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Themes from our Southern Trout Eaters DVD

Spinning 3 Inch Hammers

Published: 10 October 2012
Written by Alex Tech
No comments
Categories: 2011 Tournament Fishing, 2012 Tournament Fishing, Big Hammer, Deep Swimbait Fishing, Rigging, Small Bait Fishing, Themes from our Southern Trout Eaters DVD

 

Just like Dolly Parton’s coat, my 3″ Big Hammer swimbait box, is of ‘many colors’.

The Big Hammer family of swimbaits has some prime real estate in my tackle boxes, boat, and ‘office’.  I spend a lot of time tinkering with the various flavors of Big Hammer swimbaits on and off the water.  The 3″ Big Hammer swimbait is a neat little bait, that fits into the “swimbait fishing with spinning rods” category. You can consider this a tackle review of the 3″ Big Hammer if that is what you’re after.  I score this bait a 9.99  (the only .01 deduction is because at times, a more rounded paddle/boot tail seems to be a better choice of swimbait for super finicky highly pressured fish) and give it an A+.   We shared how we fish bridge pilings with the 3″ Big Hammer swimbait in Southern Trout Eaters…one of the things that ‘just happened’ during the filming window we had.  I put together a little video clip of me fishing the 3″ Big Hammer swimbait on a spinning rod, with braided line + florocarbon leader, fishing the water intakes at the Kentucky Lake Dam.  Here are the highlights:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-EP0c86HXk]

 

Get the Lead Out

Swimbaits with an exposed lead head are something you need to pay particular attention to.  Exposed lead, like what the Hammer Head provides in the setup and rigging does some things that baits with internal weighting cannot.  Namely, the exposed lead head of the Hammer Head helps the bait fall straight down vertical, there’s no buoyancy or dampening of the weighting system by surrounding it with soft plastic.  Falling straight down makes a swimbait fish really well next to steep things, for example:  bridge pilings, dam walls, steep walls, man made structure, and fishing deep and straight vertical like you do in winter.   Also, you can fish the bait vertically under your boat and electronics really well, so when, for example, I was on Beaver Lake in the FLW Tour Major in 2011, the fish were in 15-35 feet of water suspended over cedar trees, the 3″ Big Hammer swimbait came thru for me, because I was able to count the bait down and fish it over top of the deep trees and yank the few fish I caught suspended around the tops of the deeper standing trees.   I just read about how the guy who won the BassMaster Southern Open on Smith Lake in Jasper, Alabama was using a small paddle tailed swimbait with exposed lead jig heads on 5# florocarbon…Go ahead and add the 3″ Big Hammer swimbait rigged on a 3/16 or 1/4 ounce Hammer Head ( you want both heads, same hook size, just have both for shallow to medium or medium to deep presentations), to the ‘single top hook swimbait’ conversation too.    The other derivative of the exposed lead jig head, and the fact the 3/16 and 1/4 ounce Hammer Heads were designed to match up perfectly with the 3″ Big Hammer swimbait tails, you get a swimbait that swims on the sink.  I repeat, swims on the sink.  The bait will spin and sorta meander slightly, depending how slack you give the bait on the fall, but in a controlled fall, where you keep slight pressure on bait as it’s sinking, that little square tail is twisting and recoiling and beating along on the sink.  There are a lot of garbage swimbaits out there that swim like crap on the sink….they tend to do nothing at all or sorta just fall like a blob, they don’t swim, they don’t orient nose down and swim on the sink and that is a huge deal, especially when fishing the deep and steep stuff.  You going to be pumping and yo-yoing your rod and bait a a lot.

 

How To Rig a Big Hammer Swimbait:

Step 1: Eyeball how the Hammer head jig head matches up with the 3″ Big Hammer swimbait tail. You want the top of the jig head/line tie area to match up perfectly with the top of the soft plastic flat top side of the swimbait tail. Pay attention to where the hook will come out of the bait…

 

Step 2: Use one of the edges of your thumb nail to ‘mark’ where the jig hook will come out of the Big Hammer tail….

 

Step 3, use the hook point to jab a little mark into the soft plastic where the hook will exit the swimbait, once you thread it on the jig head.

