Liquid Leech from Liquid Willowcat
Liquid Willowcat contacted me a while back asking if I would like to test out their new plastic, the Liquid Leech. The Liquid Leech is a 3.5″ leech shaped plastic. It is scented with attractant, UV enhanced, and aims to realistically mimic a natural leech. Meant to target walleye, trout, and similar game fish, I had to give it a try. With a trip to the family cabin coming up, I had the perfect opportunity. I received a very generous package with a huge variety of colors.
To their credit, and in the case of full disclosure, there was no expectation of a full review or any promotions, only a request for honest feedback, which I chose to provide here, in this format.
Taking it Out
Preparing to fish the Liquid Leech was fairly straightforward. We would be targeting walleye with the potential to get on some big perch. Our favorite approach on this lake is to vertically jig salted minnows, live nightcrawlers, live leeches, or plastics of those shapes. This means that it’s the perfect place to use the Liquid Leech and compare it to the natural options. Considering the variety of colors I was sent, I brought along a large variety of jig styles and colors. Joining me was two good friends, Nathan and Dave, providing even more opportunity for testing and comparisons.
First Impressions
Before even taking them to the lake, I was impressed by a few features of these plastics. Let me tell you, as someone who loves a good smelly bait, the attractant that infuses the Liquid Leech is fantastic. Garlic is a popular walleye scent for good reason, it works. These leeches absolutely REEK of garlic, in the best way possible. Likewise, just looking at these you immediately think of a leech. The mimicry of the real thing is excellent, and you can tell by looking that these will flutter through the water as though alive. Finally, I noticed how thin the plastic was, and a few small tears in them just from handling the packages. A bad sign, which would become a recurring theme.
Performance
Let me start by saying that the Liquid Leech looks AMAZING in the water. Rippling and fluttering with a mind of it’s own, you would swear it was a real leech swimming by if it weren’t for the jig head. When trolling slowly with spinners, or even drift jigging with jig heads, the Liquid Leech really shined. Any bit of extra movement just adds to that realistic look. However, that is not to say that it didn’t perform while vertically jigging, it absolutely did. We had a relatively slow bite all weekend, but the leech held up. Compared to all the live baits we used, it got an equal amount of bites while jigging, and it got more bites while trolling. In terms of catching fish, it worked.
One Fatal Flaw
Now, let’s talk about the major downside of the Liquid Leech. This plastic is fragile! Forget surviving an actual bite from a toothy predator like a walleye. We had to be extremely careful just taking these baits out of the package. It was common that one of us would take a leech out of the package, only to find that it was missing a piece. This ranged from small bits or tears to sometimes having it ripped right in half while still inside the packaging. Luckily, small tears or small pieces missing did not affect its performance.
We still got bites on them. But every bite, whether the fish got hooked or not, meant a high chance that the leech was now missing a chunk. Quite often we would miss a nibble to find that the bottom half of the leech was bitten clean through. When we landed a walleye, it was almost a certainty that we would need to switch out to a new leech. These things simply do not hold up to even the most minor of abuses.
Final Thoughts
The Liquid Leech is an interesting bait to properly judge. On the one hand, it both looks and smells amazing, and it absolutely catches fish. We triggered a lot of bites on a lake that was otherwise fairly inactive while we were there. On the other hand though, the fragile nature of these plastics means that you will get pretty limited use out of each pack.
At $4.99 for a pack of 8, with a chance that you will rip one or two while still in the package, you have to wonder if these are really cost effective compared to alternatives such as a basic tub of minnows. I foresee myself using these sparingly, when I need to trigger an otherwise finnicky bite, however in those situations I am confident they will get me a hookup. The bottom line is, if it weren’t for the durability issue, I think these would easily be in my top 5 of walleye plastics.
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