I’m not a great trout fisherman, and I haven’t spent as much time with the Huddle-Bug as I’d like to speak with any super authority on the bait, but let me tell you, I’m learning in hurry. Brown trout are notoriously tough fish to catch. They are very smart and very spooky and very well in tuned with their natural environment. They are easily spooked and require an excellent presentation to catch. It’s been said, catching a 10 pound brown trout is much more difficult than catching a 10 pound bass. All I know is, I really like crossing over, cross over fishing intrigues me. Taking swimbait and freshwater applications and applying them to other species and salty waters.
You know what they say: "Huddle-Bugs of a feather..." Ken Huddleston's Huddle-Bug, realism in the crustacean kind
So, here is the Huddle-Bug in a nut-shell. Very very real. Very real movement and look in the water. The Huddle Bug Jig Head fits the bait perfectly and is a combo ‘pea’ and skakey head with a screw lock to make sure your bait rigs and fishes true. If a man knew where a bunch of big smallmouth and spotted bass lived (not to excluded largemouth at all!) I think he could get well in a hurry with these baits. Deep fish that eat small jigs, or shallow water, river fish that you have to use finesse jigs and craw presentations. Not the ‘stroking a jig’ style of fish, but the slowly creep, and pop/hop style of fish. The fish that are eating by sight, by realism and by instinct.
Brown Trout are a litmus test of sorts, because browns are often said to be one of the most difficult fish to fool. Just ask a fly fisherman. Catching a brown and the other looks I had in 2 separate "stalking sessions" is all I needed to see to say, "yep, this bait is legit".
This brown trout is NOT a bedding brown or a ‘red’ as they call them. This is a pre-spawn brown trout, and if you really want to try some really cool fishing, you walk softly along the banks of the White River near Cotter, Arkansas and you look for browns hunkered down, just sitting and occassionally feeding, but sitting really calmly, hardly moving or giving themselves away. If you can spot them, and you make a good presentation, you can catch these fish. The Huddle-Bug catches them. The browns showed immediate interest and well, this is just the beginning of this game too. You’ll notice in the above photo montage/animation the “stalk up on them” cast, throw upstream, and drift of the bait into the fish’s feeding lane and getting the fish to eat with a natural presentation/hop/slide.
My setup:
Bait:The Huddle Bug (match whatever color of crawfish you believe the fish are eating, where ever you happen to be fishing)
The rigged Huddle-Bug on the Huddle-bug Jig Head, built to fit perfectly and compliment the bait. Screw lock holds the bait secure and make sure your bait fishes and trackes true. I like to 'texpose' and come out like the picture above, then tuck the hook point back under a little skin and cover it, but make it really easy to expose. In some cases, just leave it exposed even.18 inches of Joy. The White River, near Cotter, Arkansas, the "new" new proving grounds. Truth in fishing. Cross over fishing proves truths that transcend species and fresh and salt boundaries.Underside Huddle-Bug Etouffee
Southern Trout Eaters was released on June 27th, 2011 to the general public. It’s now 5 months later and we got some ‘mentions’ some places, but some straight up reviews with a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ are hard to come by. Understand the politics in reviewing a film that doesn’t feature or even remotely align with any of the banner advertisements and products the ‘reviewer’ is paid to endorse and weave into their messaging. That has only taken me 5 months to realize! Hahahahaha. So thankful for this review because it is genuine and touches on points I’ve been dying to have discussions around.
Let me walk through some highlights of the Fishstrong.com review, from my perspective:
It was a real review. Fishstrong.com’s Hale White not only watched the film multiple times and let the information sink in, he clearly internalized and thought on these subjects and it showed. Their review was not only professional and well written, it was incredibly creative. Fishstrong.com comes up with a list “welcomed deficiencies” and actually gives us props for them. Most places beat me up over the picture quality and music. Not Hale. He realized the content was the shizzle. And I realized in his review, that Hale is no joke. Credible is a new word I love to throw around. Got Credibility? Hale and Fishstrong.com earned my respect with this review big time. He took his time and had even called me to clarify a couple points about the film and the people in the film.
Wavelength: There is a term the Spanish use, and it goes: “Que Onda?”…or “whats up?” is how it is generally known. But as you get deeper into Latin and Spanish culture, you realize that when a friend asks another “Que Onda?” he is really asking, “What wavelength are you on?” Wavelength here being a metaphor here for: What is your fishing DNA? What is your fishing fabric? What mold are you from? Well, I can say I rarely feel like I’m on the same wavelength as most of the fishing industry. I see things one way, and the industry is telling me something completely opposite or turned around. I am far from always right, but I am not always wrong either. It was so refreshing to read Hale’s review and realize I had found one of those rare people that I might be able to engage to do the kind of collaborative work I have in mind to do. Thank you for the sanity check Hale!
