Page 15 – Southern Swim Bait

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Bluegill, brim, sunfish, shellcrackers—-and whatever other derivatives of a panfish, are excellent swimbaits. They are relatively new to me. I haven’t spent near the time chasing ‘bluegill eaters’ as I have chasing trout eaters. Why? Because trout eaters are the biggest bass you’ll ever catch in your life. But bluegill eaters are very important because they are more universal and more common in more waterways across the country and globe. Which also means they have more of a tournament implication and can be part of the tournament swimbait/bigbait conversation better than trout baits.

DCIM100GOPRO — “Get in me belly” … tasty morsel 22nd Century Bluegill. Very nice universal paint job, profile, tail and swim. Don’t fish bluegill baits, I want it all to myself.

The 22nd Century Blugill is a beautiful little bait. It’s not a huge swimbait. In fact, it’s only 5 inches long, 1 and 5/8ths inches tall, and weighs approx 1.75 ounces total, so it isn’t a magnum bait in size, profile and vibration. There is something to be said about the size of a bluegill bait. Bass instinctively seem to have a threshold based on their own size, as to how big of a bluegill they will eat. Why? Perhaps it’s because a big bluegill will get lodged in the bass’s throat, and suffocate/kill the bass. In any event, small and compact bluegill baits in the 5″ range seem to be ‘right’. You probably aren’t going to catch lots of double digit bass on bluegill swimbaits. Feel free to prove me wrong and provide as much photo and video evidence as possible. But, you are going to catch a lot of 3-8 pounders, which are good fish anywhere, and are excellent tournament fish.

The 22nd Century Bluegill swimbait is a standard sinking hardbait from the Scott Whitmer/Triple Trout family of swimbaits. It has the same 3 piece make up and has the same swim signature, to an extent of the the Triple Trout. The bait fishes excellent on the straight reel. Just buzzing it along like you would a spinnerbait or swim jig. Just reel the thing. But of course, you can throw the cut backs, the 180 degree turn arounds, stalls, and pauses into the bait, which give it advanced swimming and fish appealing action to anglers with the skills to make the bait work for them. The swim is rather tight, because the joints and pieces of the bait are small and compact. The swim doesn’t have the wide carving S-turn swagger that the Triple Trout does, but you can see the relationship and family ties. In the very last few seconds of the above video, the music stops and you can hear the noise of the 22nd Century Bluegill. With the tight compact swim, you get a lot of clicking and clacking out of the bait. It’s a loud bait underwater. I am totally unqualified and unprepared to measure audio levels and decibels and things about underwater sound, but just from my experience doing underwater video work, the 22nd Century Bluegill is a noisy and clanky bait.

The 22nd Century Bluegill is a perfect example of a swimbait that I rig with the Owner ST-56 Treble hooks. The ST-56 Treble hooks are needle point hooks, 3X strong, and a good fit for baits where I cannot get away with using the Owner ST-36 Stinger Trebles for fear of bending out the lighter wire hooks on the swimbait gear (rod/reel/line) I’m throwing it on. So, my advice is use Owner Hyper Wire Split Rings (#4s front and back) and change the hooks to a number #2 up front and #4 in the rear. That way, you’ll catch the < 4 pounders well, but when you get into the > 5 pounders, you won’t be bending out a hook leaning on a good fish to get control of her, which will likely cause the fish to pull off and get away. You probably want to invest in a pack or two of replacement tails for your 22nd Century Bluegill. You need the Small Triple Trout replacement tails, they are the ones that fit the 22nd Century Bluegill. Color is up to you.

2012 has been a year where I’ve gotten back in touch with line thru swimbaits and bluegill baits. I’ve spent a good amount of time exploring the bluegill bait bite on places like Okeechobee, Seminole, and in the Ozarks. Bass eat bluegill really well, and when you add spawning time into the mix, the bluegill creates a territorial/adversarial bite factor you don’t get with other baits. Bass will quite simply instinctively bite a bluegill that gets around their bed/nursing area, because bluegill tend to be thieves who survive on eating bass eggs or bass fry. Bluegill work in packs, in schools, where the sheer numbers of them overwhelm the lone male and female bass. There is a lot to be explored and documented when it comes to bluegill swimbaits, but let me be clear and say I think they are awesome and absolutely worthy of your time and money to invest in. They get bit, they catch big ones (not teen sized fish, usually, but still, bigguns), and since bluegill are so prevalent in places with bass, they are a good universal alternative to trout baits, the world over.

