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.
Here is some footage of Ken Huddleston, walking me through his ‘vault’ ( a cardboard box ) of baits that represent his almost 20 years in making swimbaits. Ken is “the guy”, and I figured this footage would be pretty cool for all the swimbait geeks out there that enjoy the history of swimbaits and would enjoy some footage of Ken walking through some of his swimbait creations over the years.
"John Brown". The Catalyst of the War. War on closed minded approaches to rigs and rigging. The Alabama Rig, "Old Blue", simple, made from quality components and solid terminal tackle just helped us all catch a lot more fish.
I’m sitting in Calvert City, waiting for Jet-A-Marina to give me a call, to let me know my lower unit has been delivered, and then installed. Thanking Yamaha for standing by their warranty, and their support. Of course, I’d like’d to have seen the Yamaha Service crew at the Everstart Event, but that is business and fishing. So no fishing for me since the tournament, just making hard and from the hip decisions everywhere.
I’m not going to give my $.02 on the Alabama Rig, yet. I haven’t had a chance to really fish it hard and carefree, swimbait style, and do everything I want to do. So, I wanted to share some things that were in direct relation to the Rig. As things were unfolding with Paul Elias at G-Land, I was making modifications to my presentations to be more ‘multirig’ or ‘polyrig’ in style. You couldn’t just go get a ‘rig’ to go fish. It was crazy hearing all this and not even being able to see one or hold one to fabricate your own from, so we just made do. The fish are on a shad bite, they hunt in small wolf packs in places, and small bait balls that have broken away from the main bait ball are a damn sure good way to get the fish fired up and focused.
Quad Bladed Spinnerbaits started catching fish as we scrambled to do anything to start casting baits that made balls of bait, not just one or two baits. I believe we'll be seeing spinnerbaits with many more blades and setups as a result of the Rig Effect
The Booyah Quad Blade Spinnerbait…Someone riddle me this: Why is there only one spinnerbait with a quad (bonzer!) blade setup (generally available kind)? And it only weighs 3/8 oz? Why not a 6 blade? Think about the implications of multirigs and using teasers and creating schools and predator>prey setups that is about to explode. I have so many ideas and thoughts lately about the Rig Effect it’s hard for me to organize them or even share them in some cases, because the fish catching and money making implications are profound. Every lure company in North America should have had an ‘all hands’ meeting with the team to strategize about multirigs.
Not only is there going to be a huge amount of rigs created (make your own rig, seriously, its not very difficult to do), there is a viral effect of ideas and innovations that rivals Facebook! (well, probably not). The Alabama Rig just points out our closed minded approach to rigging as a bass fishermen. Teasers and umbrellas have been around since the beginning of time. I’m just excited it catches fish so well. I can understand throwing 100 lures at once, you expect to hook something, but 5 baits isn’t some disgusting overkill. I mean we are catching one maybe two fish at a time at best. You could get 5 sure, but its about presentation and creating the school.
I started catching 'busting fish' in the back of pockets on the Grass Minnow Double Rig...Tie on one Grass Minnow with a Palomor Knot, leave a long tag end, thread the line back thru the nose of the Grass Minnow like a drop shot rig, come down thru and then tie on Grass Minnow #2 with a Palomar. The Double Grass Minnow has got good weight, but is still a tough Rig at times to fish if its super windy and rough, which it was during the tournament.
10 vortexes. Each bait gives off a unique vortex, one on each side of the tail, so 10 vortexes created by a 5 way Rig. In Southern Trout Eaters, Ken Huddleston says: “I believe bigger, more mature fish will analyze a bait, and if everything is right, it will commit to the bait”. Ken was talking about trophy fish. But just as occasionally a trophy fish will act like a 2 pounder, the 2 pounders can act really smart and be really finicky and fussy. Fish analyze a bait as it tracks thru the water, using more than just lateral lines and smell. Think about a fish that has only ever tracked behind a bait that has 2 vortexes, or at best, 4 vortexes (double rig fluke, Front Runner on your topwater rig), but never 10 vortexes. 10 vortexes in a fishes mind = safe = commit. And in fact, his buddies are so confident in 10Vs = safe = commit, they join the party and eat one too, so the angler catches 2 fish on one catch, way more often than normal.
The Grass Minnow is the most subtle swimming best vortex matching bait I know. The Weedless Shad is #2, the only difference being the Grass Minnow has a smaller profile and a swallow tail vortex (vs. the wedge tail). So, while I was scrambling to fabricate my own Rigs or get real ones thru hook or crook, we started fishing multirig style, meaning, Booyah Quad Blade Spinnerbaits, double rigged flukes, and double rigged Grass Minnows. The fishing on Kentucky Lake is tough, don’t kid yourself. The Rig caught fish, but it wasn’t any kind of whack fest out there. So, to fish with quad blade spinnerbaits and double rigs and start catching some fish again a little more regular, was pretty cool. I went into the tournament having a decent quad blade spinnerbait and double rigged Grass Minnow bite. But then came the Rigs.
Troy Anderson, my practice partner and eventual CoAngler Champion for the 2011 Everstart Championship on Kentucky Lake. Here is Troy, with 3" Hammers and a 4 way rig, with a spinnerblade teaser as #5 in the middle. We were in New Johnsonville here, so we were technically illegally fishing in TN water. We got an email at 4pm that day, last day of practice, that TN Fish&Game rules say no more than 3 baits. Basically, I bailed out of New J'ville and TN altogether based on that ruling alone. So did Dan Moorehead the Pro Champion and guys like Jim Tutt.
There is going to be landslides of changes, new innovations, new tournament rules and implications, and lots of fish getting caught as part of the Rig Effect. Just fishing multiple baits at the same time, totally under-explored, and creating schools of baits totally under-explored and creating new rigs and methods for presentations, casting, etc make all new kinds of swimbait like implications, like the need for 8 foot rods and big round reels with big gears and heavy lines and heavy terminal tackle. Strange and wild twist on fishing and swimbait fishing, but the bottom line thing I cannot get over is how well the fish eat the Rig. It catches fish, and it doesn’t seem ‘obnoxious’ or grossly out of line with fishing regular single bait setups, IMO. It fishes like a 8″ ROF 12 Huddleston Deluxe. No kidding.
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.
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.
