The Dominator Shad truly is a finesse swimbait and can easily be overworked by anglers who are used to fishing big glides that have a wide, sweeping swim. It's sometimes helpful to think of it more as a super responsive jerkbait (minus the lip on the lure and aching in your wrists) rather than a traditional glide bait. Some of my favorite retrieves follow the same cadence that I would use if I were fishing a jerkbait on conventional tackle. Tone down your inputs and let the bait do the work.

One retrieve that I like is the standard twitch-pause, only I like to use half turns of my reel handle on the twitch and let the bait shoot out on semi-slack line on the pause. Another retrieve is twitching the bait forward with the rod four to five times before pausing while I reel up the slack. About 90% of my bites occur on the pause. I use my reel to impart most of the action so that my rod is ready in striking position as much as possible. Fishing the bait on braided line with the rod tip pointed at the lure maximizes its action.