If I wanted to tell you that a Rate of Fall 5 (ROF 5) Huddleston Deluxe Trout is sometimes better than a ROF 12 or ROF 16 Huddleston Deluxe Trout, I would explain it two ways. One has to do with the Rate of Fall and how slow sinking the ROF 5 is, compared to the other two. The other measurement I’d like to provide you is it’s Rate of Stall score, meaning something I can ‘score’ the bait on and speak to the East and West travel of the bait (not just the North and South, as in Rate of Fall). You can creep the ROF 5 along, and it still maintains its parallel to the surface posture, but moves toward you much much slower than doing the same thing with the ROF 16. The ROF 16 wants to sink out and forces you to reel faster to get the bait planing toward you, which speeds up how fast it comes at you, the subtle difference between the time a ROF 16 vs a ROF 5 in terms of how slow you can reel each bait and fish it properly is a based in an understanding of Rate of Stall, at least, that’s what I’m calling it for now! When fish are on points or offshore it requires a slower and more thorough presentation, and at times, the ROF 5 8″ Huddleston is the better choice (amongst the 8″ Huddleston Deluxe family of trout baits) for 2 reasons: Rate of Fall (ROF) and Rate of Stall (ROS). ROS is not just a Huddleston thing, in fact, understanding ROS within the swim of the Huddleston conversation is an ‘advanced’ conversation. Floating baits best help visualize Rate of Stall, a la the Nezumaa Rat, as you’ll see in the video clip.
The above video clip is an attempt to present the idea of Rate of Stall, and is the beginning to what will be a multiple part online discussion. We touched on Rate of Stall in Southern Trout Eaters, and I talked about how I learned how to alter my MS Slammer retrieve from a straight wind, to a more walk the dog, start and stop–more stalled retrieve based on what I’d learned from fishing the Nezumaa Rat. I was able to keep my MS Slammer around the shade lines and steep faces of the Ozark Lakes, and that was where the fish were, and what it took to draw the strikes. I’ve asked Rob McComas (who is featured in Southern Trout Eaters) who is a MS Slammer specialist and Matt Allen from Tacticalbassin.com to provide some feedback and prepare a video response to Rate of Stall. I watched a video clip of Matt talking about the Lunker Punker and talking about fishing it over points, and I knew he would understand Rate of Stall and what I’m proposing here, so I reached out to get Matt’s perspective on the theme of Rate of Stall. I’m hoping having an online discussion where multiple people can provide video responses can be done in an orderly and effective fashion and provides a refreshed medium to have online fishing discussions. So, here is my part, just proposing Rate of Stall as a form of measurement and a rating or scaling system we might consider in talking about our baits. The “East and West” if you consider Rate of Fall to be “North and South”. I’m on Okeechobee right now, testing out Rate of Stall as it relates to fishing softbaits like the 3:16 Bluegill and neutrally buoyant and floating hardbaits like the 22nd Century Bluegill, rat baits, and MS Slammers in the grass, keyword: “grass”. I have other additions to Rate of Stall already underway, and I’m anxious to hear what Matt and Rob have to say about it, and we go from there. Check back here, for updates and the various responses. I have my fingers crossed, this online discussion format, with varying responses being stacked chronologically and playing off each other, will fly. We shall see. Please comment below, if you have some input on Rate of Stall.
The Nezumaa Rat helped me grasp something I knew, but couldn't fully explain. Talking to Rob McComas, hearing what Matt Allen said about the Lunker Punker in one of his TacticalBassin.com videos, my experience with ROF 5 vs ROF 12 or 16, and grass fishing has lead me to: Rate of Stall. . Oh the grass fishing, probably nowhere more important is Rate of Stall and understanding it in bait selection, line (braid and its neutral buoyancy adds Rate of Stall for example), the vortex of the tail (boot vs. wedge vs. modified wedge), or the buoyancy (floating vs. slow sink vs. neutral) properties of various hard and softbaits. But Rate of Stall, I argue is a missing dimension in talking about the swim of most of the baits we fish. You've got to be able to talk about the East and West and track a bait as it swims or can be stalled, toward the boat (not just the sink rate, or North and South, as in Rate of Fall). The Net Net Net of this conversation is picking the right baits for the right situations and also applying the right retrieves, and/or a combination thereof. Ryan Thoni catching a small one, and the Nezumaa Rat shifting into high-low gear.
Please excuse the extra cheeseball performance in the above video clip. This is seriously a good tip to make yourself up a bunch of cleaning solution to clean your sunglasses, fish finders, etc. I couldn’t keep a serious face when I was trying to put together the square and normal version of the video, so I went with the “Sham-Wow” style.
Here are the secret ingredients to the Amazing Magic 50/50 Formula:
50% White Distilled Vinegar
50% Distilled Water
Spray Bottle
Micro Towel
It’s not just swimbait fishing here folks, we clean, we wax, we polish and we shine. We pride ourselves in providing solutions to the visually impaired, and are applying for a government grant! Exactly one out of one person (me) that we interviewed said the Amazing Magic 50/50 Formula was safe, effective and chicks dig the vinegar smell. We scored it a 9.4567 (would have been 9.4572 but the spray bottle wasn’t as ergonomically friendly as we’d preferred, but still a good spray bottle)!!!!!!!!