22nd-Century-bluegill-paint-upclose — Scott’s bluegill has a killer paint job. I love purple in my baits, and this ‘sunny’ has plenty of purple, and a great scale pattern. It’s realistic and looks great in clear or off colored water.

The gratuitous profile shot, giving you a good feel for the bait. 5″ Long and 1 and 5/8″ tall at the tallest point. You’ve got Scott’s rotating hook hangers, and of course I rig with Owner Hyper Wire Split Rings (#4), and a #2 ST-56 Owner Treble up front, and #4 in the back.

Owner-ST-56-treble-hook-22nd-Century-Bluegill-swimbait — The Owner ST-56 are a compromise between the ST-36 and ST-66. More on this all later, but I recommend this hook when you need small hooks ,< 1/0 and are fishing with 8 foot rods, big line and tend to get into bigguns.

Promar-Swimbait-Net — Promar Nets have an underground following out West. The LN 501 B is a halibut landing net and has become the ‘go-to’ net for trophy hunters who are hunting big fish alone or with a partner. Promar has a line of more tournament centric nets that are smaller and more manageable, which makes their nets a perfect fit for my kind of fishing.

One of the most important pieces of equipment in my boat at times is my Promar Net. When are you are out hunting trophy bass with swimbaits, you need to be ready just in case you hook that one fish you’ve been after. My good friend Rob Belloni, once again provided me the insights to go ahead and get right with a Promar net, and it’s been a great asset to my fishing. You need to have a net onboard that is ready, in position, and well integrated into your fishing systems, because whether you fish alone or fish with a partner, a good net can mean the difference between being a hero a zero. I travel with 2 nets. One is for tournament fishing and one is for trophy hunting. They are both made by Promar, and each have been excellent tools in my fishing and I gladly recommend them.

The LN-501 B: The Bigbait Net

When it comes to bigbait fishing, you are fishing for big fish, with big heads and bodies, so the super wide basket of the Promar L-501 B is a great choice. Big fish just fit into the net easier. You’d be suprised how many bass fishing nets are not made to handle fish over 7 pounds really well. I mean, it is physically hard to get the fish into the net. You want a big basket where you can swim fish into the net and have a big sweet spot where you want the fish to go. The Promar LN-501B is a halibut landing net, so its got this huge basket (30″ Wide) and a 54″ handle that match up nicely with all things big fish and big bait. You need can handle the net alone or your partner can reach way out with it and scoop up a biggun’ for you. If you watch our DVD, Southern Trout Eaters, about 85% of the fish that I catch in that film are self netted with the Promar L501 B and you can get a good feel for how I go about playing fish and then swimming them into the net as quickly as possible when I get them near the boat.

peters-promar-net-swimbait-huddleston-fishing — I could put the cowling of that Mercury Optimax inside the basket of that net. You want a big basket to swim your fish into when you get them close to the boat. If you are hunting big fish, there is no sportsmanship in landing the fish, it’s all about getting the bite. That’s the way I see it. I don’t want to lose that big girl at the boat messing around trying to get a hand in her mouth, especially when dealing with the size of baits and hooks we do, that stuff gets dangerous.

promar-net-ranger-z520-boat — This was one of my maiden voyages in my Ranger Z520. You can imagine how pleased I was that the Promar fit in the hole built for the net, and the basket rests nicely between the consoles. It just worked, hooray.

promar-net-southern-swimbait-2 — Locked and Loaded. This is how you keep your net when you are fishing. Handle facing toward the bow of the boat. That way, you reach back and grab the handle with one hand and swim the fish into the basket with the rod tucked under your other arm. You will see this maneuver about 50 times in “Southern Trout Eaters” …Notice the grip tape, its actually that rod wrap material I put on the shaft of the Promar Net. I once had the net slip from my hand on a cold wet day. Not anymore with the rod wrap stuff on the shaft.

promar-livewell-net-1 — Promar Nets can be a livewell on jon boats, drift boats, river boats etc where you might not have the luxury of a full blown aerated livewell system onboard. Put the fish back in the net and hang it over the rail, and then take your pictures and videos and don’t worry about killing your catch.

big-bait-net-promar — My Promar Net has been with me thru thick and thin, including netting my personal best largemouth, at 14.60 pounds in South Carolina, March 2006.

