The Triple Shad Elite, is the fusion of underspin and umbrella rig fishing. The bait is made by my long time friend, Cameron Smith. Cameron has been quietly selling the Triple Shad Elite to bait shops in San Diego County for maybe a year, and now he’s stepping up and got his baits sku’d and online at Tackle Warehouse. San Diego lakes are small, highly pressured, and guys tend to be really good at tweaking their baits and thinking outside the box, because that is what you have to do to get bit and be competitive.
The Triple Shad Elite comes in various weights: 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 ounce models, and the baits come in a good standard baitfish centric colors. They are built with 4/0 and 5/0 solid Gamakatsu hooks. I fished with Cameron this past Fall in the Ozarks, and he brought me some baits and showed me how he fishes them. Cameron will throw the bait out, and let it hit the bottom and slow grind it back to the boat, or he’ll count it down to the desired depth and slow grind it in. The bait has a lot more thump and feel to it, than underspins with a single blade. The traditional underspins can be hard to get a feel for because there is so little drag or resistance when you reel it, you aren’t sure if your bait is fouled or have any real connection with the swim of your bait. Not the case with the Triple Shad Elite. You definitely get a good feel for the bait swimming along, blades turning and thumping.
Cameron recommends Zoom Super Flukes (Regular or Jr. size) as the trailers. Traditional ball knobber or boot tailed swimbaits don’t always go well with underspin type baits. The kick of the boot tail will mess with the swim and tracking of the bait, so by using a Fluke, with a nothing, no swim, forked tail, you eliminate the trailer messing with the balance and track of the bait. Cameron I know will throw on a good old fashion curly tail grub from time to time too. You just don’t want a lot of drag created by whatever trailer you choose.
With the lessons learned of the umbrella rig and the super nova of the Alabama Rig, there is no doubt that creating a school of baitfish flat catches fish. Cameron is fusing the best of underspin fishing with the goodness of umbrella rigging, and delivering it in a single compact bait. Underspins have been quietly cashing checks on Tour, at local levels and all over country now. They are great ways to catch suspended fish, so the Triple Shad fits into a great space of suspended fish tools, that bring the multi-rig dimension where you’re giving them a school of baitfish. Cameron fishes his Triple Shad Elites on 15-17# Florocarbon a Medium Heavy 7 foot casting rod, and a standard casting reel.
I’m certainly not here to have a discussion about ethics and catching fish on beds. You have to sight fish to be competitive in tournaments, and if you are like me, you enjoy watching fish, fish behavior, and looking at fish while you fish for them. Bass have a lot of guts, gusto and balls, but most times, they can be very finicky and fickle. Bed fishing is an art, and I will tell you, drop shotting for bed fish is killer. The bait literally sits in the fish’s face and they sorta tend to suck it in. The Jackall Clone Gill is a little morsel at 2.5″ long–perfect size because its tall too, so its bulky but really slim and finessy too. When I saw these baits, I was said WOW. They are really bite sized baits that rig up nicely on a nose hook. I rigged the Jackall Clone Gill with a #1 Owner Mosquito Hook and a 3/8 lead drop shot weight with about a 10″ Leader.
You get great bait control, with a heavy/bulky bait on a drop shot rig. Especially at close range, you can give you bait slack and drop it, swim it, make it dart, etc. The side rig is just nutty. The bait will do 360 degree wounded/teasing bluegill death spirals around the drop shot weight. I enjoy watching how I’m working my bait, and watching how a fish reacts to it. That is what I really enjoy. Watching fish and watching fishing lures in action and seeing how fish react is why I love bed fishing so much. Bluegill are great baits around the spawn. Heck, they are great baits anytime, but you add bluegill/brim/sunfish family of fish around a bedding bass, and watch what happens. The fish really get fired up, and it’s can be the little edge you need to get her to eat. Give the Jackall Clone Gill a try when fishing for bedding bass. Bigger the fish, the better!
Nose RiggedSide Rigged Jackall Clone Gill on a #1 Owner Mosquito Hook
That fish inhaled the jig. Notice the sparse reed and little pool. That is where the fish will bed in the good areas, and the jig is an excellent bait on Okeechobee to pitch around the sparse stuff.
