The 10" Triple Trout, in purple trout, from our film, Southern Trout Eaters..."If the Vortex don't get ya, the Lightning Bolt will"
There is one swimbait that started the “S” swimmer revolution and whose simplicity is its genius. The Triple Trout is an absolute staple in our swimbait fishing, our practice approach to tournament swimbait fishing, and a bait that compliments our efforts to explore big and small bait fishing. The 10″ Triple Trout is a BIGBAIT and probably one of the more tiring lures you’ll ever commit to and learn to fish. This bait can be a workout to fish, which is all the better because most don’t have the nerve, the physical conditioning or the guts to commit to a bait like the 10″ Triple Trout.
The Triple Trout is hand crafted, painted, and tuned in Long Beach, California. Scott Whitmer is the man behind the 22nd Century Bait Company (named in relation to a song from “the Briefs”) . Scott is old school in the Southern California trophy scene, and Scott continues to have fun with his fishing (well, he doesn’t fish anymore, according to him) and bait designs.
Here is a picture of Scott, from out interview session that was featured in Southern Trout Eaters:
Mr. Scott Whitmer the man behind the Triple Trout and Nezumaa Rat, at home in his shop, Long Beach, CA
Scott’s style is very Southern Californian. Long Beach in fact. In South Orange County, we have a punk rock scene, but Long Beach always seemed a bit more rockabilly and 50’s greaser style, which is cool with us and we share a lot of mutual DNA. Scott is a craftsman. He has a strong and loyal following. He prefers to keep a low profile and make baits and quietly expand his business. His baits catch fish, period, and there it was no accident that Scott and his baits (the Triple Trout and Nezumaa Rat) were featured in our film, Southern Trout Eaters. The film leaves no doubt of the 10″ baits effectiveness for big fish and numbers, and covers topics like changing tails and shows us fishing and catching some serious studs on it.
The Triple Trout was conceived around being a jointed swimmer that required no bill and provided switchback and erratic jerkbait like actions and stalls that would fire up the Southern California trout eaters to chase and eat. There is something special about the 10” Triple Trout. It’s a known big fish bait, getting it done in places like Diamond Valley, Casitas, the Castaics, Don Pedro, San Vicente, Clear Lake to name a few. Our message is around simplification. The Triple Trout is on a short list of baits that have proven themselves to catch teen and double digit sized fish consistently—AND it’s a HARDBAIT. There are a LOT of JUNK hardbaits out there, so pay attention to the ones that are actually catching fish. That says it all right there. You have to separate baits that actually have caught really big ones into a separate buckets and then analyze soft vs. hard baits. The Huddleston, The Triple Trout, 3:16 Baits by Mickey Ellis, the Lunker Punker, MS Slammer, and Rago Baits pretty much cover 95% of fish catches on bigbaits when you drill into it.
From Top to Bottom: The 10" Triple Trouts from the film, Southern Trout Eaters: Silver Trout, Blue Trout, and Mackerel Trout
Our Film, Southern Trout Eaters, explores fishing the Triple Trout for the Blue Ridge and Ozark Mountain trout eaters. There is no doubt that bass in the MidWest and South are crazy and fired up about the Triple Trout. We have been throwing the Triple Trout since 2005 in the South, and it’s a bait we’ve put the most time throwing, next to the Huddleston Deluxe family of baits. We’ve caught the trout eaters on the Triple Trout, but the really exciting stuff is catching the blueback herring eaters, the big gizzard shad eaters, the brim/perch eaters, etc with the Triple Trouts as well. There are 6-7-8-10″ versions of the Triple Trout, and you can expect us to have a write-up for each.
One of the largest spotted bass I've ever caught, and it was captured on film and included in Southern Trout Eaters. Get your head and gear right, because the 10" Triple Trout will expose weaknesses in your mental and physical approach to bigbait fishing in a hurry.
Strengths: The 10” is an excellent BIG FISH bait. Double digits, teens, and the 7-8-9 pound fish will eat this bait. You can cover a ton of water with the Triple Trout and look for followers and movement to understand what reaction the fish have a bigbait. Excellent durability and fishability. Can be fished at night, good thumping swim.
Ideal Conditions: Water temps above 60 degrees or so. The warmer the water, the better for the Triple Trout. The fish need to be in a chasing, topwater, or otherwise positive mood where they’ll move to get a bait. You create the bite with the Triple Trout at times, using a start stop and jerk bait like retrieve to turn neutral or negative fish into biters. The clearer the water the better, but don’t fool yourself, this bait has enough thump and vibration and color choices that even the dirty water guys will be impressed.
