The Gambler Really Big GZ 8″ Swimbait Tail vs. the familiar 8″ Huddleston trout tail.
The Gambler Really Big GZ 8″ next to some other baits for some relative sizing. From Top to Bottom: The Big Hammer Sledge Hammer, the Gambler Really Big GZ 8″, the ShellBack Customs 6″ Swimbait, and 8″ Huddleston Deluxe trout.
The hookset, the circumstances of this fish….Tip of the hat to Gambler, my friends, my competitors, and to the mighty unique state of Florida. I had no doubt the 8″ Gambler Really Big GZ 8″ bait was gonna get bit.One on the Gambler Big GZ 8″ and one on the Shellback Customs 6″ swimmer
3 fatties. I’m getting ready for Okeechobee in Jan 202X in my mind. Gambler Big GZ 8″, Shell Back customs 6″, some Huddies, some bed fishing w Hammer, some, Harney Pond Duck Pond Casey Martin was here dot com.
Gambler in Florida is like RoboWorm or Keitech in California. Gambler is based in South Florida, near Okeechobee and is known for in particular for its goodness around grass. The owner, Val is a tournament fisherman and has won major events on Okeechobee. I have seen him, competed against him back in the day, and know he is a solid fisherman. They maintain a pro-staff of really good local and national anglers that tend to be good anywhere, but grass in particular. Think JT Kenny or Brandon McMillan. The BB Cricket is legend amongst the punchers. Super small profile simple bait that fishes well behind massive 1.5ounce punch weight and beefy punch hook.
Right around the corner from the Kissimmee River. Bob Wood gave me an early tour of what the deal is with Okeechobee. Notice, the Gambler Flappy Shad swinging off his line. Look at the water we are fishing. The flappy shad is little quite weedless buzzbait when you cut the tail and high stick reel it on braid. Blamo!
Jimmy, Day 4 final weigh in. Notice Koby Kreiger in the background. I knew I better get right in hurry. Okeechobee was intimidating. Not an easy read for me, but man, the lessons in life and fishing. Okeechobee haunts me still. Day 2, FLW Series on Okeechobee 2009. I fished w Robert Gulley from MS. We had a great day. I somehow remember this day incredibly well. Tin House Cove, boyeeeeee.
When I first arrived in Okeechobee in January of 2009, the very first event I fished, within weeks of resigning from software world, was the 2009 FLW Series Event. That was they event the late great Jimmy McMillan won. I actually fished well the first 2 days and totally choked the 3rd. The irony, is I was fishing the Gambler Flappy Shad and sight fishing. Day 3, things got wicked rough and windy, but behind the grass lines, the water was uber fishy. I basically rookied out, and to this day cannot answer why I didn’t just fish the wind the throw a spinnerbait. I watched Dion Hibdon whack like 19 pounds all around around me. Anyway, I was out. Jimmy McMillan would go on to win. The winning bait? The Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper. Over in this place called J&S which of course was the only corner of Okeechboee I hadn’t seen! It would put me on journey of a braid on weedless swimbait fishing.
Swimming Worms
I had a golden opportunity to just put on a boot tailed swimbait like Basstrix paddle tail and would have made a $10K in my first event. I just didn’t. I fought the wind, kept looking for bed fish, and kooked out. I didn’t have that in my game, saddly, out of arrogance. I fished ‘bigbaits’. I fished other baits, but didn’t spend the time on the simple boot tailed swimmers, the paddle tailed swimmers, the simple swimbaits—–that I should have. I should have had that in my game and kept with it. It was a mistake I made all during my full time fishing journey. Anyway, after that Okeeechobee event, I had nearly a month to prepare for the next one on Okeechobee.
Tell me that isn’t a Florida largemouth? Black bass. Yamamoto Swim Senko. I would never suggest reeling them over grass!
That next 30 days, in my mind, will remain as some my finest and biggest progression in fishing, probably ever. I will forever remember staying at the Roland Martin Marine. I got over the Clewiston part of the lake in a hurry, and was far more enamored with Harney Pond, Monkey Box, the North Shore all the up to Okeechobee. That being said, I learned that I could drive from Clewiston to Okeechobee and put in in the Kissimmee River and save the boat run, and wake up to some coffee and music of choice. I was driving my truck 1 hour each way from Clewiston, to go learn the ‘north side’. I found the north side of Okeechobee fished more more liking and had these great pools and runs that got me dialed-in. Braid was a huge part of the approach, boat handling, strong grass ready trolling motor and batteries…but most importantly was the mindset of shallow water weedless grass swimbait fishing.