 

Step 3B, the mark should be dead center, and enough you can see it and use it to guide you as you thread the bait on

 

Step 5, very important. Insert the hook in the absolute center of the swimbait tail, whereby the top of the jig head lays flat (there’s no step up or down, the jig head and body come together clean and smooth). Use the line tie to touch the flat side of the bait to give you a guide, but pretty much, dead center of the “superman” shaped fat ‘v’ of the Big Hammer swimbait tail

 

Step 6: In one smooth motion, paying attention to push the hook thru the plastic keeping your North/South and East/West orientation as straight and plumb as possible, push the tail onto the jig head, and let the bait curl up in doing so, and time your exit angle so it comes out at the mark you did in Step 2 & 3.

 

Step 6 again…make sure you hook point comes out perfectly in the center of East and West, and also assumes you mark was accurate so you don’t have too little or too much length of swimbait tail threaded on the hook.

 

Okay, you’re done except for glue. Notice how the jig head matches up with the tail, at the top by the line tie perfectly. You can see how the jig head fits into the swimbait tail, thanks to the clear bait and some backlighting. You want things straight, centered, parallel and clean. No bunching or off centered rigging!

 

Once I’ve made a good rigging, I back the tail slightly off the head, and put a dab of superglue, where it runs down and gravity coats it all from top to bottom, and I push the tail back up and snug it tight to the jig head and let the glue dry.

Braid Connections

One of the more important developments in my fishing in the last year has been the move to braided line, almost exclusively, on all baits, all water clarity, and all rod types.  Not 100% but moving that direction.  The key is using floro and mono leaders at times, choosing the right knots, and matching your hooks and terminal tackle so your hooks and split rings and things don’t bend out or fail due to the power of braid.  I use Power Pro.  It has been really good to me.  I recommend 15# Power Pro Braided line and a 3-5 foot section (5 foot allows you to re-tie a couple times without putting a new leader on) of Sugoi Florocarbon.  I use 6-12# florocarbon leaders paired with 15# Power Pro braid on my spinning rods.  You change your leader sizes based on conditions and baits. I’ll fish 12# floro when fishing a small 3/8 or 1/4 ounce jig but will use 8-10# pound when fishing the 3″ Big Hammer on a 3/16 or 1/4 ounce jig head.   Braid has several advantages, especially on spinning gear.  First and foremost, line management. I find braided line handles and fishes really nicely on spinning rods.  I have 1000 and 2500 sized Shimano Spinning reels that both handle the small diameter of 15# Power Pro nicely.  You can ‘top-shot’ the braid, where you spool up 50-75 yards of 6# mono ( I formerly used 6# P-Line CXX on my spinning rods) and then tie on the braid and spool yourself on a good 75-100 yards of fresh braid, and then tie your floro leader to the end of your braid.   What knot do I use to connect my florocarbon leader to my braide?  The Double Uni Knot.  Google it, YouTube it….I use 6 wraps on each side of the knot, and it’s frickin’ excellent.  However, pay attention here, the Double Uni knot is NOT a good knot for attaching 80# or 65# braid to 25-30 pound mono.   The physics of bigbait fishing comes into play here.  DO NOT USE THE DOUBLE UNI to connect your bigbaits to your braid.  That is a separate conversation.  For some reason, that knot cannot handle the repeated casting/stress of lobbing >4 ounce baits.   I have 110% confidence in that knot though, in the smaller more conventional applications, like 15# braid to 10# florocarbon (my number one most common rig….3″ Big Hammers, Wacky Rigs, Shaky Heads, Jika Rigs, etc)

The Double Uni Knot is great for connecting

Braid provides you some additional advantages, especially when it comes to spinning rods and small swimbait fishing.  The braid is super sensitive, and I can feel my bait, the swim, and control the bait far better on braid than on mono.  When I go back to mono, my bait feels real mushy on the end of the line, and I don’t have the feel that I do with braid.  I can feel the bait swim on the sink and control the sink and depth the bait swims at so much better on braid. I know when I’m fouled up (tail gets stuck in the gap between a rigged bait and the hook), and I tend to be able to unstick myself or straighten out the lighter wire hooks of the 3/16 and 1/4 Hammer Head at times to get a hung bait free.  I re-bend my hook into place of course, and check the hook point to make sure all is well, and feel my floro leader to make sure it didnt’ get damaged too.  The hookset and hooking fish advantages are amazingly improved with braid.  I keep my drag fairly tight with the 3″ Big Hammer and braided main line setup.  A little line might pull off during a hard reel down and come up hard hookset, but not much.   The zero stretch of the braid gives you tremendous hook set capabilities you don’t get with 100% florocarbons or mono/copolymers.