Notes: If you want to get serious about trophy hunting, add the 10” Triple Trout right under 8” Huddleston Deluxe. This bait separates men from boys. When we recommend the 400 TE for bigbait fishing, this bait is a prime example. In order to fish this bait effectively and not wear your arms and wrists out, you need the right rod and reel to match the physics this bait brings—and the fish that will commit to the bait.
When they get the front hook on your 10" Triple Trout, you know they are liking the color you are throwing. 10" Triple Trout in "Purple Trout"
Ken Huddleston and the hand carved 8" Rainbow Trout that the molds would be made from
The 8” Huddleston Deluxe deserves its own dedicated web server, T1 line, and 10 TB of fault tolerant/redundant storage and virtual machines to discuss! We love having fun with themes and ideas around the baits we throw, and the Huddleston is probably the most fun. If there is one bait you need to learn to catch the biggest bass that are caught by casting and retrieving anywhere there are trout, you need to learn the 8″ Huddleston Deluxe. The numbers are there, it has proven itself as hands down the most effective bait for the biggest fish ever caught.
The 8” Huddleston has caught more fish over 15 pounds than any one bait in history. You need to read that sentence again and contemplate that for a second. I have friends who’ve caught fish 15-18 pounds on the 8″ Huddleston, I’ve caught one 14.6 pounds from South Carolina. Jeremy Pratt also has a 13/14 ish pounder from South Carolina. There is a reason the 8” Huddleston catches the biggest of big trout eaters—it’s a combination of realism and swim. To understand the 8″ Huddleston Deluxe swimbait, you have to understand Ken Huddleston and what he is doing. Ken is such an interesting fellow, with such depth and breadth into big fish behavior. It was a real treat to include him in Southern Trout Eaters.
Ken's hand carved 8" Rainbow Trout up close
There is a line in Southern Trout Eaters where Ken Huddleston says, “I believe, the really big ones analyze a bait…etc etc etc. That set Ken apart for the universe as far as I’m concerned. There was something completely accurate about the assessment. Big fish, the truly big fish analyze a bait, and if everything is right, then they will commit. The analysis is more advanced than 99.9% of traditional bass fishing gives credit to. Sight, smell, water displacement, vortex, and naturalism. It’s not just a lateral line feeling or how real something tastes or how long they will hold onto a bait. It’s multiple honed senses all triangulating off each other to assess and make decisions. That is truly big fish behavior. You will witness it when you commit to throwing the bigbaits. Sooner or later, you’ll have some big fish follow the bait, and you’ll notice they track behind your Huddleston, and you can see them ‘feeling’ your bait as it swims thru the water. They are feeling what the trout leaves behind in it’s trail, and that is what makes the 8” Huddleston truly special.
Strengths: When you are armed with an 8” Rainbow Trout Huddleston, you know you are throwing the #1 bait in the history of swimbait fishing and it continues to rock the world both West and East and down South. You don’t get any more high percentage for getting a bite than the 8” Huddleston Deluxe. The other benefit is you will be forced to learn a new style of fishing around realism and naturalism and learn to hunt big fish. Learning to fish the ROF 5 and ROF 12 should be goals high up on your list of things to do if you want to get right with fishing the Huddleston. Not to say the ROF 0 or ROF 16 don’t have their place, it’s just staggering when you start to look at the numbers on the ROF 5 and ROF 12 though. Consider how many Butch has caught on the ROF 5 and the ROF 12. Rob Belloni and Nico Raffo made a mint fishing the ROF 12, because as Rob told me, ‘You get to the fish faster’ … speaking as to why the ROF 12 over the ROF 5. This was 2005 when things were literally about being the first one to fish a place with a Huddleston Deluxe, anywhere there were trout in California or anywhere on the West Coast. Today the bait is still producing number of fish, as Southern Trout Eaters will attest, but also giants, I mean high teens … which Butch Brown is NOT the only guy catching these, he just is so damn on them and knows where they live and how to get them to bite so intimately, that his accomplishments alone speak to why the 8” Huddleston Deluxe Rainbow Trout stands alone in catching the biggest fish and the most fish when it comes to trophy hunting. So, do yourself a favor and get a rod and reel dedicated to this bait. Get your fishing around the Huddleston Deluxe. It is that profound a bait. I am just getting started fishing it on lakes without trout, and yes, they eat it.
Ideal Conditions: Water temps as low as 45-60 degrees, early Spring. Then as things cool down from 70 to 45 again in Fall. Those are ideal. Anytime you are fishing an 8” Huddleston, you are fishing high percentage for the trout eaters. Dead of summer or dead of winter, this bait will catch them too, just understand that Spring and Fall tend to be ideal.