As thick as the 8″ Hudd too. But has a much slender and rounder profile and is not as life like/fish shaped. The articulated section helps the bait kick, and articulate and gives it a unique footprint.
Weedless Grass Swimbait Fishing
There is a steady progression of weedless swimbaits. You could start with paddle tails, Speed Worms, and even curly tailed worms, that come to find out, fish really well when you just reel them along. I quickly connected the dots between the Skinny Dipper and baits like the Yamamoto Swim Senko. Gambler is to Florida like Yamamoto is to the West too. I knew Gary Yamamoto had a great tournament on the Swim Senko, so I had to explore that bait too. I LOVE putting in the Kissimee River, shooting the gap at Kings Bar and making my way West. I really got to learn Okeechobee my first winter of 2009, by committing my time to the Midtown (aka Monkey Box/Harney Pond) and UpTown – Eagle Bay>JS<Kings Bar>Indian Prairie>. The bait was the Skinny Dipper. And the Swim Senko. Ken Huddleston’s Grass Minnow become a goto for me a little later. His 6″ weedless too, but the more simple, weedless 5-6″ swimbaits you use a screw lock hook to attach to, is what I’m saying. The Skinny Dipper was king for a bit. Other baits sorta came along, but nothing earth shattering. Then, one day the Gambler Big EZ broke.
Relativity. Theories. Science. Known vs. Unknown. Sledge Hammer > ShellBack war >8″ Huddie.
All my South Florida buddies being all fired up about the Gambler Big EZ. It pushed more water, had a different swim signature than the others. It was catching better fish. It was the trailer on the back of a chatterbait. Of course, most lethal is the weighted screw lock (or unweighted too) just reeling it over, up and over, thru, and around as many good swim lanes and hot pockets as you can. Braided line. I remember guys at Santee Cooper getting good bites. Seminole. Okeechobee of course. The core grass lakes we hit.
Okay, I like pink tails, pink baits, but I didn’t choose the pink single wide to live in. It did work out just fine, thanks.
I lived in West Palm Beach for like 5 months, hoping to be a S. Florida surfer and Okeechobee local. Not to be. As I was about to move from the thug life side of West Palm Beach to Jupiter, a bombshell went off in my life. I was at a software team event and somebody mentioned the new office in Aliso Viejo, CA. Boom, I literally undid my world, and jumped on the train back home. So, it’s been a minute since I been around guys named Wood, Luke, Carter, McMillan, Tharp, Fitzgerald…but yeah, the Seminole winds blow thru San Clemente often.
Tin House. Notice the dollar pads (not the dead gator. I was hungry and felt like some gator!) and the dark black coffee water. I really like dollar pads at times. They are fun to fish.Box o Calico swimmer. The 6.5″ Gambler GZ Swimmers and the Shellback Customs swimmers.
Gambler makes a whole series of the EZ Swimmer. It wasn’t really hard for me to buy a couple of packs of the Gambler Really Big GZ 8″ baits to ‘test’ them out on the calico bass. I had already gotten the 6.5″ versions, but I was intrigued to see the bigger version.
You have to see this bait next to other known baits to appreciate it’s size. Long, round, fat and a big paddle. Big round style paddle. Looks like a SUP paddle. When the bait swims, it has a lot of ROLL. The articulated section help the bait pulse and kick. You can feel this 8″ swimmer on the end of your big beefy calico bass rod, far better than most of the weedless swimbaits I’ve fished. It pushes a ton of water, and just happens to match up really well with the 12/0 Owner Beast Swimbait Hook and 3/4 oz weight.
Okeechobee good swimbait spot. To give you an idea, you have to be ready for your bait to be out of the water at least 25% of the time.
Grass and Kelp fish very similar. You go over, use high stick retrieves, go thru, go around, bump and run, stall and straight wind your way around.
Kelp, and in this case, with boiler rocks to add to the mix, you need to be able to be weedless, rockless, and have eyes on the back of your head. Very dangerous fishing boiler rocks. 2 man fishing only, with one guy on the gas engine keeping an eye on the waves.
Solid Mexican Calico Bass on the MC Swimbaits Viejo weedless swimmer. Kelp colored bass and bait.Cover shot!
Fishing the kelp in the saltwater, is a lot like fishing massive grass beds like you’d find in Franks Tract at low tide, or Lake Seminole or Okeechobee. Your bait often comes out of the water, and you need to be prepared to drop it into holes and gaps. Expect it. Expect a fish ‘tracking’ your bait while its out of the water. You need to choose your casts wisely. Choose good swim lanes where you get to run your bait thru juicy spots and long pools of water. The guy who can cast the furthest, is off the front of the boat, and covers the most water with the best presentation will catch the fish. Be ready, followers abound, and they tend to be big or bigger or way bigger, depending. Your fishing partner needs to be on their toes when you hook one. There’s usually more calicos around than the hooked one who are fired up and will bite.
