At 5 and 1/4″ long and 1.2 ounces, the 3:16 Lure Company Minnow is a fat and bulky little swimbait. The 3:16 Minnow is probably not going to catch you double digit and giant bass, but it does fit into the tournament, weedless, and numbers of kicker fish department. Like all of Mickey Ellis softbaits, the 3:16 Minnow is incredibly buoyant, which means it stalls really well, and fishes slowly extremely well, but also can scoot along, throwing a v-wake behind it. This is a grass swimbait, this is a tournament swimbait, and this is also an open water swimbait.
The 3:16 Lure Company Minnow rigged on a 6/0 Owner Beast Hook
Rigging:
I rig the 3:16 Minnow on a 6/0 Owner Beast Hook. The twistlock centering pin fits the bait really well, and is great for rigging up the 3:16 Minnow. I like to texpose the hook in grass, and just leave the hook point exposed in open water. The weight of the bait combined with the weight of the 6/0 Owner Beast Hook makes this a legit swimbait, that will require a rod that can throw a medium sized swimbait. Altogether, the bait when rigged is approaching 1.5 ounces. I like to fish the bait on 50# straight braid in grass, or 17-20# florocarbon in open water. You may also consider rigging the bait on the Weighted Owner Beast Hook with Twistlock. Same hook with some lead on the shank to get the bait down and fish it deeper or more in contact with the wood or whatever structure you’re fishing. The Weighted Beast Hook will also cause the bait to fall more horizontally.
Like just about all of Mickey Ellis softbaits, the Minnow floats when unrigged in the water. There is an internal air bladder that adds to the buoyancy, and buoyancy = Rate of Stall factor
Application:
The 3:16 Minnow is a more real, more bulky, more technical (because of the buoyancy properties) style of swimbait than the Skinny Dipper or Swim Senko style of grass swimbait. Because it rigs so well weedlessly, the bait can be fished in and thru the thickest grass, and stalled in the holes quite nicely. You can slow grind the bait in open water, and just reel it back, where you are hunting fish that are eating baitfish like shad or blue back herring. It’s got the bulk and mass to attract bigger bites, but isn’t a bigbait per se.
You get 4 perfectly packaged Minnows for $10.49. These baits can be re-used and fish very well and are part of my growing soft bait approach to grass lakes, blue back herring lakes, and tournament swimbait fishing mindset.
One day I celebrate hardbaits, the next I celebrate softbaits. I cannot make up my mind lately which I like better. I like them all, well, I like the ‘good ones’ from each category and work every day to understand which ones are good and which are junk. The Little Booger from The 3:16 Lure Company is a sneaky little swimbait that fits into a tournament and more ‘numbers of fish’ sized swimbait category than it does trophy fish. The Little Booger does things that you have to see to appreciate and understand. How many popping swimbaits are you aware of? How many popping baits are softbaits? How many popping baits can put off a v-wake and swim in between pops? The Little Booger is cool like that, and it’s a bait I’ve reconnected with this year, and wanted to share.
The Little Booger, a classic line thru, boot tailed swimmer, but the concave face and head give it something unique. Popping, swimming, waking and this thing proportionally is way bigger than almost all the conventional popping baits you are familiar with, but still small in the scheme of swimbait fishing.
Popping and Spitting Swimbaits
The Little Booger was developed to target fish that were keyed on bait, small threadfin and gizzard shad in the Southern California lakes, where the fish bust on bait all day long right in front of you, and you throw your tackle box at them trying to figure out something they’ll eat besides the natural bait that seems to be in the billions. Mickey Ellis is all about catching big fish, but the Little Booger is a tool he developed for a special application when fish are busting on bait. The concave face of the Little Booger provides you a swimbait that not only swims, but pops, spits and dimples the surface. Was does that mean? This is a baitfish style swimbait. Not a trout, not a baby bass, not a bluegill…..but more like I’m trying to catch a ‘bigger’ one that is clearly eating threadfin, gizzards, or blueback herring. The baitfish eaters.