You can use 1000-2500 sized spinning reels with braid, and they both work great. I love this little spinning reel, it just matches up with the tiny diameter of 15# braid nicely. Heck, I trout fish with this setup….Mepps and Roster Tail style with the braid + floro. You can throw light stuff (and heavy stuff) really well.

Miscellaneous

If you haven’t seen our Alabama Rig Super Nova blog post and video, click HERE to see it.  You want to have 3″ Big Hammers and Hammer Heads (3/8 recommended for the A-Rig based on hook size and strength, so you don’t bend out the 1/4 and 3/16 ounce lighter wire hooks) in your possession for your castable umbrella rig fishing.    Also, carry yourself some Super Glue and get in the habit of super gluing your Big Hammer swimbait tails to the Hammer Head and letting it dry BEFORE you go fishing.  You will make your baits last much longer by doing this.  If you get a good properly rigged Big Hammer swimbait and glue it the Hammer Head jig head, you can get 10-20 fish per bait.  You’ll get into bites where as quick as you can unhook and re-cast, you’ll just keep on catching ’em.

The 3″ Big Hammer was part of the Alabama Rig Supernova that happened on Kentucky Lake, the Fall of 2011, FLW Everstart Championship. Troy Anderson would win on the Co-Angler side on a handful of 3″ Hammers and heads I gave him, following our practice together. Hammers are a very important tools for all kinds of jobs.

 

The 3″ Big Hammer Photo Gallery:

[nggallery id=12]

 

3 Dot Olive Juice

Published: 2 October 2012
Written by Alex Tech
2 Comments
Categories: Owner Hooks, southernswimbait.com custom bait shop, Themes from our Southern Trout Eaters DVD, Triple Trout

 

Olive Juice! The 3 Dot Olive color is a great rainbow trout pattern for your Triple Trouts,  from Scott Whitmer and the 22nd Century Bait Company. We are glad to have access to it and provide it as part of our custom bait offering. It works really well, I find.

The 3 Dot Olive Triple Trout from Scott Whitmer at 22nd Century Bait Co is something we are proud to be fishing and offering.   This is just a killer color on a killer bait, and it works great.  How about 80# straight braid in super clear water?   That’s called a bait that is getting after it.  The 10″ Triple trout, gives them a look, a pause, a stall and a 180 degree cutback followed by a fluid driving swim which is why it gets bit.  It’s not an easy bait to fish.  There is a rhythm and flow, and probably the most important piece of equipment is the Calcutta 400 TE reel.  Shimano no longer makes/offers the Calcutta 400 TE  reel, so I’m going to have to recommend you go get yourself one of the new D Series 400s.   I want one.  I haven’t fished one yet, but hear they are killer.   The amount of reeling, speed, torque and physics and chunking and winding this bad boy around for more than 1 hour will make you believe in round reels and gearing.   Just saying.  Cover water boy, and don’t put it down, and any other reel I’m aware of, you’ll be whipped quickly.  You might get by with a Curado 300, but the Curado 300, IMO, is good for the 6-7-8″ Triple Trouts but lacks the torque for the 10″…but I know guys who throw the 10″ Triple Trout on the Curado 300.  I find the 400 Series Calcuttas and the 10″ Triple Trout to be a good match.

Been a minute since I caught one like this. Nice 7+ pounder.

I had an excellent couple days back in the Carolinas, visiting with my friend Rob McComas. I really enjoyed the time away from Arkansas. I was on a short mission to pick up a boat I had stored out that way (jon boat), so I can put it in service (or sell it) around Arkansas.   The conditions were Zeptember.  Hot, but cool nights and mornings, and the fish did just what they should in Zeptember—-eat the Triple Trout.   And that bite will continue until ?  I’m going to be experimenting how cold of water I can still get bites on the Triple Trout in the Ozarks this Fall into Winter just to see.  Here are some highlights from that day with Rob:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAlmDrzGQe4]

We are proud to offer the 10″ Triple Trout Bundle as part of our custom bait offering.   We rig our baits with 2/0  ST-36 Owner Treble Hooks and #6 Owner Hyper Wire Split Rings, and provide you a spare set of tails with each bait.  Click HERE to get the full fledged look at our 3 Dot Olive Triple Trout Bundles in 8 and 10″ versions.  The 8″ version doesn’t suck either.  Especially if big spotted bass or smallmouth are your game.  The 10″ is just a staple for big largemouth, and that is usually what I’m hunting.

