Evergreen Combat Rat

EVERGREEN’s Combat Rat is a surface wakebait that entices fish by churning the water in complex patterns. Designed by U.S. pro Justin Kerr with tournament performance in mind, it handles a wide range of retrieve speeds from slow to fast. In addition to responding to a straight retrieve, it reacts to rod twitches to produce table-turning action. It is a 15.0 cm floating model weighing 66 g in the 2 oz class, with an overall length of 27.0 cm including the tail.

The thick, hard-material front body features an internal air chamber that combines durability with high buoyancy, generating powerful water displacement. The lip is designed to grab the water even on a slow retrieve, while shedding water pressure during a fast retrieve to help the lure avoid cover. A two-point joint system with movable front and rear joints, together with two play-adjusted dual metal plates, allows flexible movement upward, downward, side to side, and diagonally. This produces a complex action that combines water displacement with twisting of the front body and the side-to-side swing of the rear body. The lure also mixes the sound of a stainless-steel one-knocker rattle, body noise from the joints, bubbles and popping sounds generated by the dimpled structure, and the vibration produced by the slim, straight, long tail made from floating material. When paused, the tail shimmers on the surface. The swivel hook hangers feature rotating hook eyes that help dissipate force during head shakes. The tail can be replaced by inserting it straight into the wire keeper, and two spare tails with mounting-position guide holes are included.