The Promar ProMesh Series Tournament Net

The Promar PreMesh Series Landing Nets are excellent bass tournament style nets. They have a retractable handle on them, which makes them easy to store while onboard, and a modular design means you can separate the handle from the basket (you can do this with the 501B too). I have been using the LN-652 for the last 2 seasons, and really like the net. Great compromise on a net, which means it’s still a big net, much bigger than most, but not as big as the 501B, and it just stores and fishes great on tournament day. It has a 48″ retractable handle and 24″ basket.

promar-promesh-net-peters — Here is the ProMar Promesh LN-652 in the same Ranger Z520. Notice how much smaller the basket is, but still a big basket when compared to most nets. The ProMesh Material is awesome and doesn’t tend to collect hooks and stuff during your day of fishing. Very manageable and solid net.

promar-promesh-net — The Promar ProMesh series is easy on the fish. You can see how the net material is rubber, and you just don’t have any issues with the fish getting hung up, your baits getting hung up, but the net is still more saltwater in nature, so its bigger and stronger than most freshwater alternatives, and a big basket and handle is a good thing.

If you’d like to see a great clip of the Promar ProMesh LN-652 in action, check out this clip from a trophy brown trout hunting expedition, by clicking here. You will notice how well even the LN-652 does at handling big fish (that is a 27″ brown trout) and how well the net serves as a makeshift livewell and releasing tool. Here are some pictures from the catch too:

promar-promesh-brown-trout-swimbait-fishing — Notice the fly rod&reel in the rod holder, I’m fishing out of a drift boat on the White River in Cotter, Arkansas. The Promar ProMesh LN-652, with the telescoping handle is a manageable trophy hunting net even in a small driftboat, where space is limited and you don’t have luxuries you do in a full blown fiberglass bass boat.

promar-promesh-huddleston-deluxe-swimbait-fish — Brownie Von Huddchoker up close and personal. You can get a feel for the ProMesh material and how well that net does to take care of the fish and not hang up in hooks, gills, or fins.

Change

By Rob McComas

robsguideservice.org

Learning about swimbaits and swimbait fishing was a tough road
for me. Before the days of Facebook, email, Southern Trout Eaters, and
even the www, (I know the www was around then but not for most of us),
I was learning thru a wide curve how to swimbait fish.
I had gotten hold of an A.C. Plug in the early nineties from a
local hardware store that sold them for Muskie fishing. With an old
school Quantum flippin’ reel and a 7’6” B.P.S. flippin’ stick, and 17
lb test Stren Easy Cast, I set out to see if the giant trout eating
fish that were being caught in California were inhabiting the very
similar waters here in the mountains of North and South Carolina.
After countless hours hauling water, I finally started putting
pieces of the puzzle together. From things like only taking one rod in
your boat, with only swimbaits tied on so you are not tempted to lay it down
for something else, to weather patterns, to times of year, and so
forth.
This grueling process I feel caused two negatives in my fishing.
One was being ultra secretive. I mean, give me a little sympathy, the
number of miserable days and cost of fuel I spent to learn to catch a
swimbait fish was something I was not going to give away so that
everybody and their brother could catch all my fish. I couldn’t just
watch Southern Trout Eaters, visit CalFishing.com, or email a friend and
expedite my learning process. I had been burnt by friends in other
types of fishing this way so it wasn’t going to happen this time.
The second negative was getting stuck in a rut. I had so much time
spent catching nothing, that when I finally got something going, and I
might add it was going very good, I was not going to change anything.
This worked for years, but finally newer and better baits, more
swimbaiters, and the education I had given the fish were catching up
to me, and the refusal to change was now keeping me from catching
fish.
The rut or ruts I was stuck in were many, so let me be brief and summarize:

Location

Many of us develop ’milk runs” in our fishing. And although I
still have and use them, you can rely on them too much. I had got to
where I would fish my same spots from the same direction at the same
time of day. I feel this not only educates the big bruisers we pursue,
but it keeps us from thinking and observing.
I was amazed after my milk run had apparently dried up, that if I
fished the same spots from different angles or different times of the
day, that I was catching fish again. You’ll have a hard time
convincing me this type of rut fishing is not harmful.

