing a long, 10 to 15-foot fluorocarbon trace (typically 20lb to 30lb) attached to a long plastic boom. This keeps the weighted shad operating completely tangle-free and far away from your main sinker, allowing it to swim with unrestricted, life-like grace through the current.

#### Do these soft plastics get easily destroyed by fish teeth?

Sidewinder utilizes a specialized, high-tensile polymer matrix that strikes the perfect structural balance. It is supple enough to deliver a spectacular, low-speed tail action, yet tough enough to withstand multiple aggressive strikes from toothy predators like pollack and cod without tearing to shreds, outlasting cheap, generic soft baits by a wide margin.