Hello guys,

Has anyone watched/bought that SPRO BBZ swim bait video by Bill Siemantel? Is it worth $25 bucks? I am new to swim-bait fishing as no one does it here in the Chicago land area and would like to hear what you guys think about it

I spoke with Byron V the other day and he said he is getting ready to shoot his own video on this subject.

If I wanted to throw some swim baits here in the Chicagoland area, any hints on what to throw? I have a swim bait rod by Rogue and it is the 1-4 ounce size. I think anything over 7 inches would be too big for the lakes/ponds/rivers I fish. I get to Lake Michigan for large and smallmouth bass about 3 times a month and I know there are rainbow and brown trout, so I am looking into Mickey's 3:16's baby bass and shad, and two other baby wake 7-1/2" bass and trout baits he makes.

Are his lures really that good? They look awesome. Do you guys use any of his baits- probably a stupid question. I talked to him a week ago - what a cool guy and he doesn't push his baits on you. He did steer me away from oversees the Castaic line-up.

I would also like to choose 6" to 7" baits that cover the whole water column- I'm looking at Ken Huddleson's 6" trouts. Any opinions on this one? What is the best way to rig it- there seems to be so many opinions on this.

Thanks gentlemen. Enjoy your open water! I have to wait a few more months. -Greg

The 3:16 baits are legit. They do work. I can't say they will work on your water, but they do work here in CA. The Hudds are money too!You can throw the 8" bait too. Even small fish will eat the 8" bait. If you are looking for bigger bites then throw a bigger bait.

Slammers, Osprey,Matt Lures and smaller baits like Bass Trix all can work well also. Good luck! Let us know how you do!

I read the BBZ book and it was boring. I dont even think I finished it. The video is another story. I borrowed a copy and I gotta say it was realy good. If Bill would make the same video using all of the popular baits it would be incredible. However he only uses the BBZ. I know its his bait and all, I'm just sayin :+ I dont know if I would pay $25 for it but I dont think you would be disapointed if you get it.
As for the 3:16 baits I think they set the standard for hard baits. They are expencive but not overpriced. I would recomend getting a few good proven baits as apossed to a bunch of cheap ones.

Thanks Matt,
Great advice. Do you have any lures that you could steer me away from? I know anything made in China is probably bad, possibly the BBZ is OK, but are there any USA made baits that don't work? I'll try to order some of your 5" bass baits as soon as I can. Any freebies for me?
Your baits are so life like it is sick. Nice.
May I ask what type of wood you use for your line of woody baits and how you keep the action consistent from tree to tree with different densities depending on how slow/fast the tree grows? Someone was selling one of your wood baits on ebay in one lot of baits, most of which probably didn't work.
How long have you been at making baits? Is it paying off? No one out here makes anything but musky baits. They are so primitive and they must work, but I would not know.
Thanks again- tight lines and enjoy your open water! -Greg

Thanks Dan,
I'm going to try the 3:16's baby bass and baby wake as I know bass eat bass. I may try the 7.5" brown trout on Lake Michigan to see if spawning smallies will hit it. I know they will hit a weighted no bull frog with a weight in the chest cavity. That will be awesome.
Tight lines and good fishing and enjoy your open water, remember , it could be worse.
-Greg

Greg I wont tell you what baits not to buy, its not realy cool if I do that unless of course they are just junk. I would sugest if you like a particular style 95 times out of 100 the original is superior to the knock offs. There are a few exceptions but not many. I would also recomend baits made by guys on the west coast. If we can catch fish in our super clear high pressured lakes then they will work anywhere. Besides if you look at the most popular productive baits they all come from or originated on the left coast. Everybody has their favorites and most of them are not huge companies like Lucky craft and Storm (which make terible swimbaits). If you do your homework it makes choosing easyer. Consider this, if a $20-$100 didnt work they would go away and you wouldnt here about them anymore. But when you still hear about the same baits over and over there is a reason for it. I still sell a lot of my gills trouts and bass. Hudd still sells tons of his trout, MSSlammers,22nd,3:16,and recently Black dog seems to be holding their own(sorry if I left anybody out). Whith swimbaits becoming so popular you see EVERYBODY trying to cash in. Most have no idea how to design a bait that will actualy catch BIG fish. Any bait can catch small fish , they are stupid.
They just want to make a bait and call it a swimbait for thier little piece of the pie.
Am I making any money? yeah I am making some but I aint getting rich and I am working my ass off for it!
I have no idea what kind of wood was used in my Woodies. I had those made for me by another company and they use many diferent types. I personaly dont like wood. Its inferior to a well designed compsite bait. Which BTW I am testing prototypes now!