Notes: If you watch Southern Trout Eaters, approximately 70% of the fish in the film were caught on the 8” Huddleston and the 8” Huddleston accounts for more like 80% of all the bigbait fish we’ve caught in the South. It’s the only bait Jeremy Pratt throws. Easy Button, don’t kid yourself, when in doubt, ROF 5 or ROF 12 8″ Rainbow Trout Huddleston Deluxe.
I met Ken Huddleston in Las Vegas in June 2010. I was driving from Arkansas to California for a little summer break back ‘home’. As well, I was planning on finishing up the film over the summer and wanted to interview Ken. Well, I called Ken, he obliged the meeting and we met in a park. Understand Ken will not let me or you or anyone into his shop. This is his intellectual property and I can tell you that Ken trusts most fishermen as far as he can throw them. Ken is wise because he’s been there and done that and has contemplated on most things you will eventually ask or wonder in swimbait fishing. There is a ton of wisdom in everything Ken does.
I sat on a park bench in Las Vegas and rolled film. I had no idea what I was in for. I have an approx 30 minute interview and was only able to use <5 minutes of it in Southern Trout Eaters, but to me it was just excellent footage and added such depth to the film. Ken sat there and basically helped me understand all the things I’ve been experiencing and thinking on, but couldn’t communicate. The Vortex Tail. The Vortex Tail creates the signature a rainbow trout leaves behind as it swims thru water. So Ken proceeds to walk me thru his other family of baits and how that same philosophy holds true. For example, the tails on the Grass Minnow and Weedless Shad were engineered to match the vortex a shad or minnow put off as they swim.
I asked Ken about his logo. He cool and calmly tried to explain the relationship between Man, God and Nature. Meaning, in order for the angler (man) to communicate with fish (nature) there has to be a spiritual understanding coming from a higher source. And that higher source (God) helps Ken understand how the natural world communicates. So, in order for Ken to create a bait that truly could fool the largest of bass, it had to be the most realistic, and furthest away from Man’s flaws. The 8” Huddleston Deluxe is on one end of the spectrum and a chatterbait and rattle trap is on the other. The Huddleston is absolutely real and gets bit because it’s mistaken as a trout, whereas a chatterbait gets bit because it has an awesome new thump and chatter. So in understanding how the natural world really works, Ken created the 8” Huddleston to have lethargic and slow and real swim, no vibrating or making unnatural movements, basically being as subtle as possible to blend into the natural world and not stick out—–nature tries to blend in and not be seen, and that is key to understanding why the 8” Huddleston Deluxe has caught and fooled the biggest of big.
Go ahead and Google “Butch Brown” if you are looking for evidence of what we are referring to, and watch his videos. Ken’s understanding of the natural world, big fish behavior and angling make his baits special. The Huddleston profile is the most real trout profiled bait made, the paint job is 110% accurate and excellent, and the vortex tail matches the swim signature of a rainbow trout——hence, there is other bait that can match the Huddleston, and when you really look, its because it’s so real in appearance and swim.
The conversation with Ken absolutely 100% changed my perspective on what was going on with some of my swimbait fishing and where I was headed with the film. It really resonated with me, and really spoke volumes to me about who I’m aligned with and how fortunate I am to work with someone like Ken. The intent of interviewing Ken Huddleston our film was to provide to honest input from the guy who makes the bait and to hopefully capture some insights into his design process and ethos. Well, I thought this was an absolute home run, mission accomplished in the film and what we captured. Just profound insight into swimbait fishing and deeper more profound lessons of big fish behavior. I’ve been lost in Ken’s Vortex since that June day. It really shaped how the film came together, not because I’m trying to be Ken’s flunky, but because I totally 100% agree with most of what Ken is laying down and I believe in what he does and the baits he makes. His words and wisdom made clarity and connected dots to ideas and part of equations I couldn’t explain prior to our meeting. It was just profound, and fun. We got along great and just had a healthy conversation and made an otherwise impromptu session super insightful.
Now, applying the Vortex Tail outside of the Trout Eaters, that is next and something we are working on as much as possible. Its being done and something we plan to give you full disclosure and access to. However, we aren’t there yet.
But when it comes to trout eaters in the South, that is where we have focused a ton of time and energy to show how we’ve taken the same baits that won the west over and are applying them in the MidWest and South. The Huddleston Deluxe Rainbow Trout is the #1 bait out West, and our film Southern Trout Eaters shows why it’s the #1 bait for us down South too.
Here is the movie trailer for Southern Trout Eaters:
If you want to see this rig in action, we highly recommend you take a look at our film, Southern Trout Eaters. 70% of the fish in the film (and 75+ fish over 5 pounds are featured in the film) are caught on this rig.