 

The 10″ 3 Dot Olive Triple Trout Bundle:

 

$89.95

***10/8/12***NOON CST***SOLD OUT***CHECK BACK SOON

 

 

Change

Published: 27 August 2012
Written by Alex Tech
2 Comments
Categories: Culture, Huddleston Deluxe, MS Slammer, Themes from our Southern Trout Eaters DVD

 

Change

 

By Rob McComas

robsguideservice.org

Learning about swimbaits and swimbait fishing was a tough road
for me. Before the days of Facebook, email, Southern Trout Eaters, and
even the www, (I know the www was around then but not for most of us),
I was learning thru a wide curve how to swimbait fish.
I had gotten hold of an A.C. Plug in the early nineties from a
local hardware store that sold them for Muskie fishing. With an old
school Quantum flippin’ reel and a 7’6” B.P.S. flippin’ stick, and 17
lb test Stren Easy Cast, I set out to see if the giant trout eating
fish that were being caught in California were inhabiting the very
similar waters here in the mountains of North and South Carolina.
After countless hours hauling water, I finally started putting
pieces of the puzzle together. From things like only taking one rod in
your boat, with only swimbaits tied on so you are not tempted to lay it down
for something else, to weather patterns, to times of year, and so
forth.
This grueling process I feel caused two negatives in my fishing.
One was being ultra secretive. I mean, give me a little sympathy, the
number of miserable days and cost of fuel I spent to learn to catch a
swimbait fish was something I was not going to give away so that
everybody and their brother could catch all my fish. I couldn’t just
watch Southern Trout Eaters, visit CalFishing.com, or email a friend and
expedite my learning process. I had been burnt by friends in other
types of fishing this way so it wasn’t going to happen this time.
The second negative was getting stuck in a rut. I had so much time
spent catching nothing, that when I finally got something going, and I
might add it was going very good, I was not going to change anything.
This worked for years, but finally newer and better baits, more
swimbaiters, and the education I had given the fish were catching up
to me, and the refusal to change was now keeping me from catching
fish.
The rut or ruts I was stuck in were many, so let me be brief and summarize:

Location

Many of us develop ’milk runs” in our fishing. And although I
still have and use them, you can rely on them too much. I had got to
where I would fish my same spots from the same direction at the same
time of day. I feel this not only educates the big bruisers we pursue,
but it keeps us from thinking and observing.
I was amazed after my milk run had apparently dried up, that if I
fished the same spots from different angles or different times of the
day, that I was catching fish again. You’ll have a hard time
convincing me this type of rut fishing is not harmful.

    Weather
I love to fish fronts, and I had done well fishing them. I think
fish operate much differently before a front. But that being said and
understood, there are fish to be caught between fronts. After all,
most folks can’t go fishing just whenever the conditions are perfect,
so learning how fish behave on those “less than perfect days” is a
good thing.
I will still hold to the thought that I catch bigger fish when its
raining, snowing, windy etc, but there are still big fish to be
caught.
I despised sunny days, I would fish my milk run in the sun and
score a goose egg. I finally realized by seeing the changes the
conditions made that I needed to fish other areas on those bright
days, or change my retrieve.
Part of my front theory is lowlight, well if fish like low light I
needed to find it on a bluebird day. Its amazing at the “dark places”
that exist on a lake in the full sun. Besides the obvious docks and
shady coves, a small drop off can make quite the dark spot. A stump or
lay down will provide just enough dark to hold a fish. And a bluff
wall has jot outs in the rocks that fish can feel hidden in.
A small shade line of just 2-4 ft is plenty enough shade to hold
fish. And if you think of it in the right perspective, the sun that I
so dreaded seeing on water, is the very thing that “positions” the
fish on these areas. It can actually reduce the amount of water you
need to fish so you can focus on the key areas.