Weather
I love to fish fronts, and I had done well fishing them. I think
fish operate much differently before a front. But that being said and
understood, there are fish to be caught between fronts. After all,
most folks can’t go fishing just whenever the conditions are perfect,
so learning how fish behave on those “less than perfect days” is a
good thing.
I will still hold to the thought that I catch bigger fish when its
raining, snowing, windy etc, but there are still big fish to be
caught.
I despised sunny days, I would fish my milk run in the sun and
score a goose egg. I finally realized by seeing the changes the
conditions made that I needed to fish other areas on those bright
days, or change my retrieve.
Part of my front theory is lowlight, well if fish like low light I
needed to find it on a bluebird day. Its amazing at the “dark places”
that exist on a lake in the full sun. Besides the obvious docks and
shady coves, a small drop off can make quite the dark spot. A stump or
lay down will provide just enough dark to hold a fish. And a bluff
wall has jot outs in the rocks that fish can feel hidden in.
A small shade line of just 2-4 ft is plenty enough shade to hold
fish. And if you think of it in the right perspective, the sun that I
so dreaded seeing on water, is the very thing that “positions” the
fish on these areas. It can actually reduce the amount of water you
need to fish so you can focus on the key areas.

Technique
I made 2 changes in my technique that helped me along with the
changes mentioned below in the tackle segment.
One really bad habit I have had since I first started bass fishing
as a young teenager is setting the hook hard, and I mean ridiculously
hard. The men I learned to bass fish from were primarily worm
fishermen, and they took a great deal of pride on how hard they set
the hook. Well, I fell in line with that mindset, but with age (and
many lost big fish) came wisdom. After 25+ years of slamming it home,
it was hard for me to stop, but it was easy for me to start setting
the hook with a backhand hook set. I am left handed so instead of
setting the hook to my left, I now set across my right side which has
softened my hook set a lot, but not too much.
I decided to change my hookset after watching Matt Peters set the
hook. He honestly has the smoothest, most fluid hookset I have ever
seen, in person and on film. And since he had a very good bite/hookup
ratio I figured that might be for me.
I also started parallel fishing some. Now I am a firm believer in
fishing perpendicular to the bank, but there are situations that are
more efficient when fish parallel.
I feel like a lot of the fish in our deep mountain lakes are
suspended away from the banks a lot of times, and you can get these
fish by fishing perpendicular, but when the fish are keyed in tight to
cover, or hugging a shade line, paralleling is the way to go.
It is a new angle to present your bait, and a way to stay in the
strike zone a bit longer (you’ve heard that a 1,000 times) , and you
can also learn more about the cover/structure the fish are holding on,
this was a big big plus for me.

evening-mountain-lakes — Change requires compromise. Compromise requires wisdom.