It was brought to my attention from a friend that I didn’t do a blog post about my Okeechobee Everstart tournament. My mind has been busy dealing with all the things of starting back to work at a new job, finding an apartment, finding furniture (I arrived with a coffee mug, and a ton of fishing gear, of course), and just getting settled into a new life and lifestyle. Okeechobee has been in a funky cycle, but don’t let that fool you. I have a feeling the FLW Tour event coming up out of Clewiston is going to be another slug fest. Okeechobee has had really high water, and crazy thick grass. But with cooler nights and days, the grass is thinning out, mats are literally melting away, and things are changing, last I heard and last I fished.
Day One:
I have a huge open water area I’ve been fishing in the Bird Island/North Shore area that I was fishing last year, that I found a good school of fish holding in. I could not find the jig fish that were loaded on Observation Shoal last year, and the Monkey Box itself, was almost completely choked out, and the areas that were fishable, just didn’t seem to have fish like they normally do. Not to say they aren’t there, I just didn’t find many areas with fish in practice. So to Bird Island, I went. I wanted to throw the 3:16 Sunfish and throw the Magnum Speed Worm in this open water and I figured I could usually get one good bite a day doing it, and come up with 12-14 pounds. I knew I wasn’t on winning fish, so you just go with the best you got. The Magnum Speed Worm, pegged with a 1/4 ounce weight, and a big 6/0 hook can be swam thru the eel grass and hydrilla, but it’s also got this great ‘power Texas Rig’ fishability where you hop, drop, yo-yo and then swim the bait thru the grass. I was killing them on the Magnum Speed Worm, and don’t be shocked if you hook a big one on that bait. I was buzzing the outside edges of some pepper grass clumps with the 3:16 Sunfish, and sure enough, I got one almost 6 pounds to come out and choke the bait. I fished loose, had fun and just made the most of my bites and weighed 14-8 or something, and was stoked to be in the Top 30.
The 3:16 Sunfish is not weedless, but if you’ll notice the sparse reeds, there is also hydrilla on the bottom, I look for ‘swim lanes’ and buzz the bait thru the grass in areas like this. Not a giant, but 3-4 pounders are always good, and fun to catch, especially on braid.
Day Two:
Back to Bird Island. The bite started much slower. I had to grind to get something going. I keep telling myself I need to fish looser in tournaments. There is a great article Gary Dobyns once did about ‘Fishing Chicken’…google it, maybe it can be found. Bottom line, don’t get so caught up in your area or gameplan you don’t bounce if things aren’t going right. I made a good decision to head over to an area I knew had a few fish, and abandoned my best water for a while. Good move. We immediately got into some good keeper fish on the Magnum Speed Worm and I had some boils on the 3:16 Sunfish. I filled up my limit and then bounced back to my good water. The bite seemed to be much better later in the day, and on Day 2 I was a late flight, so had an extra hour to fish. Well, I got a line jump bite on the Magnum Speed Worm as my bait was falling back to the bottom in the sweetest deepest section of some eel grass. I swing, she aint moving, and I knew it was a biggun from the bite and from the hookset. Well, finally after a good 2-3 second tug of war, my rig comes flinging back at me, and my hook is completely opened up and bent out, hook point rolled over and I knew I’d just lost to a beast. Bummer. I didn’t get my big bite on Day 2. Well, I culled a few times and ultimately weighed 12-6 or something, and ended up 29th place for the event.
The Top 10
The Top 10 weigh in was cool to watch. You always learn something when you hear how the guys who really got it done caught ’em. The jig bite was on, just not in the areas of the lake they had bit for me last year, and I didn’t spend enough time (much shorter practice this year than in years past). J&S was clearly an area where the big fish had moved into and the guys that slowed down and pitched jigs and senkos and creature baits in the right stretches, got some big bites. I have never seen a weigh in where there was a tie. Trevor Fitzgerald was looking like he would win, but homeboy pulled out a 9 pounder or something stupid as his last fish, and they tied…but since homeboy had the lead going into Day 3, that was the tie breaker. I can only imagine how Trevor felt. Ouch. I wish the guys fishing the Tour a lot of luck out there. I think it could be an awesome event. The fishing after the tournament was getting better and better, and since off limits, things got kinda cool and cold, and the way Okeechobee flows this time of year, a good cold snap is good because when it warms back up, the fish go nuts. And the big ones moves in.