Technique
I made 2 changes in my technique that helped me along with the
changes mentioned below in the tackle segment.
One really bad habit I have had since I first started bass fishing
as a young teenager is setting the hook hard, and I mean ridiculously
hard. The men I learned to bass fish from were primarily worm
fishermen, and they took a great deal of pride on how hard they set
the hook. Well, I fell in line with that mindset, but with age (and
many lost big fish) came wisdom. After 25+ years of slamming it home,
it was hard for me to stop, but it was easy for me to start setting
the hook with a backhand hook set. I am left handed so instead of
setting the hook to my left, I now set across my right side which has
softened my hook set a lot, but not too much.
I decided to change my hookset after watching Matt Peters set the
hook. He honestly has the smoothest, most fluid hookset I have ever
seen, in person and on film. And since he had a very good bite/hookup
ratio I figured that might be for me.
I also started parallel fishing some. Now I am a firm believer in
fishing perpendicular to the bank, but there are situations that are
more efficient when fish parallel.
I feel like a lot of the fish in our deep mountain lakes are
suspended away from the banks a lot of times, and you can get these
fish by fishing perpendicular, but when the fish are keyed in tight to
cover, or hugging a shade line, paralleling is the way to go.
It is a new angle to present your bait, and a way to stay in the
strike zone a bit longer (you’ve heard that a 1,000 times) , and you
can also learn more about the cover/structure the fish are holding on,
this was a big big plus for me.

Change requires compromise. Compromise requires wisdom.

Tackle

There is A LOT of equipment geared toward the ever growing swimbait following.The days of 7 ‘6” flippin’ sticks and 17lb Easy Cast
are gone, but I will add, to the dismay of some, that set up was
highly effective for some reason. Anyway, I progressed  rapidly to
custom built rods and Muskie gear, much to the frowns of my swimbait
colleagues, but I wanted some serious horsepower. The custom built
Calstar 800L was a clydesdale among horses. The unbendable lower section
of this hybrid rod was a brute, and the flexible fiberglass tip gave
it enough flex to be fishable.  Otherwise a pool stick would have been
about the same. The Calstar was my Hudd rod.
And the 8’6” Muskie crank bait rod I used for super long casts with
MS Slammers was no small toy. This bad boy would bomb the lighter Slammer
wood bait a mile, and cast it a good distance in the wind.
The “extras” that came with the rods had their side effects. These
rods were heavy. Fatigue will cause you to have poor rod position and
cause you to cut your day short. And after some health issues that
caused a lot of forearm and wrist pain, I had to concede and lighten
up. I switched to the much lighter Okuma big bait rods. And to be
honest, at first they felt like snoopy rods, and I had serious
reservations that these “ultra light rods” would be capable to handle
swim bait fishing. But after a fish or two, and being able to fish
correctly for a full day, I was glad for the change and have no
regrets. Now if you are the big bull in the pasture and can handle the
big stuff have at it, but for most folks you can get too big with your
equipment, causing adverse side effects.
Terminal tackle was another improvement. This was another hard
lesson. The number of good fish lost was ridiculous, and even though I
have still lost fish, the catch ratio jumped dramatically after I
started changing my stock hooks to Owner hooks. I’m talking a 70-80%
increase. There are times to save money, but hooks are not the place.
Sticky hooks will hold better, and get some of those curious
“nibblers” that otherwise would never be caught.
Line has been a real circus for me. After the end of the Easy Cast
era, crazy but that line would very rarely break for me, I went thru a
difficult search for the right line. Everyone would swear by such and
such, and it would end in broke fish for me. From 20-30 lb I broke on
a regular basis, till I finally started using Berkley big Game 30 lb.
in green, you know that really really cheap line that comes in big
spools, that I walked by because it didn’t cost enough or have the
right name. That line has proven great. The 25 lb I still broke but
the 30 is just right for me.

