FishDr

Early this year it was all about the ROF 5, 8" Hudd. Once the water warmed up the 7" MS Slammer and 6" BBZ-1 started getting some play, as did the 7" (6"?) wood Lunker Punker, but the ROF 5 Hudd still dominated my catches.

First swimbait was a 7" light rainbow MS Slammer. It took a few trips to get bit, but once it did (3 fish in one day, including my 7-lb CO PB), I was hooked.

My biggest fish so far come from the Flipside, with the biggest being a wels catfish in the 25-lb class (we didn't weigh it, but the guide figured it was right around 12 kg). Numbers 2, 3, and 4 are either other wels taken on the same trip or a lake trout that ate a Hudd in 35 - 40' of water. I still want to get a DD largemouth on a swimbait, something that's definitely a challenge and a half in CO. Here's the wels (I call it big, but the guide I was fishing with called it small - it's a river that pumps out at least one 150 - 200 lb fish per week).

I was throwing the Hudds on 65-lb PowerPro with a 30-lb Big Game leader. Even though the 'eyes have some impressive teeth, they're not normally a threat to your line, though they do leave some nice punctures in your Hudds.

The first 'eye ate a floating 8" BBZ-1; they seem to like both the big BBZ-1s and the 8" Hudds. I've even had a couple of them whack a Lunker Punker but somehow avoid getting hooked. Thanks for the kind comments everyone - sometimes I feel a little unlucky that we don't have that many big bass here in CO, but ever since I decided to throw big baits at anything that would eat, I find I don't have much need to complain anymore.

Nicely done! Letting your kids use your swimbait gear is dangerous - both my 6-yr old son and 4-yr old daughter now insist that I bring two swimbait rods with us whenever we go fishing, and they prefer to use those to catch their fish. Still, I get a kick out of watching them slow-roll rats and wakebaits back in, and an even bigger kick when they catch fish (bass, so far), on them!

The Flipside is where I live. Here in Colorado the growing season for bass is pretty short, so a big fish is anything over 5 lbs and a huge fish is anything over 7 lbs. However, we do have some other fish that will whack a swimbait and some of them get a bit bigger. Right now my addiction is general swimbait fishing for anything that will eat a big bait. Here are some of the happy participants. Northern pike Wiper (hybrid striped bass) Lake trout Walleye More walleye And one non-Colorado fish, a wels catfish from a one-day fishing trip in Spain when I was there for business. Fish that are still on the list for Colorado include rainbow and brown trout and channel catfish.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently as our better lake trout waters are about to ice up here in CO. I had one successful open water trip (my only laker trip of the year) right after ice out when I bounced an ROF 12 Hudd on the bottom, just as you would a big tube. Here's that fish: I think that if you took an ROF 12 or 16 you could fish it just like a tube (very subtle, slow taps on the bottom), but if the fish were suspended, as they often are, then maybe an ROF5 might be the way to go. One thing I've been struggling with is deciding on a rod to use - there are some fairly heavy laker ice fishing rods offered by Thorne Brothers, but I wonder about cutting down an old Ugly Stik casting rod to about 4' long to get something that's tough, yet flexible enough to deal with a rampaging laker under the ice.