Thanks Matt for not taking the opportunity to slay your competition. That says a lot about how you are running your business. Mickey Ellis was the same way when I spoke to him last week. What a cool guy.
I am relatively new to this idea of swim baits, but I have been watching you "west coast boys" for a few years now. Drop-shotting is now easier for me, but that took time and practice and a lot of laughing at from my friends. but know it is working dn they are not laughing anymore.
I have been using cheaper swim baits for a while now, I.E. Storms and knock off charlies, and if good, more costly swim baits work better, I can hardly wait for ice-out. I do plan on buying some good swim baits soon.
I saw a Triple trout go for well over $152 on ebay last week. Is that crazy? Are they really that good? Are they a wood bait or composite bait?
Thanks Matt. I think I will stick with Mickeys stuff, your stuff, Huddlesons stuff, 22nd century.
Any others you can suggest that are worth the price?
Thanks Matt. -Greg

I think that $150 is crazy. The thing is people assume they cant get them so they pay super high amounts. Do a little homework and you will find just about any bait at regular cost. Call Anglers Marine in Anahiem I know they get Triple trouts and from what I hear if you are put on a waiting list, it only takes a week or 2.

Thanks Matt.
Does 22nd have a website?
Do he make anything else?
Where might a guy find color options, running depths, sizes, and so on? I tried both Anglers marine and performance tackle, but found nothing about the triple trout on the websites.
Can't wait to see what you cooking up.
What type of urethane are you going to use for them? Auto body paint and clear coat for color? Any pictures you can share?
Thanks for replying.
Do you know anything about those Doug Hannon topwater fishing snakes? I posted that before this question. A lot of readers read it, but not one reply. Interesting. -Greg

22nd has a bunch of diferent baits. I dont know about a website.
You need to CALL anglers or performance. Looking on thier sites wont do you much good.
I realy cant share any details of my baits untill after or just before they we released.
Those Doug Hannon snakes well........ I have heard a lot of negative and very little posative. One of the biggest complaints is they are super light and dificult to cast so guys are using spinning rods with them. I hear the hooks are realy cool but they seem overpriced for what you get. I actualy have an original Hannon snake which I believ is far superior. It is a foam snake head with a big worm hook coming out the neck. You can attatch any big curly tail worm to it and swims on the surface like a snake. They havent made those things in probably 20 years but they are cool.

Matt,
I saw something just like that on ebay a few weeks ago. It was a rattlenake head that had a big hook coming out of it. It looked lifelike, but was a urethane. Said it floated. Thanks for the info on the doug hannon fishing snakes. I'll keep looking for a few on ebay. If I get couple, I'll let you know how I do.
Can't wait to see what you are brewing up for the spring. Thanks again Matt. How long did it take you to learn how to pour plastics? Your baits are crazy perfect. I bet I know how you made your molds.
On another note, do you do skin mount touch ups? My Grandfather just gave me a 42" Northern Pike mount and it needs works. Any idea how much? It is about 35-40 years old. I may not be able to do it now, but possibly in the future. Talk to you soon. -Greg

Hi Greg/BASSNIPER! I live in Chicago, and if you want to you can e-mail me, alexvoog@yahoo.com , and I'll contact you back. I have a bunch of baits, Hudds,Slammers, etc and would be HAPPY to talk / fish with you. -Alex

I just moved back to cali from chicago. I fished a ton of swimbaits and KICKED THE HELL out of muskie and bass. Try a hudd at Twin lakes in palatine. There are nice tiger muskie to 50 plus inches that eat hudds REALLY good. Use the silver and black back rof 5 near the volleyball courts. Also Dont forget Independence Grove I caught bass to 8lbs throwing hudds and wake baits.Plus three ski's in a morning throwing a hudd from shore.

