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mark poulson

swimbait fish

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I threw my triple fish copy yesterday at Lake Castaic in SoCal, in a rainstorm, and caught my first fish on it, a 6.77 beauty.

What a thrill!

I've caught bigger fish, but this is the biggest on one of my home made lures, and the first on one of my jointed baits.

I am waiting for my friend to email me the photo, and then I'll try to post it (no promises, you know I'm internet illiterate).

The lure is a 7" had body, 4 section, with a 2" triple trout tail, painted in pearl silver/ med green back/misted with pink fuchsia, and larger black spots.

It floats almost completely submerged, and doesn't roll, even on a fast retrieve. I was using a med. fast retrieve, throwing it tight to rock walls and points. I caught the fish on a wind blown point.

I was fishing yesterday because I am the weighmaster for Mike Iljin's Angler's Choice Castaic Trial, and I fish for fun after launch and before weighin.

I was stoked. Bill Siemental and Troy Lindner won the tournament. Bill said he was throwing swimbaits, and Troy was "doing other stuff". They won big fish with a 6.5 lb swimbait fish, so my fish was bigger.

What a kick!

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Great news!

I hope you'll post photos of the lure too.

Remedial question for you: just how exactly does a swimbait achieve its action? I just got a Spro BBZ-1 from a guy, and played with it a bit on the weekend. Looks awesome! But for the life of me, I can't figure out HOW it actually achieves its motion...any insights?

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I think (dangerous, I know) that the water moving past the sides of the swimbait creates the movement, as the water hitting the joints deflects, like a sail, and makes the water swirl as it passes the bait. The pieces are pulled to one side or the other, and once the bait starts to move, the water forces each piece back the other way. A vicious cycle, kind of.

I also have a BBZ1 floater, and have caught a lot of fish

on it. It shines in the spawn and post spawn, when the bass are most aggressive or have their feed bag on. I can't burn it as fast as a triple trout, so I don't throw it as a reaction bait in the wind.

I'll post a picture as soon as I can.

I did find out that coating the faces of the joints separately from the main body is a bad idea. The epoxy peeled off the joint faces.

I'm going to dig the hinge pins out, re coat the pieces completely using the coat hanger trick posted here earlier today, and then, when it's reassembled, I'll photo it and post it, if I can.

Pete, I am not making these to sell, but it is a very compelling hobby. I used to make my own shakey heads, and paint them, but this is way more addicting. And fun.

RM,

If it's any consolation, last Friday I was a voluteer observer at the first Heavyweight Bass Classic, put on by Ron Cervanka, John Barron, and Ken Huddleston (the swimbait guy) at Lake Casitas in Ojai, CA.

One angler and one observer per boat, 50 boats, $200 buy in, $10,000 winner take all for biggest fish.

Almost all of the best big fish guys from California, North and South, were there.

At safe light launch, it was 40+degrees, 20mph winds, and light rain. That developed during the day to 40- degrees, 35-30mph winds, driving rain and hail.

I was never so happy for 2:45 second flight weighin to come! Seven+ hours standing in the back of the boat, watching someone else fish in lousy weather, and a tough bite (Floridas don't like cold fronts) was miserable.

My angler caught eight fish, fished hard all day, and had a 10+ follower on a swimbait early, but his biggest was 3.71lbs.

The winner was Don Osborne, from NoCal, throwing a 12" Castaic swimbait. He stuck a 10.5lb beauty. He said he caught it on his first cast, third crank of the reel. He also said he'd called the lake and found out that they were planting 12" trout. No one else threw a 12" bait. Sharp guy.

Anyway, it was cold, but not snowing. My friend was an angler and was the leader in the hot seat for 45 minutes with a 7+lb jig fish, until Don weighed in.

He said at one point his boat was white with hail.

That's cold enough for me.

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I've never been to Clear Lake. My buddy who fishes with me on weekends has fished it, and so has our club pres. They both rave, and say it has to be fished before I die. Like Mexico.

If I drive all the way up there, it will be to fish, not observe, and I'll need the $200 buy in money for gas.

I'm cheap!

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My free theory is that the front section always wants to pull to one side for the path of least resistance, then your line retrieve pulls it to the other side, then the line turns the front section back to the other side. The back sections just follow the previous front section turn !! REMEMBER; You get what you pay for !!

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Nathan,

What a kick! The rain was driving, and the wind was howling, but I yelled "Yes" so loud, two guys in a Ranger stopped to check out my fish. I was grinning from ear to ear.

I was working the AC Castaic tournment that Sunday for Mike Iljin as his weighmaster, and he posted that I caught a fish on my own hand carved swimbait on WesternBass.com's southern forum.

Now I've got all my "friends" calling me to get one!

Man, it's he!! to be popular. LOL

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Jed,

Those conditions are rare. I don't like cold weather fishing.

Last year, we launched our Feb. club tourney in 19 degree weather, and I wound up with frost bite on two fingers.

Man, they hurt when it gets cold now, so I try to avoid cold like the plague.

But I had made a commitment to help, so I was there. And since I was there, I figured I might as well fish. Sick, I know. :o)

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Well, I finally got a picture of my lure. I had to recoat it. My brilliant idea of coating the joint faces with 5 minute, and then putting the lure together and coating the rest, wasn't so brilliant. The 5 minute started peeling, so I pulled it off, repainted the joints with pearl silver, and recoated the whole thing with Envirotex, using the separated joint technique I saw here last week.

It worked like a charm.

Anyway, here's my weapon. I am still grinning like a newlywed.

C:Documents and SettingsMarkLocal SettingsTemporary Internet FilesContent.IE5OPHA6TRW

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