Summary

I guess the old saying that you are never too old to learn is
true, and even though it may be difficult, change can be a good thing.
I really feel like the changes I have made has improved my fishing. So
don’t get so set in your ways that you quit learning, fishing is ever
changing and you need to as well. And if you haven’t figured it out
yet, I got over the sharing information hurdle as well.  RM

 

 

Swim Signature: Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper

Published: 26 August 2012
Written by Alex Tech
1 Comment
Categories: Rigging, Small Bait Fishing, Themes from our Southern Trout Eaters DVD, Weedless Swimbaits

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agdF6CxaSTI]

In case you don’t know this, you need to have yourself an assortment of colors of the Skinny Dipper from Reaction Innovations.  The bait catches fish in the grass, and it catches fish in the open water.   Reaction Innovations is owned and operated out of Alabama, but Andre Moore is originally a Californian.  I could tell you a story or two about Andre Moore back in the late 90s, fishing the WON BASS tournament scene, Lake Havasu, and a bar called Kokomos.   I was brand new 21 years old and hanging out with guys like John Murray, Byron Velvick, Dan Frazier, Steve Beasely, etc and just having the time of my life catching fish, killing it as a AAA/Co-Angler, and being a care free college guy.    I’d tell you a story, but then again, like the Tiki Bar in Clewiston, what happens at Kokomos, stays at Kokomos.

White Trash Second Generation. The ‘Dipper as its known, is a grass bait, and White Trash was the cats meow for a time on the Big O. Now, you have to get a little more creative with your colors and fish it smarter because Scott Martin’s place, sells at least 10 tons of these annually, for good reason but the ‘Dipper not only catches fish, it takes your fishing into new directions. The Speed Worm and Swim Senko are in the same conversation, but the Skinny Dipper is a perfect compromise of size, shape, swim, weedlessness, and clearly gets bit, and tends to get the biggest bites of the 3 baits in this conversation.

 

Andre Moore’s Reaction Innovations makes some killer baits.  The Trixie Shark is a sneaky toad style bait that has a unique sound and gurgle it produces swimming across the surface of the water.  Lots of Trixie Sharks are sold in Florida, Alabama and Georgia, I’ll put it that way. Just add grass and lily pads, and the Trixie Shark is on somebody’s rod.  The Sweet Beaver has so set the mark and bar as a compact flipping/punching bait, it’s hard to be a bass fisherman and not somehow come across the Beaver as a bait that is talked about and used.   And then you mix in the Skinny Dipper, and you have to be like, wow, Andre has made some really good baits that catch fish, and they each seem to have a unique fit or application, or do something different.

The body is short, stubby, and round and the tail is a paddle, and it is well proportioned to the rest of the body. Not a big thumping tail, but a tail that puts a lot of roll into the bait. The Skinny Dipper swims great at high speeds, slow speeds, and most importantly, swims well in the slop which means upside down and in and out of the water. I highly recommend braid.  50# mostly or 65#.  You of course can use good 15-20 florocarbon for open water and should, or use a leader of floro connected to your braid if you are down for that kind of thing.  I’m gonna try the braid to floro thing A LOT more my next time in Florida, for all my baits, not just the Skinny Dipper.

 

The Money Shot Violet Skinny Dipper was there when bass fishing was interrupted by this thing called the Alabama rig and Chad rode the wave and also did his own thing, see below…
You didn’t see this here. Don’t tell Chad. He will pound me. No, actually, this one and the one below I got permission. The 4th and final bait, his #1 bait for the event was not the Alabama Rig, the vibrating jig (below), nor the Scrounger (the above is a Skinny Dipper rigged on an Aaron Martens Scrounger head),  it was his ‘Stinger’ as he calls it, that one I won’t share, as per his request, back when I took these on the final day of the 2011 FLW Everstart Championship on Kentucky Lake.

 

Chatter cricket. Chattering Skinny Dipper. Chat-R-Dip. Cheddar Dip?!!!

 

Chad Prough is from Chipley Florida, which is Lake Seminole country, which also means, Lake Eufaula country. And here he is in Kentucky fishing the Tennessee River with one of his bread and butter baits fished on different heads and rigs. Nice adjustments Chad. On a tournament dominated by Alabama Rigs, Chad made the final day cut and had a strong finish without needing the A-Rig.   Chad is Team Reaction Innovations, and a super good guy, who had an incredible 2011 season all around, and keeps after it constantly.

 

The Vortex.