Shaye Baker had a 19 pound day 2, snatching chatterbaits and rattle traps on the outside grass edges in a good deep to shallow spot with that black water.
Shaye Baker
Want to see something cool, check out the below video. This is Shaye Baker’s Day 2 fishing, getting it done snatching ChatterBaits in some outside grass. I have gotten to know Shaye the last year or so, and I am impressed with his fishing and aptitude toward contributing meaningful content to the world of fishing. Shaye is on his way to a fantastic career in the world of fishing and media, and he’s got a lot of good things brewing at both FLW and BASS, so expect to see his name often as part of the few guys who know how to cover bass fishing, and sharing information—and doing it with style and soul. Shaye finished 11th in the event, and is a solid fisherman too, but is wise enough to realize the challenges of making a living with a rod and reel. You cannot just be good, you have to be exceptional.
Oh yeah, Casey Martin….Congrats to Casey, with a 6th Place finish and a solid showing on Okeechobee. I’m telling you, this guy is going to crush it in 2013 fishing the Tour as a rookie. In fact, FLW is going to be sending a film crew to follow Casey around and document his rookie season, the life on the road and the fishing part. Casey is exceptional. His ability to keep things simple, focus on his strengths, and make gameday decisions is impressive. Casey went out with his flipping and punching rods and got 7 pound bites on Day 1&2 and put them in the boat, and that is the difference between good and exceptional on tournament day. Follow Casey at: caseymartinfishing.com
I really suck at tournament fishing sometimes. My buddy Casey Martin, finished 5th place, running the same pattern, in fact, we stayed in the same hotel room for the event, and he whacked ’em to make it all four days and I went home a kook, again, at the Everstart Championship. The Ouachita River is like 70 miles of main river, and another 70 miles of other tributary creeks and rivers and bayous and backwaters galore. There were no less than 25% jon boat in this event. Guys came prepared for stump jumping and fishing in the extreme backwaters. I did not. I came to fish my game, and found a pretty decent pattern on the first day of practice, drop shotting4.5″ Roboworms in Bold Bluegill in the mouths of pockets/backwaters, just off the main river channel. In fact, there were fish in the main river channel, on any point or rock pile and in the laydowned trees. Now, you have to understand that catching 5-7 keeper 12 inch fish right now is pretty much whacking them. It took 6 pounds per day to get paid. I caught 5 pounds per day. I had a good gameplan, and Casey just did what Casey does and it speaks volumes to his fishing versus mine. My practice became San Diego style worm fishing. However, it was a popular pattern, as many guys stayed close and fished around the weigh-in/release area and did well. I had the right idea, but what I will let Casey tell you for sure is that he found the better quality fish AND got them to eat. Umbrella rig for sure and Casey had a trick one, and the Boing topwater lure on Day 2 with a solid 3-4 pound fish that escalated him to 8 pounds per day, which he for sure was in the drivers seat, just because cutting to 20 and the 10 boats (in days 3 and 4 consecutively), he would have much freer reign on the mouths of creeks and pockets and his prime choice point/mouth which was at the intersection of D’Arbonne and the main river channel. Duh. Ask anyone about the Ouchita River and D’Arbonne is the most popular creek/bayou and it’s big and gnarly and is like 45 miles with 5 MPH zones and an abundance of stumps, logs and bayou. It’s where some fish got caught, but this tournament wasn’t dominated by back bayou water necessarily. Some main river played in bigtime, but understand, you have giant cypress trees and oaks and black or really dirty coffee with cream style water. Heck, this where the Duck Commanders live. Monroe, LA you were great, but man, you guys got some tough fishing around there. Especially when it comes to boat handling and navigation. Rivers are not generally what I like to see after the name of a body of water. I’m a lake guy, but as the White River, where I live and watch daily, I’m learning.