Weedless Saltwater Swimbaits are great for the saltwater kelp or any vegetation I suppose in salt or brackish water. Also, if you’re hunting a big one a grass lake in the freshwater. I have to say, the boot tailed/paddle tailed/cut tailed swimmers, that are long and slender get bit really well. You might give the 3-5-7 pounders a different look with the following couple?
Split Belly
The following two baits both have a split belly. Split belly baits are synonymous with weedless swimbaits. It helps hide/hold the hook and make the bait more low profile and less likely to snag. The beauty of things like the Weighted Owner Beast Hooks, 10/0 is a good choice w 1/2 oz, because it fits a lot of swimbaits with split bellys really well.
Kevin and everyone I know that fishes the MC Swimbaits refers to Corey. Corey Sanden is the guy behind MC Swimbaits. He is credited with many innovations, baits, and developments in the world of saltwater bass fishing. The heavy floro leader attached to braid, for example, I believe Corey is credited with. The only downside of braid is that sharp teeth will cut it. Calico Bass have sharp teeth, so do the 10+ pound largemouth bass and trophy spotted/smallmouth bass. You can cut braid on a bass’s teeth, if they inhale/choke your bait deep enough. Many calico bass have been lost by the braid cutting against the fish’s teeth, hence the 12″ floro leader of 50 or 60# 100% floro. Corey is in a position to design weedless baits and make modifications from a place of authority.
Long, skinny, split belly and sorta penny colored is always good for calicos Magnum calico choked the MC Inshore swimmer
Kevin fishes Corey’s MC Inshore Swimbaits exclusively. I have now fished it quite a bit too. Great running and fishing bait. Pairs up nicely with the Owner and Trokar weighted swimbait hooks out there. Kevin does a lot of damage, and is all about the tons of MC Swimbaits plastic Kevin carries around. Slender profile, yet beefy, nice little boot tail. Great colors and offerings. Very resilient and will last multiple fishes. Catches big ones. The split belly helps make it hold and rig on a screw lock style hook really well.
I love trying new baits, other peoples’ gear, new gear, new setups. Believe me, I wanted to fish one of Kevin’s MC Swimbaits to get a feel for them. Yeah, they work! Daiwa Tatula HDs are a great wider than normal/bigger spool bass reel, built w saltwater grade components. Casts a frickin mile reel.
Chad Yates came onto the weedless swimbait scene with his Shellback Customs series of swimmers. His bait is fatter/wider than the other weedless baits. It has the largest profile, and a large paddle tail. The Shellback Customs baits have a really neat slender profile in the water. They have a really tight body movement yet, loud, obnoxious and vibrant tail doing some good thumping and displacing mad water.
Shellback Custom Swimbaits in a safety / garibaldi orange
I will admit it, I was a snob when I saw and heard about swimming worms. I can think of 3 times the swimming worm was relayed to me as the bait, and I foolishly tried to make it a bigbait / swimbait bite without putting it into context. When you fish Okeechobee, you will inevitably get around the Speed Worm bite. Well, as you progress, you’ll migrate to the Magnum Speed Worm, and rig it with a jumbo offset worm hook and 1/4 – 1/2 ounce weight pegged and learn to swim, stroke, hop it thru the various grasses. The big worm and special tail swim really well, and fish eat the heck out of it.
The Gambler Burner Worm tail.
The Gambler Burner Worm tail (left) vs. the Zoom Magnum Speed Worm tail. We used to modify our Magnum Speed worms with a small piece of copper tubing to make what is now OEM on the burner worm. Just saying.
I found the swimming worm to be an effective technique on Okeechobee, Lake Seminole and Lake Dardenelle. Dardenelle in the shore grass, over stumps and wood, and anywhere I could find grass the was submerged due to river levels. Gambler doesn’t need my advice to create great products. This company lives in South Florida and knows grass fishing way more intimately than me. You have to appreciate the Gambler Burner Worm as a derivative of the Magnum Speed Worm. The tail has a larger groove cut out of it, and it thumps and flaps better than the Magnum Speed Worm. It is fatter than the Magnum Speed worm, but only measures approx 7″ in length. It’s a fatty worm, that swims really good.