The Skinny Dipper on an Aaron Martens Scrounger Head and a vibrating/chatter jig head, sick and wrong. No skirt.  Do you see how this relates to the “Huddleston Vortex” conversation we like to think we broached in Southern Trout Eaters?  The footprint and swim signature of a vibrating jig and Scrounger head when coupled with a swimbait or any softbait for that matter,  is so unique and wild, that they go outside the parameters of the other 99.99% of baits and voila, the fish go nuts about them.  Guys will squeak out one or two more fish on a vibrating jig with a swimbait trailer than someone throwing a traditional spinnerbait at times, and how many times does one or two fish mean the difference between a good and bad tournament?   The fish have seen 10,000,000 spinnerbaits, and so when something that unique comes along with a swimbait attached to it, it gets woofed.  The Huddleston Vortex predicts things like baits with unique, very real, and very odd swimming patterns/footprints/signatures tend to catch more or bigger fish,  better than baits that are just ‘me too’ style baits that are just another jig, spinnerbait, crankbait,topwater bait, etc.   The Alabama Rig proved five baits trump one bait, why, among other reasons, 10 vortexes from (2 vortexes per bait (( <insert Ken’s voice>“one on each side of the tail“)), 5 baits on the A-Rig, stick with me now, we will be doing calculus here in a minute!) 5 little bait fishes has always been safe to eat.  Nothing had ever hooked a bass, that wasn’t trolled, that had 10 vortexes coming off it.    What other baits (besides the Alabama Rig) have crazy unique vortexes/swim signatures/footprints, especially when combined with a simple and effective swimbait like the Skinny Dipper?  Answer:  The Scrounger Head and the vibrating jig.

They pick off fish other baits will not, in the same areas other guys are throwing baits that have been thrown for X amount of years/seasons.  The Scrounger and vibrating jigs are just killer baits when combined with swimbaits like the Skinny Dipper.  What other swimbaits are good?  The swim senko for sure, Lake Fork Magic Shad swimbaits, and Basstrix style swimbaits are all excellent trailers on Scrounger Heads and vibrating jig, just stand alone.  Learn how to fish them.  You can deflect, bump, burn, slow grind, open water suspend, grass snatch, rock hop, and stroke both styles of head, and I promise you, these baits are tied on a lot of FLW Tour and Elite Series rods.  What swimbait they put on, unclear, but the Skinny Dipper is one of them, and the Scrounger and vibrating jig heads are fish catchers.  Big fish and tournament fish style fish catchers.   The Skinny Dipper serves up a simple purpose: being an all purpose, well shaped/proportioned bait, that serves as your full bodied ‘baitfish’ imitator on a number of different rigs and hooks.  It comes in really great colors and options, is relatively inexpensive, and is also weedless so it fits anything from Lake Lanier to Okeechobee in color and applications.  Keep it Soft Stupid.

Larry Mullikin pulling out the in the ‘coup de grace’ to the 2009 FLW Stren Series Lake Okeechobee event Co-Angler Division, out of Roland & Mary Ann Martins Marina. You can see Derek Jeter’s (big guy in the background onstage who would finish runner up in the co-angler division to Larry because of this fish) face as he has to look away from Larry’s fish. Ron Lappin asks, “So what did you catch it on?” Larry takes a minute, laughing…”Skinny Dipper………of course” … This was a month or so after Jimmy McMillan won the FLW Eastern Series on Okeechobee on the Skinny Dipper.  I finished 20th on the Swim Senko on the boater side with 10 pounds per day.

 

 

Going Green

I like to fish my Skinny Dipper on 50# braid (would go 65 pound if I was on bigguns in thick grass) with the plastic bullet head, and I tie on a 5/0 Owner Offset Shank Wide Gap Hook with a palomar knot, make sure my braided line is nice and black, and I go to work.  I fish the Skinny Dipper on the G-Loomis 964 BBR on a Curado reel and can fling that bugger quite a ways on that setup.  I get great leverage for casting and hooking up with that rod and reel combo.  You want a long rod to throw the Skinny Dipper.    You want a shallow bend in  your hook so your bait is more stream lined going thru the grass, mag gap and extra wide gap hooks aren’t my favorite, but probably are effective for someone.  The PayCheck Head Case is a great piece of terminal tackle and it really helps your rigging of the Skinny Dipper. It helps hold your baits true and helps your bait bull nose thru thick stuff, without ripping the bait or pulling the hook down the shank.  You’ll notice the bait spins at times in the above video.    The hook generally acts as a keel, keeping the bait oriented right, but the tail and design of the bait makes it roll back and forth, and at times, it will do complete 360 degree spins while fishing it.  Not my favorite, but then I realized this was a blessing and a reason it fishes so well in the grass.   The ability to be sloppy with the bait, and fish it thru super thick stuff, requires the bait swim in all kinds of weird positions, even out of the water.  That is were round baits beat flat sided baits.

