The Torob
Rob Kraaijeveld came up with this sinking jerkbait by simply cutting a jerkbait blank from a piece of wood, just to see whether it would work. At first, he didn't like it at all but later he delivered an epoxy version to his friend Peter Nan. As it happened, Peter caught 10 pike on it in the first few days. You can be sure that it catches fish! The largest pike that has been caught on it thus far, is a monstrous 131.5cm long pike caught by Hans Wowijs.
The Torob is a sinking hybrid style jerkbait with a length of 5.5" and a weight of 60g (slightly over 2oz). This jerkbait should be rigged with 2/0 eagle claw trebles, just like its cousin The Brammer. The Torob sinks slowly after having fitted it with the trebles and a jerkbait leader. I believe it is more suitable for slightly deeper water.
When you retrieve the Torob with, soft, long pulls of 50-60cm long, it has an action that is similar to that of the Brammer when it is reeled in at a constant speed. You won't get the Torob really deep when you retrieve it with long pulls because it tends to turn on its side and head for the surface during a pull. It's really weird but this retrieve might score when giving a fair go. The maximum depth you can attain with this retrieve is about 40cm, maybe slightly less.
When you fish the Torob with short pulls of less than 8" long, you'll be able to fish the Torob a lot deeper, up to 80cm. It will dive and displays a wide, slow wobble in combination with a snake-like path. By this I mean it will swim only once from left to right, and then back to the left over a distance of about 1m (between 3-4 feet). It's kind of like a drunk waggling from left to right on the sidewalk, slowly inching his way forward.
If you would use twitches, the Torob moves up and down, left and right through the water. The action is similar to that of the 'Halve Liter', made by a famous Dutch angler called Arjan Willemsen. As you can guess, you can inch this jerkbait through the water at an extremely slow speed.
Like the Brammer and all other Robbaits, the Torob has a thick epoxy coating.
This color pattern is called "Roach" and apparently it also works well in clear water. Rob himself uses jerkbaits almost exclusively in clear water. He hardly ever uses jerkbaits in stained water and when he does, he mainly uses "firetiger" and "redhead perch" color patterns.
You'll need to practise a little when you want to use this jerkbait, but it has been proven that it is worth the effort!
Good fishing!
Dirk