Purchase the Gambler Burner Worm from Tackle Warehouse:
I highly recommend you learn how to swim a worm. You arent’ fishing for 10 pounders. You are fishing for 3 – 5 pounders. I really like 50# braid, a 1/4 or maybe even 3/8 ounce weight pegged and a 5/0 Owner Offset Worm Hook Texas Rigged. You fling your Burner Worm way out and swim, stroke, hop it back much like you would a rattle trap in grass, or a vibrating jig. The high stick retrieve. Yo-yo it back while swimming it. Let it fall and bury up in the grass and then lift up, reel it along and drop your rod tip and let it sink back down. Fish tend to woof it and there’s no doubt when you’re bit. The Texas rig nature makes hook ups pretty much 95%. For those headed to South Florida this Winter, this is a swimming worm I’d have on board for Florida. Gambler’s colors rock too.
Full worms compared. Gamber Burner on top, Zoom Magnum Speed Worm below. Texas Rig, with pegged weight. Swim it and don’t hate. This is tournament swimbait fishing.
You have to check this thing out. The flying/swimming V. I messed around with the Picasso Bait Ball Extreme over the summer. Talk about a cool derivative of the Alabama Rig. There is a V4, V6 and V8 Model of the Picasso Bait Ball Extreme. I fished and filmed the V6 series. You basically have dummy baits that are coupled with hooked baits at the endpoints of the V. The fun thing is the shape and inherent light weight/neutrally buoyancy of this rig make it geared toward grass fishing and definitely busting fish/surface breakers that are chasing bait. You don’t have to reel like crazy to keep this thing up top. You can make the baits pop out of the water, creating your own fleeing school of baitfish or herring.
Can you feel the vortex? You can bet the fish can sense the vortex behind this rig and will sense it has a different signature than other Alabama Rigs. V for Vortex.
Stalingrad. The Vortex Formation, stalled, has a better fall than the Alabama Rigs with the 5 star clusters.
1/16 oz Picasso School E Rig with a big ole fat 5/0 hook. Get there. KVD Swim N Shiner, but whatever you swimbait of choice, I think you can worry more about where to fish than your soft swimmer of choice. Just match the hatch and get after it.You have screws to mount your dummy baits. The outside bait rigged with a 1/16ounce and 5/0 Picasso School E Rig Jig Head
You can add whatever swimbaits or jigheads you want to this rig to match your application. I can see putting a bunch of Skinny Dippers or even just the same above rig depending on how thick the grass, and go cover some water in Okeechobee. With braid, you can rip even top hooked swimbait thru grass and effectively fish. Don’t let top hooks fool ya, they are weedless when fished mindfully and with aid from braid. If you needed to sink this thing out, I think a more standard Alabama Rig would make sense, unless the flying V gave them a different look than the 5 Star cluster look? I can see throwing the V6 or V8 version all the way in the very backs of creeks and pockets and creating a fleeing school of bait effect on ANY lake or river system. You can fish this thing like a spinnerbait and cover water. I really would fish braid even in the clearest water. I can see adding a Robo Worm Robo Minnow or Keitech Swing Impact Fat baits in a more Herring pattern and fishing this thing fast n furious up shallow on red clay points, high spots and way offshore sweet spots. You could up this thing to 6 or 8 bigger 6-7″ soft swimbaits and literally create a good herring ball that might call ’em up somewhere between Keg Creek and the Monkey Islands!
Swimming V. The V-6 Picasso Bait Ball Elite, swimming along in formation.
The over under flying V performed by the RAF! V-6 Elite Bait Ball from Picasso. Fishes skinnier than your normal a rig and changes your formation.
My brother’s baby boy, Donovan, who just turned 1 the other day. 24 hours into Southern California…4th of July in San Clemente with my brother, sister and their families. My liver hates me. I have been a little thirsty since I’ve been back!
I have been quietly transitioning back home to Southern California. In May, I was at a company event in Chicago, when I overheard a conversation about a new office for BeyondTrust in Aliso Viejo. Actually, it was moving the Irvine office back down to Aliso Viejo. That is a 15 mile move to the South, closer to my hometown Dana Point/San Clemente area, and a significant savings in commute time, toll road costs, and just hit me a time when I was already looking to relocate from West Palm Beach to a more beachy scene within S. Florida….Jupiter/Juno area to be exact. So, rather than move 15-20 miles within Florida, I made a quick assessment of things, and decided right then and there I was heading home. Florida is awesome. My decision to bail on Florida is complicated….understand Okeechobee, of all the years I’ve fished it now, 2013 was the worst for swimbait fishing I’ve encountered. The lake is overgrown, choked out and more a flip/punch thing than an open water swimmer thing. So, Okeechobee’s tough cycle, and the amount of rain we endured (and it was still raining when I left) told me it was gonna be a harsh year on the Big O for a guy that likes to swim bigbaits.