Southern Trout Eaters even look good on the Fishstrong.com website. Thanking Hale White for his review.
The Big O Sessions Part One: The Huddleston Deluxe Weedless Suite in “Grass Swimmers”
Here is some previously unreleased footage and insights into grass swimbait fishing with the Huddleston Deluxe Weedless Suite of Baits: The Grass Minnow, The Weedless Shad, and the 6” Weedless Trout. This is the first part of what we are calling “The Big O Sessions”, and this Part One is called: Grass Swimmers.
This footage was shot on Florida’s Lake Okeechobee, in January 2011. We are celebrating the launch of a new site for southernswimbait.com and just celebrating rising water levels on Okeechobee and counting our blessing for still being on the road, fishing. Gonna keep the train rolling into 2012.
Notes: Watch the hook sets in the above video. Slower action rods, sweeping pressure set style hook sets. Long whip casts, where you have 12-15” of line out from your rod tip and make a whip cast to get the bait out there and maximize casting distance with an 8 foot rod. Whatever style or brand of sunglasses you wear, try out some Yellow lenses in the black Florida water. You will be amazed at what Yellow lens technology does to brighten up that black Florida water, no matter if the sun is out or not. I wear my Kaenon Hard Kores with the Y-35 lens everyday in Florida (including out to the night clubs in South Beach, it helps me blend in with the hipsters!).
The Eastern Front: From New York to Florida, just add grass, and get into the Huddleston Deluxe Weedless suite of baits. This is the Weedless Shad, my first time ever fishing the baits, August 2010, Lake Champlain whackfest.
The Grass Minnow (foreground) tail is a swallow tail, and is a more subtle swimmer, less thump and vibration than the tail of the Weedless Shad (background) that is more a ball knobber, and provides a bit more thump and vibration. You can feel the Weedless Shad swimming toward you much better than the Grass Minnow, especially when you have calm conditions and have gotten onboard the braided line bus.
The Weedless Shad is slightly bigger and heavier than the Grass Minnow and it’s more bulbous vortex tail gives off more thump and kick than does the Grass Minnow. Because it is heavier, it tends to fish in the wind a bit better because you can cast it better. The overall size and profile of the Weedless Shad make it an excellent tournament swimbait, and pretty much anywhere you have grass or wood, this bait is something to explore.
I find myself throwing baits like the Weedless Shad in places and areas where other guys are throwing swimming worms like the Skinny Dipper or a swim jig. The Weedless Shad is extremely weedless and fishable, and because of the collapsable air pocket that surrounds the hook, it has an excellent hookup ratio. Once again, we highly recommend you fish your Weedless Shad on braided line. You need the zero stretch, instant connection, buoyancy of braid around grass, and ability to pull fish from heavy cover with ease.
Realism in shape, color, swim signature (vortex), and profile. The Weedless Shad (left) and Grass Minnow (right) are the epitome of realism in a tournament swimbait.
The hook set on the Weedless Shad is the same as the Grass Minnow or 6” Weedless Trout. You want to keep your rod tip somewhere between 11 and 12 o clock, and when you get bit, drop your rod to parallel to the water or 9 o clock position and wait for your line to tighten up and/or your rod get some bend in it. Then you know the fish has the bait, and go ahead and sweep hard (but don’t jack them) and reel. The spinnerbait hookset if you will. Just keep applying pressure and wind them in the boat.
Strengths: The Weedless Shad is a super realistic bait and has an excellent swim with added vibration and thump (over the Grass Minnow). It is slightly heavier than the Grass Minnow so fishing it in wind makes sense sometimes (vs. the Grass Minnow). The overall size and profile make it an excellent tournament swimbait, one that gets bites and lands fish. Anywhere you have grass fishing or wood, this is a bait to go explore with. You can cover a lot of water, just steady grinding this thing around like you would a spinnerbait.
You are going to catch a lot of fish on the Weedless Shad (and Grass Minnow). You will get a lot of fish per bait, but do carry super glue or Huddle Bond, because between the grass, the fish and the fish's teeth, a lot of tears and rips happen.
Ideal Conditions: 1-3 feet of depth, shallow grass lake fishing with sparse lilly pads, mixed grasses, reeds, etc. The clearer the water, the better. The bait is very real and fish that see this bait tend to eat it.
