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Troutman: New Techniques and Product Introduction – Part One

Sunday, February 22, 2009

In bass fishing we have many lures to choose from to add to our arsenal.  In tournament bass fishing, our arsenal can be comprised of even more diverse selections of baits, where we have made alterations and created unique combinations to give fish a different look.  Unique combinations could include carolina rigging a crankbait, using a small jig at the bottom of a drop shot rig, or taking two or more soft jerkbaits and attaching them to mimic a small school of bait fish.  The combinations and unique lures we can choose are quite endless.

The swimbait craze has successfully moved from the west coast and the baits associated with the style have made it into our boats.  If you Google swimbaits, you will be amazed on everyone’s take on it and how many are out there.  Some of us have bought them and some of us have bought them and really tried to use them.  I am by no means an expert on these baits, but I wanted to share with all USA Bassin anglers a truly unique bait that I have employed successfully.

When you have been fishing, have you ever seen a small rodent disappear after taking a swim across a pond or inlet, have you seen a mouse run over some lily pads and swim a small section and see a big splash, and what about the young muskrats that seemingly run out into the marches never to return.

Last year I started fishing the RATO from Troutman Swimbaits (www.troutmanswimbaits.com), in search of big fish.  What a bait!  Just messing around deep and shallow shoreline the baits work great.  You can just do a steady retrieve, plug it and what I like to do is swim it for a bit and let it stand – then repeat.   This mimics small animals swimming from one piece of floating cover to another, and also induces that spontaneous hit when you stop a bait and start it again.  I have caught a six+ pounder, a few fives, many multiple threes and fours.  This year this will be one of two big bass baits I will employee – try it out.

You can fish it along wed lines, flip it into shore and pull along a long semi-submerged tree and even weave it throw the lilies.  The expose giant hook makes your choice of cover is little limited, but the six pounder I caught was in a weedy area full of junk, and all I did was swim it throw….wham!

This bait looks exactly like a small mouse or rodent, and the side to side motion of the tail and later segment break up the water column.  It also has a rattle that further induces the attention the bait deserves from the local lunker.

I prefer the darker one, the original perch color.  The tail is in perfect for the bait and is easily replaced – mine has a black tail now.  I use a Shimano Curado, eight foot medium heavy rod and 25 Berkley Big Game to make it work.  The eight foot rod helps with a little leverage if the fish pulls it into the weeds or for flipping in along docks.