Casey fishing another Top 10 Cut at the FLW Everstart in May 2012 on Guntersville. Casey ‘slipped up’ this day, when low 20s pound bags suck. Justin Lucas had 30+. Sickness.
Great job Casey Martin, and the BETTER news is Casey just signed up for the 2013 FLW Tour as a Boater!!! Casey will update his blog about his tournament and he can fill in the gaps and day 3 & 4. I’m such a loser, I didn’t even hang around for Days 3&4 which I almost always do. I am a little lost and did sit still easily lately, but anyway… I am so stoked, pumped and definitely jealous that Casey and many others are fishing the Tour in 2013. It’s a great schedule and with only 6 tournaments for some guys and Casey is one. Fewer tournaments is less risk for some of us (me included), and the lakes are lakes I feel like I know pretty well (save Grand Lake), and Casey too. I’m just sick to not have my deposits in. Casey knows how to fish tournaments, and is just on fuego. He has fished the FLW Tour the last few years as a Co-Angler, which means, the non boater who gets partnered with the Pro for the day. Casey has won like $150K from the back of the boat, and does really well at the Everstart and BFL Levels as a boater, so it’s not like he can’t or doesn’t fish from the front of the boat well, he was just wise to take the education that fishing as a Co-Angler affords, and took that to off the chart levels, so this is a natural progression. Casey is up for the challenge and I know he will do really well. I am just so lost at times with where I’m at, and so addicted to tournament fishing, yet even more addicted to throwing bigbaits, and I love the blogging, but I’m just struggling financially and in no position to fish the FLW Tour in 2013, even though I’d like to. I asked Bill Taylor if he’d take 3 deposits (vs. the required 6) and a handshake, he just laughed. I have to laugh too. I’m crazy to be flirting with the FLW Tour. I’m just hoping to fish the Everstart on Okeechobee in early January, win the damn thing, and go from there!!! HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH. How is that for an addict?
There is a direct relationship between the amount of photos and videos I shoot and how well I’m fishing. I took very very very few pictures, and zero video. I figured I could catch 5-6 pounds per day and did. Bold Bluegill is color of Robo Worm I highly recommend. Throw it in 4.5 or 6 or 7 inch and in the dirty Ouachita River, it was catching them really well. One of the staple drop shot worms and colors for me.
Casey staked out the BEST mouth of a creek. The most major creek with the most history in it, he choose that one to focus on (I decided the ones upriver were less pressured and could be milked better), and what was key to him was it had better fish on it. And not only that, Casey had better tricks up his sleeve than most to catch them. He found an angle he could throw a prototype Picasso A-Rig called the ‘bait ball’ and he told me he had like 18 fish the Day 1 of the event fishing the exact same cast (uphill) with his umbrella rig that features tiny blades and a much smaller profile than most u rigs you see. That is how Casey caught 8 pounds the first day, and followed it up with 8 pounds on the second day. Guess what he caught the big fish on Day 2? A Boing Topwater bait. This is a new walking bait with a cool ball on wire noise maker rattle inside that gives it a strange ‘boing’ sound, but clearly the fish ate it. He caught one 3 pounds on it. The bait was thick all over the Ouchita River. I mean, you find and see bait everywhere. And occassionally fish would push the balls to the surface and could be caught. I caught fish on the Picasso School E Rig with 3″ Big Hammers (silver phantom), and J-Will Swimbait heads in 1/8 Ounce in the tournament. But my fish were squeakers. In fact, I didn’t have 5 fish on Day 2 either, so that really hurt, but ultimately one more fish I was on wouldn’t have helped. I needed high 12 pounds, like 12-10 to get paid. I had 10-2 for the event, and never caught one over 2 pounds in the practice or tournament, and lots of swimbaits got thrown. No swimbait bite to speak of, besides the U Rig. No backwater fish for most, but some did find good sacks. Is Brandon Medlock sick or what? Guy broke down on Day 1, comes back on Day 2 with 14 pounds and is like Top 5 and then sticks 15 on Day 3 before struggling on Day 4….but dang, a 14 or 15 pound sack for 2 days in a row, you gotta be bad to find that on the Ouachita River I saw! Some guys