Little Fat Boy. The Little Booger is approx. 4.5″ Long and 1″ Wide and is a little fatty of a bait. The bait is a classic Mickey Ellis tear drop shop, when looking at the top profile.
High Sticks:
I find myself fishing this bait with a fairly high stick, so I can pop and spit the bait along. But as you can see in the video, the bait slow wakes and swims really good on it own, so its one of those baits you cannot fish wrong. I have found the bait to be an excellent high speed topwater fishing swimbait, where just like a topwater bait you’d fish and cover water with, you can do the same thing with the Little Booger. At times she skips across the water and even comes out of the water. Long 8 foot rods give you additional abilities to make popping baits chug, pop, spit, dance, and skip. I feel like I’m fishing a swim jig to some extent with the bait, because I can sorta high stick and swim, and just keep things moving and know that no matter what, the bait is fishing along just fine.
I use a #2 ST-36 Owner Stinger Treble Hook, and fish the bait on 17# copolymer/mono. One single hook, rigged line thru, with one prong impaled at the bottom of the channel on the belly, two points down. Because I’m using 17# line, I feel like I’m not over torquing the fish, because the line tends to have good stretch to it, where I’m not over doing it with an 8 foot rod and swimbait gear on a little #2 hook. Definitely could use a #2 ST-56 or ST-41 hook here instead, but I like the sticky nature of that ST-36, especially when I’m around busting and boiling fish that slash and nip, but don’t always crush and inhale baits.
The Little Booger comes in a 2 pack, for $7.99. You’ll find the plastic to be beautifully poured and your baits perfect out of the package. Mickey does excellent work in softbaits, including packaging. I have re-glued in the plastic line thru insert on a bait or two after some fishing time, but other than that, these are resilient little swimmers that do something a little different than most, when it comes to the topwater spitting, popping, chugging game.
The 3:16 Lure Company Little Booger Photo Gallery:
When you have a swinging weight that is connected to the eye of a hook by a single solid ring, you get a free flowing rigging system that changes things like: how baits rig, how they drop, how they fish, how they swim, how well they drag over stuff and the trajectory the baits follow when pulled/hopped and dropped. All things considered, the Jig Rig from Owner America, is a pretty cool innovation in traditional rigging and small bait fishing.
Green pumpkin blue Netbait Baby Paca Craw on the 3/0 with 3/16 oz Tungsten version of the Jig Rig. Me Gusta.
Trajectory:
I know, I contradict myself, talking about simplification one day, and then subjects like trajectory the next. You have to get into the sophisticated at times to understand why some simple things are so genius. The free swinging tungsten or lead weight associated with the Jig Rig changes the trajectory of the bait as it falls, drags, hops, etc. Instead of a bait arching toward you, as you hop it, the Jig Rig falls straight down. It almost feels like the bait is falling away from you, the drops are so steep. What this means is, when you pitch your bait next to a stump, the bait is far more likely to be right under the splash. Or when you pull a bait into a ‘sweet spot’ you can better guide your bait down into the sweet spot without it tending to bias toward you and the angle of your retrieve.
Steep and deep. The free swinging weight system of the Jig Rig changes the fall and overall trajectory of your baits. Not exactly a simple subject to explain, but hopefully you see how steep things that are moving in one direction drop out because of the hinged weight.
When I rigged the Jig-Rig up with a Basstrix Paddle Tailed Swimbait, it was pretty neat to fish a swimbait on a different style of jig head than I’ve ever attempted. Couple of important things to note about how the Jig Rig influences a single swimbait (and small soft plastic creature baits too).
Weedlessness: Because you are ultimately Texas rigging the hook, you have another viable weedless rig, for grass and wood fishing.