Notes: Colors aren’t a huge concern, because whatever natural or unnatural colors you throw, the fish will eat it. I haven’t found a color of Grass Minnow or Weedless Shad the fish won’t chew. Like all swimbaits, the better your bait swims, the more fish you’ll catch with it. Swim comes from the lure’s designer, but also depends on the angler.
Nico Raffo shared two baits that have caught a ton of big ones and are proven in the field. I've never seen a 9" MS Slammer with more wear marks. An indication this bait gets fished A LOT.
The 9” MS Slammer is the first swimbait I ever committed to and was the first swimbait I ever saw fished. The 9” MS Slammer was developed in Central California, very closely with Lake Santa Margarita. Mike Shaw, the ‘MS’ in MS Slammer, lived in Atascadero and developed the bait, and tested it by casting, trolling and targeting big striper and big bass. Rob Belloni, was early on the bigbait scene, got to throwing Mike’s bait because he fished Lake Santa Margarita often as a Cal Poly SLO student. Cal Poly is where I met Rob, and Rob introduced me to the MS Slammer. The MS Slammer has been catching trophy fish quietly and not so quietly since the late 90s.
Rob McComas was early on the bigbait scene too, he just lived across the US, and was fishing Mike’s 9” MS Slammer on the trout fed lakes mountain lakes of Western North Carolina in the 90s. Rob was not only featured, but was a key figure in the ‘go ahead’ and production of Southern Trout Eaters. His footage is some of the best of the film, incredible topwater bites, big flushes…really capturing how it is with the MS Slammer and how it works and fishes. Rob has really opened my eyes to wood bait fishing and how to apply it. He fishes laydown trees and shade lines and focuses on and thoroughly dissects spots where the fish live. It’s a slower paced, more thorough approach to structure fishing.
Rob McComas, 9" MS Slammer fishing in Appalachia. Rob has been fishing the MS Slammer for over 10 years in the South, and has taught me a ton about fishing wood baits.
The 9” MS Slammer is an absolute workhorse. A bait you can tie on and fish all day and night and never have to adjust or fix. Its a killer night fishing bait, probably one of the best and the first bait I reach for when night fishing. It’s literally slaughtered big fish, I mean 12-17 fish in a single night and in broad daylight out West. It is a staple. Wood baits are killer. Each bait is unique. It has its own swim, own vortex, own buoyancy properties and tendencies. Wood bait fishing is so roots. The beautiful thing about wood is all the differences in wood and how you get a really bulks and bigbait that doesn’t necessarily weigh that much. 9” MS Slammers don’t weigh but X ounces, and they get an A+ in fishability. Just easy on you to fish and killer baits, and because it floats, you can fish intimately around wood, boulders, structure of any kind, just stalling and killing the bait along with swimming it along to keep it around the sweet spots longer.
Clarks Hill 9" MS Slammer, white. Waking the bait over hydrilla in 10-14 feet of water, the Slammer is part of our blueback herring lake assualt. Why? Because its one of the proven baits, you take the proven baits and apply them to your water. Keep it simple.
There are various retrieves and styles of fishing around the 9” MS Slammer. The most common method is a relatively slow and steady grind, making the single jointed top water bait swim fluidly and clacky, move a lot of water, throw a big wake, and have a brilliant tail that licks the surface and compliments the jointed swim. You can stop the bait and walk the dog or just pause it, and the buoyancy of the bait makes it do a 180 or so and it’s a cool way to change it up on ‘em.
You can definitely reel the 9” MS Slammer and fish it 4-12” inches under the surface. Rob McComas has some excellent retrieves he uses to keep just the top tip of the tail above the surface while the entire bait is under the water swimming along with a small disturbance on the surface for the tip of the tail sweeping along back and forth. Rob uses the 9” MS Slammer as a deflection bait too, making contact with the wood and rocks and things purposely to draw bites.
Strengths: The strength of the MS Slammer is its fishability. You can use various retrieves and styles of fishing the bait (wake, twitch, slow rolled, etc) and change things up cast by cast as you approach your targets. The bait rarely fouls up when casting or needs any sort of maintenance. You will need to change tails every so often, but just find yourself a good swimming 9″ MS Slammer and hang onto it.
