I went to a small local lake today to give it another shot. I had a small follower after about 15 casts. The got hit after about 45 min. I used robs method of throwing past and letting it sit a minute before reeling. The bass was accompanied by another bassbiting at the trout sticking out of her mouth. She was 4lb 2oz. I finally got on on the castaic trout. I had about 5 small followers the rest of the day. I even threw the slammer with no love or followers. Then went to hit one last spot that was trees on creek channel(aka good spot). On the second cast something came in directly under the Castaic, about 5 feet from the boat sheflared her gills and took a very slow gulp at the lure, I set, but no fish. Sorry I have to say it again. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
She was about 8lbs. I really really really like my Castaic trout. The water temp was 44degrees. I guess that why she was so slow.

Does the Castaic trout draw strikes? You bet. Does the Castaic trout draw big strikes? You bet. The thing you gotta be prepared to deal with is losing a good number of the fish that hit you. How many? It depends a lot on if you have a working trailer hook system. But with no trailer hook, I would estimate you'll lose or never hook around 30 to 40% of the fish that hit you. I have heard so many horror stories of 10+ fish eating the bait, spitting it out, getting hooked and spitting it out, all kinds of stuff. Some guys, and a lot of them are good fisherman, like this bait a lot. They can handle losing some fish and they most often have devised a good trailer hook system. Me personally, I don't even own one. I can't stand losing those big bites and I'm willing to wait it out throwing plugs with two big treble hooks. I may not get quite as many bites, but I catch almost all of them. Since I've moved to the bay area more than a year and a half ago I've only lost 2 fish that hit my Slammer. Both at Margarita and both probably smallish fish. If a fish over 5lbs hits that thing, you're probably gonna catch it.

If I was you I'd try Wes' trailer hook idea with the hook from a snag proof frog, or I'd spend some more time throwing your Slammer. I hate seeing people getting into the trout plug thing and losing a lot of good fish. There's tradeoffs in this deal and you have to know what they are.

Maybe this list will help

High Percentage Hookup Baits:

MS Slammer
AC Plug
AC Minnow
Generic Trout
Z-Plug
TNT Plug
Castaic Harbait

Medium Percentage Hookup Baits:

Osprey
Castaic Softbait Trout
Basstrix

Low Percentage Hookup Baits:

Stocker Trout
Eagle Swimbait
Optimum Swimbait

People will disagree with this, but that's cool. Prove me wrong or tell me about your trailer hook system. I own almost every lure listed on here, and I sure wish I had more confidence to throw a lot of the low percentage hookup baits. I know they'll git bit, but will they put the fish in the boat?

Thanks for the reply Rob. I was going to buy a generic trout when I bought the Slammer, but Bob Sands did not have them. So I'm going to get one next week. It has been an exciting 2 days. I looked up Wes's trailer idea. Seemed wierd, I have to see a picture. I dont get where he is using the staple. I am going to try the next size bigger hook though. I'm not going to get a chance to fish again till sometime after next weekend. The lake I fished today has a lot of snags. I must have set the hook 20-25 times on branches and stick-ups. Double hooks on a diving bait sounds like a lot of hang-ups at this lake, where as Casitas would be no problem. This is addictive. I'm already thinking about buying another rod and reel to have a different bait already rigged. By the way, if you didn't figure it out yet, my name is also Rob. I see big bass in my near future.