Jfish

Looks like the hard work and experience is paying off....solid fish abound....keep em' comin' enjoy the reports. JK

Thats a good one man....must be some drag rippers in that river : ) Love them stripes! J

Can't disagree they will eat the slammer or any good wake bait day or night. In my mind though ideal conditions might include things like: Some chop on the water (A little wind) Low light conditions (Clouds, early and late in the day Wake baits are especially deadly at night (Darker moon nights tend to be better) Warm water....it is a topwater pesentation so your numbers are definitely going to go up when the waters warm.... These are all theoretical and sometimes the fish break the rules and reward you but if you keep track of conditions you'll probably start seeing correlations to some of the above mentioned 'condiitions'... JK

Its common place to see them getting hammered right after they go in and yes they are somewhat "stoned" from the chemicals they use to sedate them. They quickly wake up when they realize they are public enemy number 1.....the bass want them, the cormorants want them.....the trout anglers want them. Life is not good for a hatchery trout. While bass certainly put the hurt on them...striped bass absolutely blast them. I was at Lake Skinner back in the 90's and happened to be at the launch ramp right when the trout went in and the stripers moved in right away and trout were literally beaching themselves to get away from the stripers. Funny thing was watching 20 or so boats throwing swimbaits for 45 minutes or so with NADA....not a single fish. Sometimes having that much of the REAL THING in the water makes it hard to get bit'. I noticed a few trout making lightning fast torpedo wakes right for my boat so out of sheer frustration I threw an old Castaic Hardhead and cranked it down on a full burn...half way in I got nailed on a 16lb striper. Soon the fish moved out and the trout scattered down the shorelines and that was the only fish caught. The trout simply opens up the potential for bigger fish to eat bigger lures but its far from a give me at least here in So Cal. If you put in your time you will certainly get your share of bites but its a lot harder to get bit' than it used to be. On the plus side we have a fair amount of tools at our disposal these days so get your presentations down before the trout get here and you'll be far ahead. Lookin' forward to the trout myself.....: ) JK

Yes like Jim Carrey said, "There is a chance". The Hudd can certainly be fished on the bottom but thats by no means the only way to get bit on it. For example, in STE's Matt Peters talks about how he fishes it in the middle of the water column for the most part. Slow and low is good but I personally find an ROF 5 (Modded to a 1 or 2) slow rolled along breaks just below the surface (maybe a foot down) to be deadly when the sun goes down. Just food for thought. JK how do you mod your hudds to make them lighter? As mentioned its probably an easier practice to add a nail weight (s) to an ROF 0 until you get the ROF you want. For the approach I take in our shallow lakes I like the bait to fall very slow...that allows me to fish the bait at a very slow and natural pace even in a foot of water. If you get a ROF 5 you want to mod its still pretty easy with a few items: Exacta knife 3:16 glue or mend it A pair of sharp wire cutters Take the exacta knife and cut a slit starting at the hook hanger towards the rear of the bait. You should feel the lead as your cutting and stop at the point you feel you've reached the end of the lead section....probably about a 1"- 1.5" cut. Once completed you should be able to pull back the sections and clearly see the section of lead behind the hook hanger. You want to carefully slide you wire cutters into the seam you've created and cut off the entire section behind the hook hanger. Lead is actually very soft and should cutaway pretty easy. Place it in a bucket and verify the fall rate is where to want it. If you cut too much lead and its a floater no problem just cut a small section off the portion you cut out and place it in the hollow area you've created. Check the fall rate again. Once your happy with it apply the glue to both sides of the incision you made....hold the sections together for about 60 seconds and you should be good to go. I've found some 0's these days are slow sinkers so regardless of what the package says you need to verify for yourself what the ROF of the bait is. Have fun. JK

How much to rent just the second and third section of the bait...can you pro rate it that way?? : ) Can I get a further discount if I provide my own hooks......: ) Fractional ownership....: ) JK You could change for "bait insurance" as well to cover any potential loss....

Yes like Jim Carrey said, "There is a chance". The Hudd can certainly be fished on the bottom but thats by no means the only way to get bit on it. For example, in STE's Matt Peters talks about how he fishes it in the middle of the water column for the most part. Slow and low is good but I personally find an ROF 5 (Modded to a 1 or 2) slow rolled along breaks just below the surface (maybe a foot down) to be deadly when the sun goes down. Just food for thought. JK

Kilo G found em' somewhat on accident and were all impressed with em'....for fun pick up the pace to a medium retrieve and listen to the sound that thing makes coming through the water....its one of the nicest sounds I've ever heard come from a lure..... JK

It can happen that way but I wouldn't count on it. One thing to consider is that as realistic is these lures look to us to a bass it isn't always that convincing. The cool thing is that it gets the fish "looking" for a bigger meal and that plays into the hands of a skilled swimbaiter. All normal things apply...figuring out the prime feeding areas, top...bottom...middle...slow...fast....there's a lot to fine tune. I would try to not bounce between too many bodies of water looking for an easy bite. Instead I would focus on one or two spots that are known to have good size bass and make it your personal challenge to learn them and make it payoff with a few big bites. Also, regardless of your lure preferences or loyalties....a HUDD needs to be part of your gameplan as the water cools and trout are in the water. Good that your thinkin' ahead....best month typically is February for the real biggies...Pre-spawn...you should be fine tuned by then. JK