Change your hooks and split ring to Owner. The MS Slammer is a workhorse and if you put quality hooks and rings on your baits, you're likely to catch and land most of your bites, even the ones that just slap at the bait. Sticky sharp Owner ST-36 Stinger Trebles and Hyper Wire Rings is what I recommend for all wood and big hardbaits. Once your bait allows you to throw anything larger than 1/0, the ST-36 is the hook.
Notes: You may fish the bait with a snap. It might change how you fish the bait and might work for some instances. I like to fish without a snap wherever possible, but understand that wood baits are unique and each one a different animal, so don’t be afraid to tinker and find what works best and makes your bait swim best.
Mike Shaw, Mr. MS Slammer himself, in his workshop. The 9" MS Slammer is a staple wooden swimbait and set the tone for waking bigbaits in the late 90s as big fish catching baits, day or night.
Watermelon Red 6" Weedless Trout and an Okeechobee 'trout eater'
I’m shocked this bait hasn’t won a major tournament for me or someone else yet. This is a tournament swimbait if there ever was one. Grass fishing is just one of the major opportunities for this bait. The 6” Weedless Trout is a full bodied swimbait, but at only six inches long (weighs approx 1.75 ounces) this is a swimbait that gets the tournament style 3-5 pounders to bite, but has the potential for big bites.
To understand the 6” Weedless Trout, you need to first understand that the 6” Weedless Trout utilizes the patented Huddleston Vortex Tail. This tail design has proven itself as a fish catcher, matching the swim signature of a trout or other bait fish. The bait has a single molded in hook, with a collapsable air pocket chamber than encompasses the hook, making it weedless, but also enabling the bait to hook any fish that bites it.
Top View, 6" Weedless Trout, hook completely hidden, yet the collapsable air chamber makes for high hookup ratios and plays into our theories on Ken's Vortex.With a little pressure and braided line, you'll get this hook to expose itself and pull nice fish from grass, wood and anywhere tight to structure or cover
Just like with any kind of frog fishing, we highly recommend you skip florocarbon and just go to straight braid and go to work. Braided line provides line buoyancy characteristics and zero stretch that make it a lethal combination when combined with the 6” Weedless Trout. The key to the hook set is using a slower action parabolic rod and letting the fish load up on the bait and then apply a forceful but not overly aggressive pressure set and constant wind to hook the fish. You need to keep a high rod tip during your retrieve, and once bit, drop your rod tip, let the fish eat the bait a second, then sweep hard and reel and keep the fish coming to you. Hookup ratios aren’t 100%, but with braided line we’re getting 8 or 9 out of 10 bites in the boat.
Find yourself some shallow grass, decent water clarity, and just use a steady retrieve, nothing too fast or slow.
Dock Skipping: If you watch Southern Trout Eaters, we cover dock skipping with the 6” Weedless Trout. I can skip a 6” Weedless Trout under and around docks better than I can a senko. This bait is a dock skippers dream. You can put a full bodied swimbait in places the fish have never seen a swimming bait. Lethal at times, when the fish are positioned way up under docks. Again, braid recommended for ease of line management and for getting big fish out from under docks.
We showed dock skipping the 6" Weedless Trout in Southern Trout Eaters. Braided line, Curado 300 and Shimano 815XFA (sadly no longer available).
Strengths:The 6” Weedless Trout puts a bait where only baits like swim jigs and skinny dippers can usually play. The size of the 6” Weedless Trout makes it a standout, and will get bigger bites. There are very few bigbaits that are weedless (the 3:16 Mission Fish being the other), so when you are throwing the 6” Weedless Trout, you are likely showing them something of size that they haven’t seen before. The six inch size makes it a really good choice for tournament swimbait fishing, and will catch 2-5 pounders.
Lake Eufaula, FLW Eastern Series, shallow dirty water tournament swimbait fishing with the 6" Weedless Trout, ROF12, Junebug.
Ideal Conditions: Shallow grass, lilly pads, lilly stems, dollar pads, reeds, hydrilla, milfoil, or whatever shallow hard grasses are excellent places to throw the 6” Weedless Trout. The bait is extremely weedless and can be fished virtually anywhere without hanging up, yet able to hook a fish. Wood is an excellent application of the 6” Weedless Trout too, where you need to make a lot of contact with the wood to draw a strike. You can fish through a laydown tree and purposely make a lot of contact with the trunk and branches, and get some big bites from trees that usually only see flipped baits, square bills, spinnerbaits and the traditional assortment of lures. Docks too are an excellent application of the bait. When you get some practice and the hang of it, you will find the 6” Weedless Trout one of the best dock skipping baits around, that has the potential to hook a giant.