Tackle

There is A LOT of equipment geared toward the ever growing swimbait following.The days of 7 ‘6” flippin’ sticks and 17lb Easy Cast
are gone, but I will add, to the dismay of some, that set up was
highly effective for some reason. Anyway, I progressed rapidly to
custom built rods and Muskie gear, much to the frowns of my swimbait
colleagues, but I wanted some serious horsepower. The custom built
Calstar 800L was a clydesdale among horses. The unbendable lower section
of this hybrid rod was a brute, and the flexible fiberglass tip gave
it enough flex to be fishable. Otherwise a pool stick would have been
about the same. The Calstar was my Hudd rod.
And the 8’6” Muskie crank bait rod I used for super long casts with
MS Slammers was no small toy. This bad boy would bomb the lighter Slammer
wood bait a mile, and cast it a good distance in the wind.
The “extras” that came with the rods had their side effects. These
rods were heavy. Fatigue will cause you to have poor rod position and
cause you to cut your day short. And after some health issues that
caused a lot of forearm and wrist pain, I had to concede and lighten
up. I switched to the much lighter Okuma big bait rods. And to be
honest, at first they felt like snoopy rods, and I had serious
reservations that these “ultra light rods” would be capable to handle
swim bait fishing. But after a fish or two, and being able to fish
correctly for a full day, I was glad for the change and have no
regrets. Now if you are the big bull in the pasture and can handle the
big stuff have at it, but for most folks you can get too big with your
equipment, causing adverse side effects.
Terminal tackle was another improvement. This was another hard
lesson. The number of good fish lost was ridiculous, and even though I
have still lost fish, the catch ratio jumped dramatically after I
started changing my stock hooks to Owner hooks. I’m talking a 70-80%
increase. There are times to save money, but hooks are not the place.
Sticky hooks will hold better, and get some of those curious
“nibblers” that otherwise would never be caught.
Line has been a real circus for me. After the end of the Easy Cast
era, crazy but that line would very rarely break for me, I went thru a
difficult search for the right line. Everyone would swear by such and
such, and it would end in broke fish for me. From 20-30 lb I broke on
a regular basis, till I finally started using Berkley big Game 30 lb.
in green, you know that really really cheap line that comes in big
spools, that I walked by because it didn’t cost enough or have the
right name. That line has proven great. The 25 lb I still broke but
the 30 is just right for me.

Summary

I guess the old saying that you are never too old to learn is
true, and even though it may be difficult, change can be a good thing.
I really feel like the changes I have made has improved my fishing. So
don’t get so set in your ways that you quit learning, fishing is ever
changing and you need to as well. And if you haven’t figured it out
yet, I got over the sharing information hurdle as well. RM

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agdF6CxaSTI]

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.

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.

skinny-dipper-a-rig-chad-prough — 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…

scrounger-head-skinny-dipper-chad-prough — 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.

chatter-bait-skinny-dipper — Chatter cricket. Chattering Skinny Dipper. Chat-R-Dip. Cheddar Dip?!!!

chad-prough-reaction-innovations-pro-staff-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-flw-stren-series-big-fish-skinny-dipper-okeechobee — 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.

skinny-dipper-rigged-owner-hook-head-case — 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.

owner-hook-braided-line-skinny-dipper — 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.

paycheck-head-case — The Paycheck Head Case screws into the nose of the Skinny Dipper, and just helps you bull doze your way thru grass.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0wExGeQfn0]

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.

yamamoto-swim-senko-owner-twistlock-hook — 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.

Junebug Swim Senko — 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.

okeechobee-swim-senko-junebug — 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.

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

rigged-swim-senko-owner-twistlock-hook — 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…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sde0QhrZngY]

Casey Martin is a Canadian, and he blends in as a Southerner about as well as I do. However, when you put a rod and reel in Casey’s hand, you’d think he was born and raised on the banks of the Tennessee River or in the lowland grass fisheries of Florida. Casey fishes the FLW Tour as a co-angler and has won 3 events (the 2011 FLW Tour Open Guntersville “A-Rig” Super Nova Tournament, 2011 FLW Tour Open on Champlain, and the 2012 FLW Tour Major on Kentucky Lake) in the last 12 months. Having a chance to fish with Casey during the off limits time prior to the 2012 FLW Tour Open on Lake Okeechobee afforded me some time to fish with Casey, and this blog post and the adjoining video are the highlights. Casey has been working hard the last 5 years, living on Lake Guntersville, fishing with his pals Derek Remitz and Craig Dowling to hone his tournament and grass fishing approaches. Clearly, it’s paying off.

owner-twistlock-flippin-hook-florida-punching — Punching ’em in the mouth. Casey, the 4.20 Sweet Beaver, 1.5 oz of Picasso Tungsten and the 4/0 Owner Twistlock Flippin Hook getting it done, and then things tightened up a bit….