And they say California has a lot of red tape! Count how many regulations and rules there are to fishing a pier in Florida!I was ‘this close’ to moving from West Palm Beach to Juno…just to be near the surf and even closer to Okeechobee, but tide and time wait for no man!
Getting Gone
I essentially closed down my apartment in West Palm Beach within a week, downsized my stuff for the 50th time, and headed for Georgia. Getting back to California, from S. Florida, wasn’t going to be easy. Thankfully, I have good people, a good career now so finances aren’t so rough, and I’m really good at just packing up and getting gone. So, this was the itinerary: FL>GA>AR>CA. I had to get from Florida, back to Georgia and the Atlanta area and shut down things in Atlanta first. So, I was able to touch bases with my tenant, in my Roswell home, get some things squared away and focus on getting all my stuff out of my phenomenal friend, Rodger Ray, Social Circle home. Social Circle has been my Atlanta base of operations on and off for the last 4.5 years since renting out my apartment, and of course, meeting Rodger, as my co-angler partner, Day 1, Lake Eufaula, FLW Series 2009. Rodger has been so hospitable, professional, fun, interesting and wise—-I cannot thank him enough for his friendship.
General Sherman aint got nothing on me. He marched to the Sea. I towed to the Pacific, from the same starting place, and the only burning and looting I did was on the White River. And the assualt on Orange County has just begun!Rods inside.Amazing how much ‘spare’ room I had to utilize my truck with a Uhaul in tow, at least until I got to Arkansas and the other 50% of my stuff!My Ranger Z520 posted some pictures on Facebook with her connected to another truck. She got me back, don’t you worry! That’s how I knew she was made in the Ozarks! Blurred out the FL License Plate so she cannot socially engineer and manipulate me either!
Of boats and men
I own 2 boats. I have a Ranger Z520, and a 16 Grizzly Tracker aluminum rig (I loaned it to Team 85 for the filming of Southern Trout Eaters, because they needed some help getting on the water with current states of affairs with their lives at the time). I literally cleaned out my Ranger, and left a pile of paperwork and stuff that will be needed to sell the boat (if that is the route I take), and just left it parked up in Social Circle. I have learned, when you don’t know what to do, no decision is the best decision. I needed to take a U Haul trailer full of stuff from Georgia, and onto Arkansas, where I’d fill it up and cull thru stuff from Arkansas, next. The problem: You cannot simultaneously tow a 20′ fiberglass boat and a dual axle U Haul trailer! So, the Ranger sits in Atlanta, paying for insurance and the 14 months of warranty my Yamaha still enjoys ticks away toward expiration. On one hand it makes a ton of sense to sell the boat: I have equity in the boat, the engine is still under warranty, and truthfully, I’m not worried about fishing tournaments where a Z520 is required anytime super soon. I love my Ranger Boat, don’t get me wrong, but to me, boats are tools, and usually very expensive tools. I am now living <10 miles from the Dana Point Harbor, where I can out throwing swimbaits at calico bass within minutes. I’m sorta re-tooling if you will, and the transition time will be longer than anything I can predict–that’s just how things go. An inshore series boat, deeper v, and better able to handle ocean type conditions is in my future. Something that I can still tow and hit the San Diego lakes and such of course. There is a compromise in there somewhere with the right boat….ie, the great lakes/walleye style of Ranger Boat…the Fisherman Series. Or perhaps a Whaler type boat, center console style. I’m not sure yet. Trolling motor mandatory of course.
One last trip to Clarks Hill, while I stayed over in Social Circle. In search of the herring eaters with the SSB Herring.