Solid fish man, the smile says it all. Good job! JK

I recommend tying directly on both of them. The wake bait really doesn't matter as much but the glide bait definitely prefer a directly connection as that bait can be worked a lot of different ways and I feel a direct connection gives you more control of the bait. The wakebait I recommend working it with the rod tip low to the water while the glide bait I prefer having my rod positioned at about 2 o'clock. This creates a steeper angle of attack and the bait will run harder left to right....you have to be ready to wind down and drop into fighting position though when you get bit' so it takes some practice. JK

WTG again Seth. Always fun to break a new rod in relatively quick... Ben must be putting some good joo joo in that blue camo. JK

You da man Tyler. I dunno you kind of look like you could pass for Dave Grohls baby brother right here or Son Stay loyal to the camo man. JK

WElcome to orange county....home to some of the toughest water in the country... There are fish (a few good ones too) in all these ponds-just gotta figure out the windows and triggers. Get ready to do some work and be ready to work around the grass. If you find a great Hudd bite at Laguna right now please let me know JK

That was dirty Randall I'd much rather talk baits than Ragos deal. That bait looks good and has nice erratic movement that I do think especially mimics the nervousness of baitfish like shad right before they get the big take down. I used to watch them when fishing big gizzards for stripers and they would often come up top and start that "run for your life" movement you have going here. It appears that you have to apply a little english to get that side to side hunting action your getting?? Regardless I think it will be a good strike trigger. I see it more as a hunter than a glider but it does look good and I can appreciate where your coming from. Without over indulging I've been running a glide (that I plan to release) since the early 90's that takes it the other way and is a single piece with no joints. It operates with a single hook so that freaks a lot of guys out but it is effective. So your providing more options....cool man power to ya. Thought I was going to have to put a pot of coffee on for a minute JK

Not for sure how to interpret your post (lots of smiley faces) but I was square in the middle of this one. I honestly exhausted way too much time on this subject yesterday but in a nutshell my postions would be: 1) Gancraft invented mechanical design for the two piece glider roughly 10 years ago 2) Imports to the US were initially poorly received in the American market 3) Variations with different profiles, weighting and tuning cause them to run different "All glides are not created equal". 4) Over the past few years interest in glide baits has grown in the US and baits such as the S-waver is made available in the US as well as a slew of Japanese imports 5) Rago takes cue with the glideator and "buys" a design patent 6) My position is that because Jerry did not 'invent' the design he has no more right to it than anyone else (excluding gancraft) Thats about it from my perspective. I've long been fishing glide baits and spent a considerable amount of time working on my two piece bait as I'm sure you did your own bait. Plenty of 4 piece baits in the world before and after your bait so not sure how your seperating yourself from the points you raise about glide baits? How many boot tails are in existence? I'm not offering my bait claiming that I invented the glide bait...I'm offering it to guys that want to have a choice about which bait suits their style best. Mean no disrespect whatsoever just stepping into your bear trap of a question......what the hell why not : ) JK

Solid man, gotta love them wake bait fish. You've been on point lately. Inspiring. JK

Sounds like fun man. Glad you stuck a bunch of fish. Sometimes its fun to get a lot of fish to tide you over...welcome back. JK

The shop here in Anaheim (I don't want to plug anyone) that holds the bass a thon carries one called Morning Wood. I believe they are quite a bit less than the PB's. There's a two and three piece. I'm sooo skeptical like everyone else but these things run every bit as good as the PB. Hell it may be the same guy making them for all I know. I fished one a few weeks ago that a friend had and I was thoroughly impressed. It has the Mojo. Call em'. JK

BUNS A CLOWn! JFISH has forgot more than you know about swimbait fishing..a we have this little section here on "our" site called the " got em section" until you can show us what you are about there everything you are saying doesn't mean ish So get your fat arse up from behind your key board,put on your crocs grab your swimbaits find the closes piece of water and stick some swimbait fish. Then maybe well think about listening to what you are saying....if you came here to troll ill give you a ear full ery time...or a mouth full... Ummmm.....that about wraps it up folks. Dessert and coffee on the way out...thanks for coming....hahahhahah....

I wouldn't use either of those criteria to determine which rat to buy. That hollow injected chinese made "thing" bears no resemblance to Ragos originals. The PB's and Morning Woods run vastly better than anything I've seen Ragos name on these days. JK

The baddest one I've seen is the PB and Morning Wood (available in so cal shops).....they make them out of a certain type of cedar and use BIG screw eyes for the joint connections which gives them an incredible resonant 'clack'. Also when you pick up the pace (say medium speed) the water rushing through the joint slot makes this "dinner bell" gurgle thats to die for. The Nezummas done its share of damage but if you notice on STE the original "money" rat was made from wood. Its my personal feeling but I don't think anyones matched the action and sound of the wood rats with urethane......not yet anyway. Personally I don't even know if the bass know for sure that its looking at a mouse, rat, squirrel...but there's no denying that slithering worm tail in combination with the water displacement looks very "alive" and puts off a different vibration then a traditional fish imitating wake like a slammer or wake jr. J my 2 cents.... JK

Thats the nicest looking 4-12 I've seen......weve all certainly had worse days than that. Way to get er' done.... JK

You get my vote for official spokesman for SBU......dig it man. Can you say charisma....keepin' it real and keepin' it fun. We want more...we want more...we want more....hahahhahahha....your crazy dude in a good way. Oh yeah and nice fish.... JK

Good job Dave. The glide baits are definitely one of the newer things a lot of guys are working through. Keep em' comin'. Wow those hooks look like a gar got ahold of them or an alligator....damn... JK