 

The Skinny Dipper with the Owner Hook is a slender profile. I like the 5/0 hook because it reaches way back into the bait when you rig, but isn’t into the tail area where it would mess with the swim. The Owner hook is not a mag gap or super big bend, which help you slide it thru grass.

 

Reverse ribbing in the skin creates additional roll, drag, and footprint of the bait as it moves thru the water. The Owner Cutting Point hook is great with braided line. Fish load up on the bait, you drop your rod tip, and come up hard and reel like heck and you’ll stick the majority of your bites.

 

The Paycheck Head Case screws into the nose of the Skinny Dipper, and just helps you bull doze your way thru grass.

Owner Hyper Crosslock Snaps

Published: 13 August 2012
Written by Alex Tech
No comments
Categories: MS Slammer, Nezumaa Rat, Owner Hooks, Rigging, Themes from our Southern Trout Eaters DVD
Owner continues to lead in terminal tackle that matches the physics of bigbait fishing. With the Owner Hyper Snaps, we now have high quality snaps that can be added to bigbaits, without worry about snap failure. These things are gorgeous stainless steel, and are a wonderful contrast to the junk snaps out there.

 

Most swimbaits and bigbaits are best fished when you tie your line directly to the bait.  No need for a ring or snap, but not always.   It can be difficult to find good solid terminal tackle that matches the physics of bigbait fishing.    Owner Hyper Wire Split Rings are super high quality split rings that miraculously filled a void in that department, and have been a staple in my swimbait fishing for years.   Now, with the addition of the Hyper Snaps, Owner has stepped up to the plate in providing super high quality stainless steel, superior strength crosslock snaps.   The Owner Hyper Snaps are rounded and reasonably balanced/symmetrical, which is important because who wants unbalanced stuff, when given the choice?

$4.50 for 9 of them. Go ahead, splurge and get size #1, #2, and #3, and you’ll be covered for you small-medium-large swimbaits and bigbaits. However, if you happen to be fishing the super magnum baits or fishing for super magnum striper or some other massive 40-70+ pound gamefish and need the convenience and action snaps provide, the #4 is rated to 165 pounds.

 

When are snaps are good idea?  It comes down to some personal preferences in how you fish, the retrieves you choose, the baits you throw, and your style of fishing.  For me, snaps come into play when:

  • Night Fishing.  I like to use snaps on my Slammers and Nezumaa Rats at night, because I have less vision on my bait, and like the sloppier swim a snap provides me at night.  I feel like there is more clack and play in my slower moving wake and topwater bigbaits with a snap.
  • Finding Mrs. Right.  Snaps give you the chance to go fishing and not have to waste time re-tying in order to change size, color, or bait.   So for example,  when I head out to Okeechobee and have a hardbait on my mind, and I’ve spent months preparing (ie, acquiring the baits, changing hooks and split rings, making modifications to them, etc)  to take that bait and put it work, I’ll use snaps to fish the baits and see which ones perform best, which color looks the best in unfamiliar water (the black water of Okeechobee does bizarre things to how the color of your baits appears in the water), which ones are most buoyant, and just have the chance to make efficient decisions because snaps allow you make quick changes of your baits.  I’ll have an open box and keep throwing 3-6 different sizes and colors of the same bait until I find one that matches what I want it to look like and do.
  • Fixing Lemons.  Some of your swimbaits and bigbaits just don’t swim well. It happens.  Snaps provide you a fall back to try and see if you can make your bait swim or perform better.  For example, you can turn a MS Slammer that perhaps doesn’t slow wake or swim super well on the surface into a good topwater twitch/pause bait, or adding a snap to an MS Slammer can turn a wake bait into a super shallow cranking bait.  So, use snaps when you have a bait you aren’t 100% happy with how it performs, and need another something to try and see how it fishes.  Snaps typically loosen up the swim, make your bait a bit more sloppy.
70-165# ratings, which is going to cover your smallest to biggest swimbaits, and do it right, with the highest quality stainless steel.

 

I use snaps when testing and tuning baits, but find snaps can make certain baits, like the MS Slammer, perform differently….going from wakebait on the surface to shallow cranker.