The Other Boat/Arkansas
My 16 foot Grizzly (that I bought from Triton Mike Bucca, btw) has had a wild journey itself. I got a 25HP 4 Stroke Yamaha, and a 82# thrust Motorguide up front. The rig frickin charges. I got the boat back to Arkansas last year, right about this time, as I was trying to make Arkansas work as ‘home’ and figure out a way to make a living thru fishing, sans tournament fishing. Well, things in Arkansas didn’t go as I’d hoped, and then opportunity came knocking with getting my software career back in action. This boat I will keep. I am flat addicted to the idea of hunting big brown trout with swimbaits on the mighty White River. I spent 2 weeks in Social Circle/Atlanta (first half of June) and spent the second half of June in Arkansas. Understand, end of June is end of fiscal quarter, end of Q2, in the business world. I stalled and timed everything to travel on the weekends, work on my move after hours, and just be in a position to sell enterprise vulnerability and risk management solutions to new customers. I had more like 10 days in Arkansas, but man, was it great to be back there. I have some really good friends and family there. My friends are friends thru fishing, and they are as ate up with it as us. I had some really close calls and learned a lot in that short window I was in Arkansas about the White River. I had more action in approx. 7 outings, than I did the ENTIRE 7 months I spent there last year. I did NOT put any fish in the boat, and had “the one” on, but she came unglued. Doh. Still haunted by that one. So, I put the cover back on the boat, parked her up and just left her. I foresee visiting Arkansas often, to spend time with my parents and Grandmother (who lives with my parents now too), and of course, to fish the Ozarks. There is an airport in Branson, MO about an hour from my parents house. It’s a no brainer, easy, and financially feasible for me. I will be able to work during the day, and fish after hours/on weekends, and spend a couple weeks at a time there, with a boat that can fish the river or the surrounding lakes. And the wade fishing around the Ozarks is sick. Canoes are probably the best boat at times too. My buddies there are blowing it up and I’m excited to get back there. It’s a different deal though. It’s not tournament fishing blowing things up…it’s fly fishing, guiding, outfitting, and getting their world’s right with relationships, marriages, finances, real estate, etc. Which I’m learning is the key to fishing and pretty much everything!
June Stoke. Chad knows where they live, has access to the land to get to the fish, and his wife will drop us off and drive the shuttle for us too!Few people I’ve encountered are as awesome as my friend Chad Johnson, Flippin, Arkansas resident.The 16′ Grizzly, and a chance to take my Aunt Kim out fishing. She’s battling breast cancer and has risen to the challenge. We took some pics to celebrate the fight and be crazy bald heads together.Don’t think the smallmouth haven’t gotten some sore lips. It’s not all about fly fishing in skinny Ozark streams. Bigbaits boy!
4th of July 2013
I arrived in Dana Point on the 3rd of July. I have a good friend that lives at home with his Mom (don’t laugh, this is how we all roll at times in our lives!) and they were awesome enough to have me stay with them until I got settled. I was able to use the first week of July, after the End of Quarter crunch, to drive from Arkansas to California. So, I had loaded up all my stuff from Atlanta, loaded up all my stuff from Arkansas, and towed a full UHaul trailer all the way back to California, pretty much backtracking the journey I started in January 2005. I have had more fun in the last 2 months being here! Oh my goodness, my liver hates me. Truthfully, I haven’t made a cast since I left Arkansas. I am taking some time to allow myself to settle in over here. I love to fish, I love throwing bigbaits, but honestly, I’ve made a conscious decision to just sorta put that stuff on the back burner a couple months and just let myself get settled in. Summer time in Southern California is awesome. I have been surfing like crazy. I have a lot of catching up to do. My surfing has progressed a ton the last couple months, I got my arms and shoulders back to compete from a paddling standpoint, and I walk around with my shirt off and woman generally hoot, holler and whistle at me! Hahahahahahahah. Okay, forget the last part of that sentence, but there is a profound difference in healthy life and lifestyle for me lately.
Shooting down the South County Coast from Dana Point.Trolling surfboards for white sharks! 10′ single fin, yeah boy. My boy Tyler Craig hooking me up with the trip.Surfboards and boats are a close second to boats with fishing rods aboad. Lower Trestles Run. Scored.
BeyondTrust
Please visit my companies website sometime: beyondtrust.com We have very talented security and research thought leaders in the world of internet security. We have ‘productized’ or otherwise make software tools that emulate the skills and expertise of the white hat style ‘hacker’. At the end of the day, we make tools that help companies manage and assess risk. On a scale of 1-10, are we a 7 or a 5 when it comes to overall ‘security’ across the 10,000 assets that make up our computing environment? Are we compliant to do business with the Department of Defense because we make parts that go into missles or SUVs, and in order to do business with the DoD, you better be compliant to various standards. Or HIPAA, are hospitals doing the right thing to make sure your medical records are being sold on the black market. You could be blackmailed if someone knew you had HIV or something gnarly and private, and hadn’t publicly disclosed. Think Fortune 2000 account that need to assess the overall security posture of their entire network, across multiple locations, mobile devices, virtual devices, etc., It’s a cool space, and I’m enjoying being back in the game. Sales is no walk in the park career and you are on a cycle much like fishing, where you are on ’em and life is good, then …. the droughts and the doldrums come and you have to be prepared to endure and make adjustments to break the cycle. I work in Aliso Viejo, in a a wonderful little tech corridor. There are companies like Buy.com, Dell/Qwest, and Micro Semi in the same building/neighborhood. I haven’t met the ‘her’ yet….but like fishing, you gotta get around ’em before you can catch ’em. Catch the right one! I’m not saying I’m going to find “her” in Aliso Viejo, I’m just saying Orange County is full of young educated professionals who are doing great things with their lives. Conversations about welfare, DUI, child custody, social issues, etc don’t exist. Education, sophistication and opportunity abounds and I just am stoked to be around it. Finally got ‘around ’em’ again!