found some backwater fish, but the main river was a player for sure. Lots of guys cashed checks fishing within site or around the bend or two from the weigh in. I fished there myself some too. You will have to read Casey’s blog post to get the full scoop on his tournament. I yo-yo’d Red Eye Shads, fished umbrella rigs, and drop shotted the mouths of creeks mostly, but had a few good channel swings, clay points, and banks that seemed to be holding fish. The problem of course was many guys found the same fish, because the backwater were sucking and the main river became the clear choice, so it wasn’t easy friendly fishing all the time out there. You had to defend spots and try to manage water best you could. The wind was either blowing the wrong way for me, or not at all for my red eye shad bite. I had 2 sneaky spots I felt I could load up and get some good keepers, but they never panned out. Anyway, congrats to Casey and boo to Matt. Is it time to go to Florida yet? MP
Sebile Spin Shad Deep Cold Suspended Crossover Swimbait Fishing
The Sebile Spin Shad is worthy of sharing. I took some film of this bait to supplement the FLW Outdoors article that Pete Robbins published called “Heavy Metal Jigging” available for you at the digital Bass Fishing eMagazine that FLW produces online, Nov/Dec 2012 Issue. After filming the bait and messing with it, I knew this bait was something swimbait guys and tournament guys alike might dig too. It’s getting winter time, and clearly spoons, blade baits, head spins, single top hook swimbaits all get bit in the winter/cold months. So, when I saw this bait, I realized it was a wonderful balance and compromise of various schools of fishing baits/techniques, and that’s what makes this thing legit. Not to mention, you have some pretty ‘big’ sizes available, so you can fish big or small, get deep, get around/thru suspended fish, get a down the line straight grind/swim out of the bait, and yo-yo and vertical fish really well.
Drop bait, swimbait, spoon, head spin, switchblade swim jig, melded together.
Think about an 8 foot rod, 7:1 reel, 50# braid and a mono or floro leader, and how much water (both covering water, and covering water column) you can haul thru here. With long rods you simply can pump your bait in big drawn out yo-yos, and raise it higher, sink it deeper, and get more fall and inflection with the longer rod, and then comes control. You can control a heavy slab spoon really well, the but Spin Shad has the rear blade that spins and levels the bait out and balances it and makes it orient correctly, so you can correctly slow roll at huge depths and know as its swimming along fine. It cannot be fished wrong, up or down, or anything in between. You can cover huge masses of water column with this style. The Fish Head Spin is a killer bait, you need to be throwing it, often, around suspended fish, Alabama Rig fish, or where fish are on bait. So, this bait takes the Head Spin in other directions and is a more heavy and down the line swimmer, because of the rear blade and weight/profile of the body, it doesn’t blow out or tend to require a really delicate and controlled swim like the Head Spin at times can require. The Head Spin you can sorta loose contact/connection with that bait easily, especially if yo-yoing gets into play, and it doesn’t have the vertical fishability either. Now, I love me some Head Spin, just pointing out it’s weakness is a powerful down the line swim and the Spin Shad is exactly that, and steadfast swimmer that has the right things to fish deep, steep and on the drop all while maintaining a spinnerbait blade that just doesn’t foul and works. Think about deep water, rough water/conditions, ledges where you need to snatch and excite the school of fish, making jerky actions and covering water quickly.
There is a quantum difference between all 4 of the Triple Trouts. I’m referring to the 6-7-8 and 10 inch Triple Trout, Standard Sink rate. They are all four very different baits. They all 4 have different swims, different attributes, buoyancy, etc. They don’t all 4 do the same thing, is the key thing to recognize. Always assume I’m talking about standard generally available sink rates, unless I specifically note a special heavy weighted (H) or floating (F) style of Triple Trout. The standard sink 3 piece baits is what I’m talking about here. Yes, it’s something I plan on dedicating a video and footage to the whole big story, but let me try and bring you up to speed and interject you in the middle.