The Amazing 50/50 Formula cleans, shines, waxes, finishes, puts your boat on the trailer, cooks you dinner, and if you call in the next 20 minutes .... hahahahahaha.
The 2011 Ranger Advantage Tour and Tour of the Ranger Factory
I was humbled and flattered to get an invite to the 2011 Ranger Advantage Tour. The event was 2 days, and gave me a chance to see the Ranger Boats ‘family’. Besides getting great insights into Ranger Boats, the 5 Star Advantage Program, and what is new with the products and marine industry products that are installed on Ranger Boats, it was a chance to test drive boats on the lake and also get a tour of the Ranger Boats Factory.
Ranger Boats was more than accommodating, and put on one heck of an event. The tour of the factory, or the ‘plant tour’ as it was called was off the charts. I mean, like getting to walk and get a tour of the Chevy assembly line or something. They welcomed pictures and video, and I did my best to keep up with tour group, because there was a lot to take in and observe. Imagine how few business welcome folks to come on in, video our plant, and just have their clients, business partners, competitors ( you know it happens ), etc just walk thru and take it all in. That speaks to confidence in what you do and how you do it. I really enjoyed the event, and was great to get exposed to what is going on in the industry.
The Ranger Boats Advantage Tour = Dealers, Professional Angers, the Marine Industry getting together as a 'family' and touching bases and looking forward to 2012 and beyond
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.
Bob Wood and a nice Lake Pickwick smallmouth on the 6" Triple Trout, chartruese shad. Tournament swimbait and small and spotted bass killer
Each Triple Trout has its own unique features, strengths, and intricacies that can be hard to qualify for you. I work to find harmony and rhythm with my baits. The 6” Triple Trout is always on on my mind and front deck when I’m targeting smallmouth or spotted bass, especially when tournament fishing is involved. The 6” Triple Trout catches largemouths, no doubt about it, but it’s size and profile make it a standout with smallmouth in particular, but also spotted beasts.
Chad and Banning, my pals in North Arkansas, getting it done with the 6" Triple Trout. The six inch Triple Trout is a good 'starter' bait for guys who aren't conditioned for throwing the bigbaits, yet.
Smallmouth tend to like smaller profile baits, not always, but when in Rome (ie, a place like Champlain or Erie or Pickwick when you are focused on catching a trophy smallmouth) , throw a 6” Triple Trout, and see what happens. There has been a lot of 6” Triple Trout trail blazing by the BigBait Possee crew on Arizona’s Lake Havasu and friends of mine like Cameron Smith on the Columbia River on Western smallies. Smallmouth candy bars, the 6” Triple Trout be. The 6” Triple Trout has all the goodness of the other larger Triple Trouts, so it has good fluid ‘s’ swim and vibration and thump, but it can be a ‘sportcar’ too.
The SportsCar:
What I’m getting at, is the 6” Triple Trout is a high performance bigbait. When I talk about the Triple Trout blending with a jerk bait, the 6” Triple Trout is like a Triple Trout blending with a Gunfish or Vixen, meaning a bait you can virtually any way you want and make it look good, and the better you get with the bait, the more control you have. It’s your ability to control the bait that really sets the Triple Trout guys apart from the rest. The 6” Triple Trout throws Kelly Slater style cutbacks, turns and power. The bait fishes incredibly fast if that’s what you want. I like to burn it for a split second or quick 2 foot section, then stall it, then burn it again for 2 feet and stall, twitch, jerk, pause and burn.
Sports Car, the 6" Triple Trout coupled with a 400 TE reel is power fishing a swimbait, tournament style. Bone white, a favorite color the world over
The 6” Triple Trout has the tightest ‘s’ swim of the full sized standard Triple Trouts. The tightness equates to a tighter wavelength and vibration which makes it more a tournament swimbait than a lake or state record breaking swimbait. The tightness also equates to ability to cut thru the water. So, when faced with current, the 6” Triple Trout cuts water better than the 7/8/10” versions. You can control the 6” and just fish it absolutely fast tournament pace and be very effective. Power fishing a swimbait.
Strengths: Tournament swimbait. Smallmouth swimbait. Spotted bass swimbait. Largemouth swimbait, just not the double digit kind, most likely. Very fast and aggressive and performance swimbait. Highly stall-able. Highly burnable. Sharp bouncing switch & cutbacks. Power fishing on tournament day is what I think about the 6” Triple trout. And for hunting trophy smallies and spotted bass, make no mistake this bait gets a lot of 3-6 pound range fish which makes it candy for the trophy spotted or small mouthed basses.
The ST-56 Owner Stinger Trebles are 3X strong and an excellent choice when you need small size 2 or 4 treble hooks, and are fishing swimbaits where you don't want to bend out hooks with the rods and reels you are fishing.
Ideal conditions: The cooling water of Fall. Fish chasing on better than average sized threadfin shad. Fish who eat yellow perch. Fish who eat blueback herring. Fish who eat jerkbaits and topwaters in warm water conditions. Fishing that involves current and/or moving water.
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: