From above, the 8″ Weedless Trout in a not so trout kinda color.
Slide slippin’ around some eel grass
This color isn’t generally available yet. Ken sent me one, and since I’m fishing Okeechobee, I have been throwing this color. Thought I’d show the 8″ Huddleston Deluxe Weedless Trout in action around some outside grass on Okeechobee. I have no insights into when Ken will have more 8″ weedless baits for sale, and what color schemes he will go forward with. I am just thankful to have gotten a few of them, and hope to show you some fish catches with them. MP
I would be lying to tell you I’ve been in a ‘good’ mood or state of mind the last few months. I have been struggling with what to do with my life, where to live, having a social life, making money, and finding motivation. So, let me share some news. I recently landed on Lake Okeechobee, for the 5th season. I’m signed up for the 2103 Everstart on Okeechobee, and that is my only tournament for the 2013 season it appears. I would love to fish the 2013 FLW Tour, but it just isn’t in the cards for me. This time, when I packed up my truck and boat in the freezing rain of the Ozarks, I was packing not just for Okeechobee, I was packing up to relocate and move my life to Florida.
Back to Work
I recently accepted a job, with Beyond Trust, the company that acquired the company (eEye Digital Security) I used to work for. What that means is, yes, I’m going back to work—Territory Manager, South East. I am actually quite looking forward to getting back to business. I enjoy the stimulation of the business world, the sharp people, and the opportunity to make money. I need to get myself financially back on track, and I need to have my own place, and have a home base and settle down where I might actually be able to line up a girlfriend! I have been blessed with some great partnerships with guys like Scott Whitmer, Ken Huddleston, and Mickey Ellis and others, and I plan to keep the train rolling. My new job allows me the freedom to work from wherever I choose. After 6 months living in Cotter, Arkansas, a lovely small town in the Ozarks, I’ve realized some things, and for sure I’ve realized that I wasn’t cut out for small town living, at least not yet! So, after the Everstart on Okeechobee, I’m going to be finding a place to live in Florida, and start ‘back to work’.
Why Florida?
I could be wrong, but Florida suits me and my style. I like the general flow of Florida, it’s a good mix of town and country, it’s a good mix of liberal and conservative ideas and thoughts, there is surfing in Florida, and I love fishing in Florida. I’m definitely leaning toward S. Florida, but I’m totally up in the air about where exactly. Orlando area has my eye too. I will have the flexibility to travel and work from various regions and plan on continuing the search for the Southern Trout Eaters, but trout eaters are the low hanging fruit, their is no doubt about it, if you have trout, you are going to have a killer swimbait bite. Non trout fed lakes are the next thing for me. Cracking the code, utilizing the tools and lessons of the trout eaters, and applying the things you learn from tournament fishing—-that is where my head is at. I have been working on finding the bigbait bite on lakes without trout for years now, and I still have a lot of learning and progressing to do. The fish and the bite is there, it’s just going to take time and commitment to put it all together.
SSB Customs has been relocated, and will be relocated again shortly!
southernswimbait.com Going Forward
I have terabytes of film and photos I’ve never shared. I have 3-4 projects ongoing with film that might turn into DVDs or they might be extended YouTube clips. That is the thing with filming, you just don’t always know how things will play out, how the fish will respond, or how exactly to package it all up. I want to assure you, you can expect ‘business as usual’ at southernswimbait.com. I am pretty confident I could not make a single cast in 2013, and keep this blog rolling as though I fished full time with the footage and content I have on my hard drive(s) and brain. However, I do plan on fishing in 2013, just not as much as I have the last 4 years. That is why I’m choosing Florida to settle down. I have been bitten by the braided line + bigbait bug, and given the amount of water and big fish in Florida, to me it’s the most sensible decision all things considered. So, you’ll be seeing a lot more braided line (and I’d recommend braid even is super clear water, just add a 50-65# floro leader!), dark colored bass from the grass, sun, surf and some social life from me in 2013.
It takes money to make money. I have short, mid, and long term goals for southernswimbait.com. I have all kinds of things I need to pour money into. My truck has 175K miles on it. My boat has 1000s of hours on her. My computer, my video and camera gear—–they could all use an upgrade. SSB Customs, the Southern Trout Eaters DVD, our affiliate partnership with Tackle Warehouse, are all a work in progress, and thanks to you, are working and going in the right direction. However, it’s just not enough. I am not satisfied with the lifestyle and the amount of time it will take to get to where I want to go, with the status quo. I believe taking a step back and regrouping, will in the short, mid and long term be a much wiser and well executed plan. For example, I would like to have $ to sponsor a few FLW Tour or BASS Elite guys, like my friend Casey Martin. I need real $ to grow southernswimbait.com to where I want it. I have ideas and models that I think will be positive/healthy and better enable anglers to monetize their fishing, be accountable to sponsors, quantify returns on investments, be marketable, be real, and push the sport in the right directions. It will take time and capital to pull it off.
I fell in love with Florida back in January 2009. This was home sweet home, single wide trailer at Roland Martins Resort, just getting settled into a new life. Notice, that is President Obama’s inauguration on television.
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.
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.
In case you don’t know this, you need to have yourself an assortment of colors of the Skinny Dipper from Reaction Innovations. The bait catches fish in the grass, and it catches fish in the open water. Reaction Innovations is owned and operated out of Alabama, but Andre Moore is originally a Californian. I could tell you a story or two about Andre Moore back in the late 90s, fishing the WON BASS tournament scene, Lake Havasu, and a bar called Kokomos. I was brand new 21 years old and hanging out with guys like John Murray, Byron Velvick, Dan Frazier, Steve Beasely, etc and just having the time of my life catching fish, killing it as a AAA/Co-Angler, and being a care free college guy. I’d tell you a story, but then again, like the Tiki Bar in Clewiston, what happens at Kokomos, stays at Kokomos.
White Trash Second Generation. The ‘Dipper as its known, is a grass bait, and White Trash was the cats meow for a time on the Big O. Now, you have to get a little more creative with your colors and fish it smarter because Scott Martin’s place, sells at least 10 tons of these annually, for good reason but the ‘Dipper not only catches fish, it takes your fishing into new directions. The Speed Worm and Swim Senko are in the same conversation, but the Skinny Dipper is a perfect compromise of size, shape, swim, weedlessness, and clearly gets bit, and tends to get the biggest bites of the 3 baits in this conversation.
Andre Moore’s Reaction Innovations makes some killer baits. The Trixie Shark is a sneaky toad style bait that has a unique sound and gurgle it produces swimming across the surface of the water. Lots of Trixie Sharks are sold in Florida, Alabama and Georgia, I’ll put it that way. Just add grass and lily pads, and the Trixie Shark is on somebody’s rod. The Sweet Beaver has so set the mark and bar as a compact flipping/punching bait, it’s hard to be a bass fisherman and not somehow come across the Beaver as a bait that is talked about and used. And then you mix in the Skinny Dipper, and you have to be like, wow, Andre has made some really good baits that catch fish, and they each seem to have a unique fit or application, or do something different.
The body is short, stubby, and round and the tail is a paddle, and it is well proportioned to the rest of the body. Not a big thumping tail, but a tail that puts a lot of roll into the bait. The Skinny Dipper swims great at high speeds, slow speeds, and most importantly, swims well in the slop which means upside down and in and out of the water. I highly recommend braid. 50# mostly or 65#. You of course can use good 15-20 florocarbon for open water and should, or use a leader of floro connected to your braid if you are down for that kind of thing. I’m gonna try the braid to floro thing A LOT more my next time in Florida, for all my baits, not just the Skinny Dipper.
The Money Shot Violet Skinny Dipper was there when bass fishing was interrupted by this thing called the Alabama rig and Chad rode the wave and also did his own thing, see below…You didn’t see this here. Don’t tell Chad. He will pound me. No, actually, this one and the one below I got permission. The 4th and final bait, his #1 bait for the event was not the Alabama Rig, the vibrating jig (below), nor the Scrounger (the above is a Skinny Dipper rigged on an Aaron Martens Scrounger head), it was his ‘Stinger’ as he calls it, that one I won’t share, as per his request, back when I took these on the final day of the 2011 FLW Everstart Championship on Kentucky Lake.
Chad Prough is from Chipley Florida, which is Lake Seminole country, which also means, Lake Eufaula country. And here he is in Kentucky fishing the Tennessee River with one of his bread and butter baits fished on different heads and rigs. Nice adjustments Chad. On a tournament dominated by Alabama Rigs, Chad made the final day cut and had a strong finish without needing the A-Rig. Chad is Team Reaction Innovations, and a super good guy, who had an incredible 2011 season all around, and keeps after it constantly.
The Vortex.
