Acuna

I think y'all need to realize that the Baitsmith Magnum is in total infringement of Ken Huddleston's patent. I am sure they are available in some way, shape, or form; but the maker (if he is smart) sure isn't making a big deal about it. Having actually prosecuted and obtained a bait related patent myself, I can tell you two things (1) they are expensive and worth protecting, and (2) you can snuff out the competition for 20 years once you get one. I am watching that Mag X on that internet auction site and the price for the Mag-X is getting pretty high! A lot higher than I thought for a rubber trout. Won't lie I am tempted, because it looks totally awesome, but have too many irons in the fire right now.....

Most of my bites are like a jig/worm bite on steroids. There are the occasional mushy/heavy/whatever bites but for me 14 out of 15 bites are the THUMP! I find it addictive. Almost to the point where I fish Hudds because I want that thump when I know other baits might be more effective.

In for the win!

Spectrum and I ventured out on Friday evening for a little fishing. We hit the water from about 8:30 PM to 2:00 AM. We both had a few tail biters and bumps, but only one fish got a hook in her and she went about 7-7.5 pounds. Here she is: The real fun was at the end of the evening when I had to change a roller on my trailer. Put the power Pole down and just barely beached it (an advantage of the power pole is you don't have to beach you boat nearly as much). Specturm and I got out of the boat and had the roller changed in under five minutes. It was at that time when Spectrum turned around and said, "Dude you boat isn't beached anymore." Sure enough, when we got out, the boat started floating higher and was free to swing away. Son of a ..... well I sure wasn't looking forward to it. Air temp was right around 40 degrees and the water temp was 51.8. Trust me it was cold enough and the fish aren't getting on beds any time soon. Sometimes I can be incredibly dumb. This was one of those times.

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonn BBBBBBbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! Just had to get that out of my system. I don't care that it is Valentine's Day and neither does my wife. It is a strong full moon tonight and the weather has been great the last two days after bitter cold. Game freaking on!!! If I stick a DD tonight, I will post it here.

I remember when I got on eBay last year and some Jpanese seller had just listed three flash carps for like $120 each, and I bought two of them and almost bought them all...... Ah the good ol' days.

Just wanted to follow and say I really appreciate everyone's thoughts and insights on this topic. I am glad I got some of you thinking, some of you got me thinking some more. I see some more graphing in my future. Maybe Saturday or something I will head out in the afternoon and further dissect some new-old structure I was looking at this past weekend and maybe stick around until the night bite happens or my bed starts calling my name.

Was having lunch with Spectrum yesterday reflecting on this topic. We had just gotten off the water and starting a new campaign of wearing "The Badge of Honor". It was something I hadn't done in awhile and it really got me thinking about my approach and goals in fishing. I had gotten in a rut, if you will, of throwing baits smaller than I normally do and catching a bunch of 5 to 7 pound fish... as in at least one every trip and sometimes more, with a ton of fish in the 3-5 range. I even put together 5 good ones and almost had a 30 pound limit on one day.... but I realized something: I was compromising my goal of one giant fish for a bunch of "really good fish". I was fishing a bait that I knew had a greater appeal to a smaller size class of fish and thus I was depriving myself of an opportunity to catch "the one". Yes, getting skunked is part of the game (I went a whole month between bites last year), and battling the urge to comprise towards something that will just get you bit can be strong at times. Had to re-evaluate today and am refocusing my efforts on bigger baits for bigger fish. I really do want to catch fish in the 9+ range and need to figure out how to do it. The only way I will learn how is time on the water focusing on those fish and not chasing bites.... How often do you battle with those inner thoughts of just tying on something smaller and going out to get a couple of quick bites?

Just experienced the Mandingo 300 thanks to Spectrum. My hands now feel small.

Awesome fish! Made it really easy for me..... Unless I drop the hammer on a beast, no need to break out the scale.

I have no idea in So. Cal., but the box I got at Hobby Lobby.

Hook bonnets would fix that. They've definitely saved me some stress! True.

It's fine with Hudds. I could see a tangled mess if you had a bunch of hard baits with multiple treble hooks. Hence the Hudd House moniker....

Thanks guys! It really was super easy to do, and if I can do it then ANYONE can do it. And my apologies on the grammer/typos, I was still drinking my first cup of coffee this morning when putting up the post. Oh well (at work and cannot edit my post for some reason).

Here is a super cheap way to hold 20-25 Hudds or other baits in a box that would work particularly well in a boat. I was pretty satisfied with the end result (other than not realizing how many baits I could hold in this thing and not getting enough snap swivels, LOL). All you need is a storage box from a craft store, 20-25 o-rings and 20-25 snap swivels. Just make sure the diameter of the o-rings is bigger than the diameter of the line tie on the snap swivels. 1. Mark location of where you want the hangers on the lid. 2. Drill the holes. Be sure to use a bit that makes a hole just big enough to get the line tie through (you might need to slightly crimp the holes). 3. Insert a snap swivel through each hole you drilled and then attach a split ring to the line tie to keep the snap swivel from falling back through. 4. Add your baits. Done. Credit so Spectrum on the idea about how to attach the snap swivels.

I have found that NOT to be the case.

And yes, I need to work on the camera angle. Just stuck it on the windshield and went fishing.

Here is a video of one I caught last Sunday:

In for the win!

My two Mothers are both around a ROF 2 or 3.