Casey keeps his grass fishing simple. It goes like this:

Have a Sweet Beaver and BB Cricket ready to go as your punch baits (a full bodied punch bait on a 1.5 ounce Picasso tungsten weight, and a smaller profile Gambler BB Cricket as your fall back, the fish are pressured and not biting the Sweet Beaver anymore, more finesse punch bait)
Get in the habit of having perfect mechanics in grass punching. Never waste movements, time or water by making the most precise and efficient casts you can (ie, his sling cast where he never touches his bait and slings an incoming bait back out using the momentum of the incoming pendulum). Keep yourself in position and be ready for a hard upward hookset, get on the reel quickly, and pull fish out from the thick stuff as quickly as possible for the best chances of boating ’em.
Jig fishing. Use the jig to fish the sparse stuff, where you don’t need punching gear to get thru the vegetation. Sparse reed patches, isolated clumps of grass, and where ever you don’t need punching stuff to get a bait in.
Keep your hardbait selection simple. Use a Devil’s Horse or gold Rattle Trap to cover water and find fish that are in between your flip and pitch spots. There is no need to re-invent the wheel here. Rattle Traps and Devils Horses in Florida are like drop shots and swimbaits in California. They are proven and work, so just go with it.

Here is a breakdown of the gear Casey was using:

Punching Setup #1:

Reaction Innovations 4.20 Sweet Beaver, Penetration Color

1.5 ounce Picasso Tunsten Weight

Bobber Stops to Peg Weight

4/0 Owner Twistlock Flippin Hook or 4/0 Gamakatsu Flippin Hook

70# Daiwa Samurai Braid

7’5″ G-Loomis Mossyback Flippin Sticks with Left Handed Shimano Curado 200 or Chronarch Reels

Finesse Punching Setup #2

Gambler BB Cricket in Junebug

1 ounce Picasso Tungsten Weight

Bobber Stop to Peg Weight

3/0 Gamakatsu Flippin’ Hook

70# Daiwa Samurai Braid

7’5″ G-Loomis Mossyback Flippin Sticks with Left Handed Shimano Curado 200 or Chronarch Reels

Grass Flippping Jigs

Medlock Jigs are difficult to find. The only place I know is: Lorida Bait and Tackle: 863-655-5510

Alternatives to the Medlock Jig are the:

Strike King Hack Attack Jig (1 oz)

Gambler Ugly Otter Trailer for Jig

Hardbait Setups:

Devils Horse 3/8oz. (any color)

Rat-L-Trap 1/2 ounce Gold Shad color

15# Seagar Florocarbon (for Rattle Trap fishing)

Follow Casey Martin’s fishing at caseymartinfishing.com. Casey is on his way to a stellar career in professional fishing, and is already competing and winning at the sport’s highest levels and continues to soak up and re-apply information and techniques he is learning with brilliance. Casey works with the best companies in the business like: Omega Custom Tackle, Picasso, Rat-L-Trap, Power Pole, Evinrude Outboards and Ranger Boats. If you have a chance to interact with these companies, let them know Casey is out there not only representing this companies, but showing these products in real world/tournament usage. It’s one thing to talk about products, its another to get film and footage that validates the things you are trying to convey. Casey works hard at his fishing, while still holding down contracted work as an electrical engineer for the automotive industry. Look for Casey to ease his way into fishing from the front of the boat at the FLW Tour level, but what is the rush? Casey has nothing but time and wisdom to make good decisions at the right time. In the mean time, look for him at the top of the leaderboard at the Everstart, BFL, and of course the FLW Tour Co-Angler levels for now.

casey-martin-florida-grass-fishing — “Anything I can do, Casey can do better! ( and faster, quicker, less complicated and more efficiently)”

***The ‘striping’ caused in some clips of the video were caused from a failed hard drive. I went the thru the painful and expensive ‘data recovery’ process, hence the striping and distortion.***

Music:

“Che Seville”

Album: The Left Hand Side

Label: Body Deep Music

Page 15 of 28

Swim Signature: 22nd Century Bluegill

Promar Nets: The Bigbait and Tournament Net

Change

Swim Signature: Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper

Swim Signature: Yamamoto Swim Senko

Casey Martin Simplifies Florida Grass Fishing

DU-BRO Fishing Trac A Rod Storage System

Revo Toro Rocket Paired with the Phenix Ultra Swimbait Classic 790H