The Skinny Dipper on an Aaron Martens Scrounger Head and a vibrating/chatter jig head, sick and wrong. No skirt. Do you see how this relates to the “Huddleston Vortex” conversation we like to think we broached in Southern Trout Eaters? The footprint and swim signature of a vibrating jig and Scrounger head when coupled with a swimbait or any softbait for that matter, is so unique and wild, that they go outside the parameters of the other 99.99% of baits and voila, the fish go nuts about them. Guys will squeak out one or two more fish on a vibrating jig with a swimbait trailer than someone throwing a traditional spinnerbait at times, and how many times does one or two fish mean the difference between a good and bad tournament? The fish have seen 10,000,000 spinnerbaits, and so when something that unique comes along with a swimbait attached to it, it gets woofed. The Huddleston Vortex predicts things like baits with unique, very real, and very odd swimming patterns/footprints/signatures tend to catch more or bigger fish, better than baits that are just ‘me too’ style baits that are just another jig, spinnerbait, crankbait,topwater bait, etc. The Alabama Rig proved five baits trump one bait, why, among other reasons, 10 vortexes from (2 vortexes per bait (( <insert Ken’s voice>“one on each side of the tail“)), 5 baits on the A-Rig, stick with me now, we will be doing calculus here in a minute!) 5 little bait fishes has always been safe to eat. Nothing had ever hooked a bass, that wasn’t trolled, that had 10 vortexes coming off it. What other baits (besides the Alabama Rig) have crazy unique vortexes/swim signatures/footprints, especially when combined with a simple and effective swimbait like the Skinny Dipper? Answer: The Scrounger Head and the vibrating jig.
They pick off fish other baits will not, in the same areas other guys are throwing baits that have been thrown for X amount of years/seasons. The Scrounger and vibrating jigs are just killer baits when combined with swimbaits like the Skinny Dipper. What other swimbaits are good? The swim senko for sure, Lake Fork Magic Shad swimbaits, and Basstrix style swimbaits are all excellent trailers on Scrounger Heads and vibrating jig, just stand alone. Learn how to fish them. You can deflect, bump, burn, slow grind, open water suspend, grass snatch, rock hop, and stroke both styles of head, and I promise you, these baits are tied on a lot of FLW Tour and Elite Series rods. What swimbait they put on, unclear, but the Skinny Dipper is one of them, and the Scrounger and vibrating jig heads are fish catchers. Big fish and tournament fish style fish catchers. The Skinny Dipper serves up a simple purpose: being an all purpose, well shaped/proportioned bait, that serves as your full bodied ‘baitfish’ imitator on a number of different rigs and hooks. It comes in really great colors and options, is relatively inexpensive, and is also weedless so it fits anything from Lake Lanier to Okeechobee in color and applications. Keep it Soft Stupid.
Larry Mullikin pulling out the in the ‘coup de grace’ to the 2009 FLW Stren Series Lake Okeechobee event Co-Angler Division, out of Roland & Mary Ann Martins Marina. You can see Derek Jeter’s (big guy in the background onstage who would finish runner up in the co-angler division to Larry because of this fish) face as he has to look away from Larry’s fish. Ron Lappin asks, “So what did you catch it on?” Larry takes a minute, laughing…”Skinny Dipper………of course” … This was a month or so after Jimmy McMillan won the FLW Eastern Series on Okeechobee on the Skinny Dipper. I finished 20th on the Swim Senko on the boater side with 10 pounds per day.
Going Green
I like to fish my Skinny Dipper on 50# braid (would go 65 pound if I was on bigguns in thick grass) with the plastic bullet head, and I tie on a 5/0 Owner Offset Shank Wide Gap Hook with a palomar knot, make sure my braided line is nice and black, and I go to work. I fish the Skinny Dipper on the G-Loomis 964 BBR on a Curado reel and can fling that bugger quite a ways on that setup. I get great leverage for casting and hooking up with that rod and reel combo. You want a long rod to throw the Skinny Dipper. You want a shallow bend in your hook so your bait is more stream lined going thru the grass, mag gap and extra wide gap hooks aren’t my favorite, but probably are effective for someone. The PayCheck Head Case is a great piece of terminal tackle and it really helps your rigging of the Skinny Dipper. It helps hold your baits true and helps your bait bull nose thru thick stuff, without ripping the bait or pulling the hook down the shank. You’ll notice the bait spins at times in the above video. The hook generally acts as a keel, keeping the bait oriented right, but the tail and design of the bait makes it roll back and forth, and at times, it will do complete 360 degree spins while fishing it. Not my favorite, but then I realized this was a blessing and a reason it fishes so well in the grass. The ability to be sloppy with the bait, and fish it thru super thick stuff, requires the bait swim in all kinds of weird positions, even out of the water. That is were round baits beat flat sided baits.
The Skinny Dipper with the Owner Hook is a slender profile. I like the 5/0 hook because it reaches way back into the bait when you rig, but isn’t into the tail area where it would mess with the swim. The Owner hook is not a mag gap or super big bend, which help you slide it thru grass.
Reverse ribbing in the skin creates additional roll, drag, and footprint of the bait as it moves thru the water. The Owner Cutting Point hook is great with braided line. Fish load up on the bait, you drop your rod tip, and come up hard and reel like heck and you’ll stick the majority of your bites.
The Paycheck Head Case screws into the nose of the Skinny Dipper, and just helps you bull doze your way thru grass.
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…
