I don't have anything new to post, but I was hoping someone did :P

Did anyone make to the Winter BaT at Angler's Marine? Jerry was supposed to have 4 new baits there, one of them was the new 'Sewer Rat'. Anybody got to see it yet?

Wondering if anyone has any feedback on the new swimbaits. What about the 'Real Californial Swimbait' from LuckyCraft?

Jerry's big rat is awesome! Mickey unvailed the 10.5" trout and the lucky craft Real California looks interesting but I'm still not sold. It's a jointed bait around 6-7" and it has a blade on the back or you change it out with a supplied soft tail that you pin on with a tooth pick. It was really busy both days

Here's more info on the Lucky Craft "swimbait" if you will

http://www.actournaments.com/LCrealcali.htm

Looks more like a jointed pointer minnow with a Slammer type tail to me, but whatever, it'll probably be a good bait for catching fish - just not really a big fish specific bait.

The word on the custom Huddleston color was that it looked almost exactly like the regular color. A little darker and the silver part going further down on the belly. Maybe someone who got one of the custom color can post a pic.

I just got word that the new version of Castaic Hardbait trout has arrived at Tackle Warehouse along with another batch of the new Osprey Hardbait trout, and some AC Minnows. So things are cooking up pretty good.

Well, the new word on the swimbaits has been pretty much covered. There some custom painted bluegill swimbaits (and some catfish walkers) that looked incredible. The guy told me that they went through some 100 something paint stages (they were next to the Specialty Tackle booth, for those that were there). Mike Long mentioned that the Huddleston would hopefully be available soon in baby bass, I am not sure if that means that it will happen or if it just means that he wants it to happen. Rago's "LA sewer rat" looked great; what astounds me about his baits are consistent quality, quality, quality....amazing. The 3:16 bait looked terrific, pricey, but terrifc. Mickey's hinge design seems far superior to anything out there right now, I also like the way the fins on the bait are kinda tight to the body, it seems to me that that would make the bait more durable. As a point of contrast, the Rago Generic Live trout has fins that would seem like they would snap off. Also, the new Chronarch 50 is very, very light. The Crucial dropshot rods looked great, they were soft but not floppy; awesome except that they are only available in spinning models; so I guess my search for the perfect dropshot rod continues. That about does it as far as equipment.

The speaker I saw were interesting too, here are some tidbits I remember from each.

Swindle: Guy is too funny, all I remember is laughing. He said that one of the girls on the bachelor looked like she "got beat on with a bag of nickels". That guy is classic, combine his sense of humor with his southern accent, and it is hard not to laugh.

Mike Long: He talked a lot about fish senses; lateral line, "distant touch", bass sense of smell, eyesight, all very interesting. He told a story about how he went to Lake Jennings at one of the first trout stocks. He said that all of these like 5-8lb bass were kinda stacked up on the outside of the trout ball that formed. The larger bass would just blow up on a trout, and disable it but not eat it, and then do it again. The bass would then just circle back gulp, gulp, eat two trout and cruise off into deeper water. He said that he threw his Huddleston out there (hooks off) and could not buy a bite. Then he picked up one of the dead/disabled trout and rubbed the slime onto his bait, threw it back out there and got licked. He repeated with a different bait and got the same results. I am not sure if that was his pitch for scent (he likes hotsauce, but mentioned a few that all had similar results), or if he just wanted to emphasize how accute a big bass' senses are--interesting in either case. Mike also said that if he could only fish one bait it would be the Huddleston trout ROF 5.

He also taked about hooks. He said that he likes the smallest hooks that he can get away with, yup, the smallest. That was new to me because I always hear about people changing out hooks and putting on the biggest hooks that they can use without messing up the action. He also talked about hook masking. He said that he used to dip his hooks in wax, he moved in to covering them with small worms (I think many of us have read that BassWest), now he just spray paints them flat white. Apparently, this does a satisfactory job masking the "nine volt battery effect", plus, that flat paint holds on to scent well.

Again, these are just tidbits, and I hope I didn't distort his message too badly.

Aaron Martens: This guy can flat out catch them, probably better than anyone else I can think of. The most impressive thing about him was not his ability, it was how he developed his ability. This guy truly fishes outsie the box and he is a "homemade" fisherman in ever sense of the term. It seems like he has taught himself everthing that he knows. The way he approaches fishing makes so much sense, but is so unique. I am not going to go into everything, but his approach involves a lot of very simple, very effective methods, like walking the bank looking for crawdads so that he can match colors.

He uses florocarbon for nearly everything, with the exception of certian topwater applications. He ties San Diego knots almost exclusivly, which he reminded everyone is actually a cinch. He likes the cinch, as opposed to the knot because a knot may loosen up during the day, but by fishing a bait fastened with a cinch, the connection only gets tighter. That allows him to place the knot at different places on the eye for different presentations. Oh yeah, he said that if you tie the San Diego with floro, you should only go through the bottom, with mono you have to go though the bottom and then the top. If you take the extra step and go through the top with floro, the line will cut into itself and weaken.

That is about it, sorry about the rambling, there was just a lot of information to get out.

John, thank you for your report on the Bass-A-Thon. re:

"Rago's "LA sewer rat" looked great; what astounds me about his baits are consistent quality, quality, quality....amazing. The 3:16 bait looked terrific, pricey, but terrifc. Mickey's hinge design seems far superior to anything out there right now, I also like the way the fins on the bait are kinda tight to the body, it seems to me that that would make the bait more durable. As a point of contrast, the Rago Generic Live trout has fins that would seem like they would snap off."

Thanks for the compliment about our quality, we try to make every single one of the Rago Baits worth every penny you anglers pay for them. You're right about the cool hinge design on Mickey's bait, perhaps we'll incorporate it into some of our new prototypes as they come along, test them and see how well they swim. Regarding the durability of the fins on the Live Trout, they're pretty tough. I'd be interested to hear from anybody who has had them snap off. It would take a pretty good jolt up against something hard, like a rock, to snap one off. If there are ever any problems with any of our baits, please work through the shop you bought them from for warranty work. We can always fix them up darned near as good as new for you so you can get back to catching those trophies.

Steve Kneip
Production
Rago Baits

Any word on when that Lucky Craft lure will in the stores? There might be a trout or two out that would find it to be the perfect meal.

Cody, Give Tacklewarehouse a call. I was in there today and they had 'em. They're not up on the site yet though. I guess those things are made out of aluminium, so it'd be interesting to see the action.

Thanks Phil. It'll be very interesting to see the action of an aluminum lure. Worse part is I'll have to look at it until next spring to try it on my favorite lakes.

Tacklewarehouse just put the Lucky Craft baits up on the site. They have some awesome colors in the lineup. Check 'em out.