Click the above to be re-routed to a CNN article featuring our company CTO, Marc “Mainframe” Maiffret speaking on cyberterrorism and Syria.
So you quit fishing?
NO, I haven’t quit fishing. I have taken a womping 2 months off in the last 30+ years. Forgive me! I see myself re-tooling and getting myself in a position to charge bigbaits/bigfish around San Diego, OC, LA…..and slip the same boat in the Dana Point Harbor and slip slide thru the massive kelp beds and do my best Kevin Mattson impressions! But these things will take some time. I am super stoked and flattered to have so many invites to come fish with guys. Until recently, I literally haven’t had all my possessions in one location in >5 years when I lived in Roswell, GA.
The irony of all this is new clarity and focus. My life, especially my fishing life, since Southern Trout Eaters, has really been a rocky road. Not horrible and I don’t regret any of it, just saying, not a certain path or one that has been easily felt out and gone with. I haven’t really found one thing that has really worked and stuck. Florida was hot then got cold. Arkansas, same thing…hot and cold. Finances dwindling….. All the sudden, I have 8 years of pictures, video and story, and have gone full circle from Southern California to the South and now back. I’ve got a story to tell and I hope to see it thru, because I think I can provide perspective, wisdom and insights beyond catching more and bigger fish. Fishing is our lives, and it’s an addiction. Making a living from fishing is a crazy wild endeavor that is like chasing the rodeo. A bunch of young (and not so young) men mostly all chasing their dreams, from all sorts of backgrounds. And some ARE that good. You have to be ‘exceptional’ not just good. The young people today have more opportunity than ever. It’s the age of the cloud, the age of Facebook, the age of GoPro, and the “i” everything.
Ranger Boats—the follow me everywhere I go. I see a saltwater series of some kind in my future
Now What?
Everything is a work in progress. I’m by no means back on my feet career wise like I was when I hung it up to go fishing. However, I’m back on that path and track. It takes money to make money and grow things. I have plans and intentions, but like most things, they tend to take way longer than originally expected. And since I’m not able to focus 100% of my time towards fishing with a full time job in software, I’m even more challenged with tide and time. However, I am in the best mood and general flow I’ve been in years and super stoked, and sorta just re-charging/refreshing. To me, it’s really healthy to take a break from fishing a bit and just allow myself to get West and get settled. I am looking forward to missions to San Diego jumping in other guys’ boats, missions with this one guy name Kevin Mattson who charges harder than anyone I know, and random saltwater and Sierra Mountain trips.
Yes, I am the world’s greatest Uncle. It’s rough work hanging out in San Clemente at the beach with friends and family, but someone has to do it. Don’t worry, I got my Duck Commander safety trunks on, so still representing!!!
Pea Green Soup. Fishing main lake grass lines, uphill and parallel. Eelgrass. Low Down Customs 8′ XH.
Just in case you’ve somehow missed the glide bait thing, you best be throwing glide baits, bottom line. The Slide Swimmer is so killer its hard to quantify. I have to admit, I’ve only caught a few glide bait fish, and they were on the S-Waver. I don’t have a ton of experience with glide baits. They are something I’m going to have to learn a whole lot more of. But do yourself a favor and find yourself a Deps Butch Brown Slide Swimmer 250 in case you don’t know that yet. Do not pass go without one. They are that good. The hardbait version of the Huddleston, it’s been said. Get yourself an S-Waver to get started into glide baits, or go Roman Made. I know someday Butch is going to release a film that just blow everyone’s mind with giants. I’ve seen a video he played at ICAST in 2011 in Vegas at the Bassaholics Booth. It was sick and wrong, and it had many Slide Swimmer 250 in it back then. I know some guys who’ve been devastating big striper on it. My pals in the world of swimbait fishing pretty much have been crushing fish on the glide baits out West for >2 years at least. I know Oliver Ngy is going to blow some minds with his Big Bass Dreams DVD coming out. Oliver throws the Rago Glideator, and l don’t even know what else. I’m a boring old Hudd, TT, MS, and Rat guy! I don’t feel like I’m letting the cat out of the bag by any means at this point. I just hate talking about a technique or bait or something I don’t have experience on. I can tell you, the 80# Braid, the Slide Swimmer, the LDC 8’XH, and the 400 TE are just incredible altogether. Power fishing at times, and glide bait fishing it at times. Crazy swim on this bait. Hard to do wrong, but you can get incredible 3-4 foot wide side to side S walks, stalls, turn-arounds, etc and it can be burned and killed and 180’d and all kinds of craziness.
