Photo Blog Archives - Southern Swim Bait

Published: 25 February 2013

Written by Bait Bro

2 Comments

Categories: Florida, Huddleston Deluxe, Photo Blog, Weedless Swimbaits

Nothing makes me feel better than a good bite on a 8″ Huddleston! I finally got a day of fishing where the wind was <20MPH and was able to setup and just fish, and I caught a nice one. A lot of why I decided to come to West Palm Beach is access to Okeechobee. I have a sweet deal going where I store my boat at the lake and have a place to stay on the weekends, so that is just working out beautifully. I have a lot of bigbait sessions ahead of me I hope. The water level is 14.7 or something, so it’s falling out pretty quick. But, I’m looking forward to another couple months of fishing for sure. It was 85 degrees out there this day.

Hard grass and soft grass and black water. 3-4 feet deep.

The 8″ Weedless Huddleston is something I’ve been mentally preparing myself for a while. I just haven’t had many sessions with it, where I could commit and throw it the majority of the day. I really like the way the bait fishes. The line tie on the nose makes it a ‘superior’ bait? I don’t know if that makes sense, but I really like the line tie on the nose. It just swims and fishes and orients right to you. I am fishing it on straight 80 pound Power Pro Spectra, and Calcutta 400 TE and Loomis 966 BBR. I just love that setup and with braid, its like, plus one or plus two more better. I just love braid. The braid is key for snatching and snapping your bait free in the grass. If you muck up, a hard pop or jerk will often clear the bait and you fish thru. At distance, these are things that cannot be done with anything but braid. Couple that, with my experiences with the Grass Minnow, Weedless Shad and 6″ Weedless Trout, I know that braid is the deal with those baits, so to me, this was a no brainer.

Florida fish have an interesting frame. I didn't weigh this thing. It didn't cross my mind. Unless they get enormous, I just sorta eye ball them. I think it was about 7-8 pounds. But that is what I'm hunting. I need to figure out how to get 5-7 bites a day on this thing. — Florida fish have an interesting frame. I didn’t weigh this thing. It didn’t cross my mind. Unless they get enormous, I just sorta eye ball them. I think it was about 7-8 pounds. But that is what I’m hunting. I need to figure out how to get 5-7 bites a day on this thing.

Don’t hate because I have that carp/orange trout color on the 8″ Weedless. Really, I have one. I really hope Ken and Dennis come up with colors like this, and make them staples in their lineup. I love the nightstalker color, and I love this color too. I really like the golden shiner color too. I just prefer darker/dark baits that would go good in the Okeechobee water. The Night Stalker color looks fantastic in the Okeechobee water. White has never been a good color of moving bait (save a chatterbait or spinnerbait) for me on Okeechobee with swimbaits/swimming worms. I know other colors of the 8″ Huddleston will work on Okeechobobee too. I’ve caught them on hitch on baby bass, the non-weedless versions.

I’m landing the bites I’m getting on the 8″ Weedless, and they tend to be >6 pound fish. They are awesome bites and you’ll have to be patient to see the film. I hope our next DVD might be a bigbait fishing thing in Florida. Grass fishing. Haven’t put it all together by a long shot, and if I’ve learned anything at 35, I know better to than to make claims and predictions, especially if they involve fish or women! You cannot predict the fish. You just don’t know how things will play out with the filming and footage and flow. I sure hope I find a balance of work, social life, fishing Okeechobee and surfing around Jupiter and North! I hope it works out and I make good decisions and have good flow. We shall see. It has been anything but an easy transition back into corporate life, in a new city I’ve never lived. But……8″ Huddleston bites do a man right!

Published: 4 September 2012

Written by Bait Bro

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Categories: Photo Blog, The Ozarks, Trophy Ozark Brown Trout Fishing

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is7VtjM23Qk]

Here’s a little bit of Arkansas for you.

DCIM100GOPRO — Ozark warm water spring creek minnows and juvenile suckers enjoying a traditional recipe of crawfish etoufee

Published: 8 July 2012

Written by Bait Bro

1 Comment

Categories: Huddleston Deluxe, Photo Blog, Themes from our Southern Trout Eaters DVD, Trophy Ozark Brown Trout Fishing

southern-trout-eater-white-river-swimbait-fishing — You could say I was stoked. Look how black that fish is. Really dark brown trout, up around the bend, Cotter, Arkansas White River.

Just wanted to share some more pics of the ‘big catch’. I’m still undecided how big the fish is. Bummed I was an idiot and didn’t measure the thing officially. I don’t typically measure or weigh fish unless they are giant, which is weird I suppose, but you sorta just go cool, I got a good one, and enjoy it for a while and keep planning more trips and well timed assaults.

The White River in Arkansas is a trophy brown trout fishery. Quite possibly the best brown trout fishery in the United States. Anytime you have a legit shot at a >24″ brown trout, you are trophy hunting, and in the White River, you have a legit shot at >30″ brown trout. The above fish is approx. 27″ long, but doesn’t weigh that much. Long and thin, but don’t get me wrong, one of the finest catches I’ve made in a while. 8″ Huddleston Deluxe Rainbow Trout swimbait with the Southern Trout Eaters trap rig setup with gills added. The brown trout fishery that exists here is a wonderful story, and includes the names of people like Dave Whitlock and Forrest Wood as well as bunch of agencies, volunteers, State and Federal fisheries, and the Corp of Engineers…all working together and compromising. The White River has many secrets, many bends, many shoals, many miles and many fish. You need at least 2 probably 3 different boats to fish it properly, not including wade fishing. Brown trout are just an amazingly fun fish to hunt and catch. They are very gamey and eat moving baits, and definitely eat bigbaits. They are known to attack rats and birds and other terrestrials as well as other trout. Hmmm, that breaks my heart to hear!