Rock-lessness: Because the weight snugs 45 degrees back under the bait as your drag it, you have a different kind of leverage, as if you are standing right over top of it, when it comes to popping yourself free. I was able to drag a Jig Rig with whatever bait I wanted to in heavy gravel and chunk rock bottoms, and it was clear the Jig Rig system provides excellence in fishing in rock and hard bottoms because you simply won’t get hung up
When you look at the ‘rock-lessness’ it is interesting because you are making bottom contact and creating deflections while your bait is riding slightly above it all, unfazed by a traditional jig head system where the nose and forward part of your swimbait is damped by the weight and hook. You can drag a swimbait over gravel and rock, and still get an excellent swim, where you get full swim out of your bait and don’t give up action because the swimbait is ‘anchored’ for lack of better term by the nose into a traditional jig head.
Drop Bait: When I was swimming the Basstrix over grass and over holes, it became apparent you can drop your bait right where you want it, and the trajectory doesn’t cause the bait to come at you, because the hinging action pulls the bait straight down at a super steep angle. It made me think about dropping a swimbait in the holes of grass around Okeechobee around spawn time. You could have all the benefits of a weedless swimbait, yet added benefit of a much better drop bait.
Pitching:
You notice when you pitch the bait, the free swinging weight system of the Jig Rig helps your casting accuracy and lessons the momentum required to pitch. It is strange, but the hinged weight sorta helps you sling the bait out there a bit easier. You definitely can cast this thing where you want it, and then drop it where you want it too.
The 3/0 + 3/16 oz. tungsten Jig Rig with a Zoom Speed Craw, gives you a feel for what the Jig Rig looks like when rigged.
Tungsten vs. Lead vs. Hook Sizes
You have a couple of options when it comes to the Jig Rig. You can buy the Jig Rigs with Tungsten weights or with Lead Weights. The hooks are needlepoint Z-lock shoulder bend hooks and are sharp, solid and rig cleanly. You have 3 sizes:
A 3/0 needlepoint, Owner sharp, offset worm hook with either a tungsten or lead 3/16 ounce free swinging weight (which is what I used to film and take photos with). I find this size of Jig Rig extremely appealing because it fits the ‘good’ small creature baits and smaller more finesse pitch baits so well. You’ll notice I used a Netbait Baby Paca Craw and Zoom Speed Craw to highlight how well the Jig Rig fishes. That was no accident, those are 2 baits that should be in your tackle box, always, all the time. The 3/0 hook and 3/16 weight matched up with the smaller swimbaits like the 4″ Basstrix Paddle Tailed Tube very well, and had a ‘spinning rod’ feel to it. Where I know I could fish that setup on a spinning setup (braid + floro leader of course) or on lighter action casting gear. The Little Dipper and smaller 4″ swim senko come to mind too, with this setup.
The 5/0 version has a 1/4 ounce weight available in tungsten or lead. It rigs nicely with 8″ Zoom Lizards, Brush Hogs, and Skinny Dippers, which to me are a larger, and more bulky offering than the above, but still in the finesse department. Basically, the 5/0 with the 1/4 ounce free swinging weight are more suited to pitching and small bait style swimbait fishing.
A 1/0 version in tungsten or lead with 3/16 ounce weights. This would be my small water, small fish, small bait setup. Like the Tiny Brush Hogs, or super small straight tailed worms, like 3″ Senkos.
A bare Jig Rig. Notice, the solid ring that attached thru the eye of the hook, and the weight is attached to the solid ring via a split ring.
Notice you tie your line onto the solid ring, NOT the small split ring the weight is attached to, and NOT the eye of the hook.
I’m excited about the Jig Rig because it’s going to help me with my pitching and short range soft plastic and creature baits for sure. Grass, wood or open water, I think it’s going to give the fish a slightly different look and feel, and certainly will be a top performing system (ie, weedlessness, rocklessness, and steep drops). It’s also a good alternative to a ‘shakey head’, where you are just trying to catch stubborn fish. The Jig Rig is going to add some color to my swimbait fishing too. You can better drag and simultaneously swim a bait, which speaks to a spinning rod setup mentality to me in certain situations. And the drop bait thing, to be dropping swimbait into holes in the grass, or in brush piles when you visually know you are right overhead, well, you just forget I mentioned it! You can expect some videos of the Jig Rig with fish catching involved.
I’ve been a lifelong fan of Gary Yamamoto and his bait company. Understand that growing up and fishing out West, Gary Yamamoto and his baits were staples in the desert lake (ie, Mead, Powell, Havasu) fishing scene and the Yamamoto Pro-Staff guys at the time (ie, Ben Matsubu and John Murray) were my idols coming up. I was fishing WON BASS as a AAA (meaning co-angler), and fished the desert lakes like Mead, Havasu, and the lower Colorado River. So when Gary and Shin Fukae both had solid performances the FLW Eastern Series on Lake Okeechobee in 2009 (my first season on the Big O) I paid really close attention. I remember going to the final day weigh in, it was cold and windy, and Shin was one of the only guys that caught a limit that final day. He said ‘Swim Senko‘ and I took note. This was the event that the late great Jimmy McMillan would win on the Skinny Dipper. Swimming worms (you can call the Skinny Dipper and Swim Senko swimbaits of course, but from my perspective at the time, it was literally swimming worms) were something I hadn’t been exposed to or had any clue what was going on.
The mighty 5″ Yamamoto Swim Senko and 5/0 Owner Twistlock Open Gap Centering Pin Hook are a staple in my grass and open water fishing. Braid in grass and florocarbon in open water.
So, after that FLW Eastern Series on Okeechobee, about a month later, there was the FLW Stren Series event that I was signed up for. This was my first months of ‘retirement’ from the corporate life I had just walked away from, so I was well funded and eager to fish, so I fished for about 25 days straight or something crazy on Okeechobee in preparation for the the FLW Stren Series event that was upcoming. Besides just learning how to run and operate a boat in shallow grass and just get a feel for the Big O, I committed a lot of time to learning this ‘swimming worm’ deal. It was a couple of things coming together all at once for me: braided line, Skinny Dippers, 5″ Swim Senkos, Gambler Flapp’n Shads, Speed Worms, and Owner Twistlock Open Gap Centering Pin hooks.
Not sure why Junebug is such a good color in Florida, but it is.
In one month, I had gone from “get me off Okeechobee, this place is going to kill me and ruin all my equipment” to “I love this place, it has made me a much better fisherman.” I had figured a few things out with the Swim Senko that helped me to a 20th place finish in that 2009 FLW Stren Series event. The Swim Senko is a much more finesse swimming worm and bait than the Skinny Dipper. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE THE SKINNY DIPPER and it has opened up a lot more minds than just my own, but just like everything, there are subtle nuances that baits possess and do that others do not, and the swim senko proved to get way more bites in pressured water for me. It has a smaller profile and footprint, and because the Skinny Dipper was being thrown by just about every other boat in the Monkey Box (water was high, like 14.50 that year, so you could get WAY into the Box and Harney Pond areas where we haven’t been since), I was catching fish and the boats around me were not.
This was the fish where the light bulb went off in my head, and I understood what I had been missing. Okeechobee, February 2009, expression session.
The Hook:
Owner’s Twistlock Open Gap Centering Pin Hooks were made to be fished with baits like the Swim Senko. They do an excellent job of holding a bait on and keeping it true as you fish thru heavy grass (your bait doesn’t get pulled down the shank). They make rigging super easy and give you a lot of life out of your baits. You don’t have the same issues with the plastic getting worn out like you do when you thread on a worm Texas style. They definitely are quality built, super sharp needlepoint, and robust enough to handle the rigors of 50-65# braided line, heavy grass and full torque by 8 foot rods and 300 series reels. I like to fish the 5/0 with the Swim Senko, which might seem like overkill for the little bait, but it gives the bait extra weight for casting and its already an unrefined, unreal style of bait, so realism isn’t the issue, its about hooking ’em in the grass.
Green pumpkin or watermelon colors don’t suck either. The boot tail of the Swim Senko does a whole lot of twisting, which in turn, twists the entire body of the bait. One advantage round baits have vs. flat sided soft baits, is when you are in thick grass, where your bait is actually coming in and out of the water, round baits can fish cleanly upside down and all awkward like, whereas flat sided softbaits will skim across the surface or plane out to the side.
The Swim Senko has subtle things like added weight to the plastic (like the original Senko that has rocked the world, just by adding more salt and fat to their plastic, Yamamoto revolutionized making plastic baits that actually had some weight, so when fished weightless, they would sink and do subtle things that fish noticed and immediately responded to. The tail of the Swim Senko is booted, but has unique ribs that give it a unique vortex. The bait can be fished on spinning gear and skipped under trees and docks, or can be fished on 50# braid and light action 8 footers “getting after it” style in the thick grass
I wouldn’t say the Swim Senko is beautiful or gorgeous or has any realism associated with it to speak of. But it is a fish catcher. That is exactly why I like it so much, because it contrasts the “Huddlston Vortex” conversation about realism. You cannot join the realism conversation unless you have committed time and caught fish on both the very real and the very not real. The Swim Senko is Exibit A, the ‘unreal’ swimbait that catches fish. But then again, nobody is talking about 12+ pounders here, are they? We are talking tournament grass swimming baits. I pin the hookpoint back into the bait, for weedlessness. Ugly looking bugger, but dang if the fish don’t eat it.
Other Applications
The Swim Senko is a great trailer on your swim jigs and vibrating/chatter style baits. They also make great trailer on your Fish Head Spins and the underspin style of bait. They can be fished on light 1/8 and 1/16 tungsten weights with spinning gear and sorta shakey headed/t-rigged around creeks and things where you need to half way be swimming a bait and half way dragging and making bottom contact style bait. Be sure to notice there is a Jr. or small 4″ sized version of the Swim Senko too, which is awesome to fit smaller profile swim jigs, vibrating jigs and underspins or an even more finesse swimmer in the grass…
Thank you for your patience, I have been lagging on updating the blog and just providing some fresh content. Doing a lot of behind the scenes work for short, medium and long term plans I have with southernswimbait.com and related projects, and I like to fish a lot so there you go! Here is the first hardbait featured in our swim signature series. Hardbaits are much harder to film and get the true swim of the bait, especially fast moving hardbaits that require a lot of stalls and pauses and speed to really show them off. You need to be throwing the Triple Trout like you need to be throwing the Huddleston Deluxe 8″ Trout. You need a full bodied sinking softbait and a full bodied fast moving hardbait in your life. The 10″ Triple Trout was featured in Southern Trout Eaters. I’m still learning all the nuances of fishing the bait, especially as I’m tackling current and moving water situations. The 10″ Triple Trout is the workhorse trophy swimbait from Scott Whitmer. Scott makes all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors of Triple Trouts, but the 10″ is the standard bait trophy hunters grab to tangle with giant largemouth, spotted, smallmouth and striped bass. Trout or no trout, the Triple Trout is an excellent swimbait and bigbait. We have done a poor job documenting the swim of the Triple Trout, until now.
The 10″ Triple Trout is a standard. It’s like the Huddleston Deluxe 8″ Trout. When you talk baits and bites and rods and gear, it’s one of the benchmarks. Get into it. Don’t accept imitations and kook knock offs.
The 3:16 Rising Son Jr. is a sleeper swimbait and is great for certain applications. I realized I’d been overlooking this bait as part of my tournament and trophy arsenal this past winter in Okeechobee. You are going to have to be patient, I have an Okeechobee sessions thing I’m working on that will shed a lot more information and clarity as to why the Rising Son Jr. works so well in some situations, and some insights into how I fish and rig it. I know this is one of Mickey’s most popular softbaits and for good reason, it comes in great colors, swims incredibly well at fast and slow speeds, and fishes good around hard and soft cover. Fish bite it.
Exactly. The tail ‘licks’ the surface, the body straightens out, and the bait gets into perfect trim when you get a good swim lane and a feel for the tempo of fishing it.Almost a great shot. Lens glare got me. Single Owner ST-41 Treble hooks and zero metal inside the bait/as part of the harness = very buoyant.The body is bulbous. It has a nice tear drop shape that gives it volume, and of course the tail just twists and shouts back there. Mickey’s boot tails are known to get bites and create lift.