Flash Carp, yikes what a color! Saiko Butch you da man.
Controlled glides. I love the term glide because it nails the style of bait. Glide is a discussion point among surfers. There are 1000s of variations in surfboards that are between 6 and 7 feet long. Small changes in volume/displacement/buoyancy do dramatic things in the water, let alone changing shapes, width, thickness, rocker, length, concavity, etc. I think the world of glide baits has similar abundance of variations that will likely work if for no other reason, this style of bait gets bit, and things are just starting to warm up with them to the masses. These glide baits are killer, and I’m just getting going really focusing time on them, and I advise you do the same if you aren’t already! The Roman Made Mother, was the bait our boy Manabu caught Her on.
Would you like a shot of Wheat Grass? How about 1,000,000 surface acres of it! Okeechobee has lots of different grass. Eelgrass grows in some areas consistently year-to-year, and you always get different main lake water colors. This year, pea green soup is the theme in some favorite haunts of mine. Flipping and Pitching bite more so than a swimming bite I find in most areas, save the Box the the Pond.
Okeechobee has been a moving target this year. It’s not horrible, but it’s not the slug fest stomp its been the last 2 years. The water just isn’t good for a swimbait guy either. So its sorta fickle fishing at times, mixed with bad water (and wind) most places, most of the time. Algae bloom, dirty, choked out and the fish are outside grass line-ish oriented, so the bite becomes more pitching jigs and punching mats and that style attack. I have been throwing the Slide Swimmer 250 Flash Carp in less than ideal conditions on Okeechobee thus far. I was hoping for 3-4 feet of black clean water to work with, outside grass line, in certain areas, and it just hasn’t been there yet.
Want to give a shout to Ben Dehnadi and Low Down Custom Rods. Ben’s rods have really opened my eyes to much more progressive rod design. You need to get yourself a LDC 8′ XH for the Slide Swimmer 250. The Slide Swimmer is heavy…close to 6.5 ounces and it maxes out my Loomis 966 BBR rods that I love so much. The LDC XH fits that rod category you need for ‘megabaits’. The > 6 ounce baits, the big 3:16 Hardbaits, the big rats/terrestrial baits, the big Rago hard and softbaits, and whatever. >6 ounce baits require a special rod, even among the bigbait rods. I do fish the 8″ Weedless Huddlestons on this LDC 8XH rod, and love it. I swear I can lob that Huddleston 20% further in the open water sometimes. That thing flat flings a bait way out there. The longer than I’m used to rod handle really has extra leverage and surprisingly I find it fishes nicely under my arm pit, and just feels right to me. I’ve got 32″ arms. I get dress shirts with 17-18″ necks and 32″ arms! Hahahahaha. That aint no lie either. So the super long rod handles sometimes feel awkward to me. The LDC 8XH has a less parabolic action than the 966, but it still loads up pretty darn well, its just got more tip to it. You have a really more involved tip section, that is more in tune with finer things of swim, and helps soften the impact of bites so you don’t rip the bait out of a fish’s mouth, and definitely helps you in the casting department, it will load up and lob a 6.5 ounce bait like the Slide Swimmer very easily and low impact on your wrists and shoulders.
Net Net
Just like recommending the 8″ Huddleston and the G-Loomis 966 BBR combo, I think you’ll find the Low Down Customs 8 XH and Slide Swimmer 250 a winner. I have to admit, the LDC-8HX throws an 8″ Huddleston really well, and really far. It’s anexcellent big and mega bait rod, yet has the tip for the 8″ Huddlestons and 10″ Triple Trouts. You need to be throwing the Butch Brown Slide Swimmer 250. End of story. You’re current bigbait rod may not have the guts to throw it. I have many Loomis 966s and find them under-gunned for the Slide Swimmer. Get a rod for heaving and lobbing the >6 ounce baits
Notice, I’ve tied directly to the slip ring here. I think I like it without the split ring on front better. You get better head and bait control without the ring, just like with the Triple Trout on your stalls and twitches.