Perry,
What are the baits (and sizes and depths) besides the Hudds you mentioned for here in Chicago? Thanks for the info- I am so psyched for springtime.

When you went after muskies, or were at least in muskie waters, you had to have used a liter, right? How big did you go on that?

What patterns(colors) were you using here in the Windy city? If there are not trout in a lake/pond, will bass still try to eat it? I would think so as they have never seen it before and are curious creatures.

If you were me and new to these baits, what would be on your wish list to purchase for Chicagoland fishing? Remember, I am new to this, so full manufacturer names and length, depth, and color descriptions would be greatly appreciated.

Did you ever get out on Lake Michigan and throw a swim bait for smallies and LMB? What type was it and did it work?

I fish out of East Chicago Marina with a good friend for smallmouth bass. Will they hit a swim bait in a big lake like this? What might I use?

Thanks Perry. I may have a few more questions for you. -Greg

>I just moved back to cali from chicago. I fished a ton of
>swimbaits and KICKED THE HELL out of muskie and bass. Try a
>hudd at Twin lakes in palatine. There are nice tiger muskie to
>50 plus inches that eat hudds REALLY good. Use the silver and
>black back rof 5 near the volleyball courts. Also Dont forget
>Independence Grove I caught bass to 8lbs throwing hudds and
>wake baits.Plus three ski's in a morning throwing a hudd from
>shore.

Just curious how well does the Huddleston hold up against a musky? No problems with them shreding soft swimbaits. Not sure though, there are no fresh water muskies here in Socal but we do get a lot of their long toothy saltwater cousins pacific baracuda AKA West Coast Musky. Unfortunately they don't grow quite as large as the skies in your neck of the woods.

JerryG

In chicago I used the huddleston deluxe in a silver with black back in a rof 5. This was the 8in but I bet you would knock them dead on the new 6in version. Also I used MS slammers in dark trout pattern. Fish the clear water lakes. I fished weed edges and blind casted anywhere you had good looking water. These fish have not seen swimbaits and I have never caught more swimbait fish than in IL.
Musky can tear hudds quick but you can just glue it back. Visit Twin lakes in Palatine after the ice melts. Walk the shore looking for Musky they will be very shallow two feet from shore easy to see.They tend to only be shallow for the AM Hope this pic lets you know I am not pulling your leg.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x50/addicted2bass_photos/2.jpg

Twin Lakes Tiger. One of 37 fish over 40in last year ! !

Nice tiger Perry!

Can you help me locate Twin Lakes and Independence Grove? I will assume I'll take I-355 north to Palatine Road.... or do I go farther? I would love to try these two places. Do they allow boats of any kind?

I plan on ordering 2-8" hudds and 2-6" hudds very soon. Also, some 3:16 wake baits, frogs, and a couple of mission fish, 5 or 7". Any idea on the 7.5 wake bait color for Lake Michigan? I was thinking white, brown or rainbow trout. What would you? I get a lot of hookups from white top water baits. Not sure why, easy to see maybe or something they have not seen before.

Any help Perry would be great.

Any other baits beside these and MS slammers? -Greg

Hannon snake is REAL 14lb'r comes aboard today 2/29/08 bassprofessor.com

I've posted in the classified section that I'll trade my coly of the DVD for a swimbait if anyone is interested. I'm interested in a used 7" or 9" MS Slammer - OBO.

I loved the book & have read it several times. The video is also great I just don't plan on watching it over and over. I have the case and have only watched it 2X (perfect condition if anyone is interested).

Thanks,

Nick

You might also take a look at 7 in Stocker Trout. An awesome swimming bait that can be fished many ways. Works really well in off colored waters as the wings create a disturbance that really triggers fish. Tackle warehouse here in cali has them.