Anybody still fishing the old school stuff?

[BASS]

Over the past few months, I have been reading almost every article I can find about trophy bass fishing in southern california. About 5 months ago, I read an article about the castaic trout. I looked hard and found an original hard head and a wooden castaic. (If anybody has an injected that there lookn to sell, shoot me a pm) I was wondering with all these new baits coming out if yo guys still fish the older stuff.

 

I am thinking that if they caught fish 10 years ago, they should still catch the toads now. I am more talking about the hard head trout and OG Basstrix. I have one of the OG's and a few of the newer versions of the hard heads, and a 9" basstrix (My 12" is defected and doesnt swim). My question is in what circumstances do you fish the hard head instead of say an Armageddon. Will there be a use for them (the 12") when the 12" arm gets released? When would you fish the basstrix? The rising son basically has the same looks but a better trout/fish profile, but it seems the basstrix is also catching a lot of teen fish.

 

Please let me know.

 

Thanks,

Rocky

[offduty]

Check the other forums. I saw what you are looking for last night in a BST section.

 

Rich

[bigworm]

I still have a handfull of the foam head castaics and plan on putting one into the mix this year again. They fish well just wallowing under the surface but you may lose quite a few fish on em. I forget where it is posted but Nico has an old article on "how to butcher a castaic trout" to make it a line through bait. I've completly butchered two trying to do it and never succeded. But he claims the landing ratio skyrocketed for him.

[offduty]

That is a pretty good article. I have done it to a few I have but I also like to add a big frog hook right in the middle a few inches forward of the tail. It takes some ingenuity but most of these things can be done.

 

Rich

[BASS]

Yeah, I read that article a little while ago. I am afraid to do it to my OG. I just don't want to ruin it because you can't get em anymore. I do not think that you can do it with the new one because of the cheap injected plastic. I'll to figure something out though

[bigworm]

The new castaics are nothing like the old ones. The old ones stay higher in the water and wake pretty well. The new ones don't swim well at low speeds and end up having to crank them down to swim. The only new one I ever had couldn't keep it's tail on, retrieved it once on the shore a day after losing it, only to lose it again for good later. Based on my experience I wouldn't try to butcher the og unless you are prepared to ruin the bait, not as easy as he makes it look. I still have three and am going to try the cheating method, through the eyelets and bill.

[BASS]

Yeah, I know they dont sit near the same. The new one will actually sink after a little while because the rubber pulls the bait down. I plan on throwing some foam into the rubber and make it more buoyant... We'll see how it works

[offduty]

One of the ways those baits work well is fished on the bottom. If you get them down they will sit on the bill tail up and can be deadsticked on the bottom and twitched.

 

Rich