The 6″ Triple Trout is significantly smaller than the 7″ Triple Trout (significant being the ‘key’ word, enough to matter, enough difference in volume and mass to make a difference to the fish. It’s not just an inch shorter, its much slimmer, much less footprint moving thru the water, etc). So, there are times, places, conditions, species and flow where it makes sense to fish significantly smaller (or BIGGER). Just know this. The 8″&7″ Triple Trouts are close in size. The 7&8 are closer in size and their is a far less dramatic difference betweem them, vs. the difference between the 6″ & 7″ versions. What does that mean? If you cannot get bit or touched or any love on the 7″, you probably aren’t gonna do any good on the 8″ either (there isn’t significant difference in size). However, the 6″ might be the trick you need to downsize because the fish are on smaller bait or simply not being triggered by the bigger offering, or perhaps in the case of smallmouth or spotted bass, downsizing your swimbait and bigbait approach just makes good business sense.
Comparing the various 6-7-8 (and 10–not pictured here, actually it’s the 8-7-6 as per the above photo) inch Triple Trouts requires more than a paragraph or two. It requires real fishing, video, and explanations. Stay tuned.
So, stay tuned, more to come on 6″ vs. 7 “, 7″ vs. 8″, and 8″ vs. 10″ Triple Trouts. So here is the 6″ Triple Trout in our Bubble Gum Bass color. You might call this bait smallmouth or spotted bass candy. You will like fishing our Bubble Gum Bass color. Clear, dirty, off color, it’s a good call. It only makes sense for us, (and because some of you asked for) to provide a 6” version of our Bubble Gum Bass Bundles.
ST-56
I’m into hook balancing, another topic I’ll be speaking more in depth on, but let me just tell you, I believe the Owner ST-56 Treble Hook has a special play here. I like the Owner Needle Point hooks, better, than the ST-41 cutting edge hooks, for a bait like the Triple Trout, where you want fish to get ‘stuck’ who come up and kiss it. The cutting points aren’t super sticky. They are great for load up on my bait (ie, 3:16 Sunfish) on braided line in grass, but I like needle point hooks for open water, and for smallmouth and spotted bass for the ‘sticky’ factor. You get a lot of short bites, slashes, kisses, and close enounters at the boat you need to be wise about that. I would normally recommend the ST-36 Owner Stinger Trebles, however, in the sizes I rig my 6″ Triple Trouts with (#4s or #2s at MOST) I know from experience, that with my 8 foot rods, heavy line (braid or copolymer P-Line) I can bend out small #4, #2 and #1 Owner ST-36. Anything 1/0 or greater, go ST-36. Anything below 1/0, I go ST-56 because I get the needle point, sticky sharp and 3X strong hook, so it’s perfect. I use the ST-66 for the Huddlestons. Why, that is the 4X stronger, and I use size 2 and size 4s and they need to be super small (to hide in the Huddie) and super strong (because 8-12 pounders happen, and teens too) on the Hudd. So, there you have it…see the progression in ascending hook strength/gauge? ST-36 Regular Wire great in all sizes with conventional bass gear. But once I get into 8 foot rods, big round reels, or Curado 300s, and heavy line ST-36s will bend out on the smaller sizes under the right conditions. Not always, but it’s a lighter wire, super sticky, hook, and on swimbaits, I tend to only use greater than or equal to 1/0 ST-36s….ST-56 3X Needlepoint are for small triple trout, the 22nd Century Bluegill, and other small hardbaits. The ST-66 4X Super Strong + Needlepoint for Huddie, but too heavy gauge for 6″ Triple Trout. I only use the ST-66 for Huddies (well, not entirely true, but as a rule of thumb). That is why I recommend the ST-56
When it comes to size #2 and #4 trebles, with needlepoint hooks, which I like on a Triple Trout, the ST-56 is a good compromise.
The 6″ Bubble Gum Bass Triple Trout Bundle Photo Gallery:
