I guess I never really got a chance to post Brian's and mine trout pluggin trip to Cachuma a week or two ago. We got done tackle hoing around down south (Eric's Tackle, J&T Tackle...) and had us some new trouts to throw around, so we decided to fish the lake, bringing only dropshot worms, and trout plugs. Brian threw his Talon swimbait which he picked up at Eric's. I threw the 9" slammer. Brian had one boil on his bait early, and was getting tapped pretty consistantly throughout the day. My slammer wasn't doin much. I varied it up quite a bit over the course of the day and threw slammers, stocker trouts, castaic swimbaits, etc. Brian pulled one fish late in the day on his talon. The fish was I believe 3-13 or something like that. We tried a lot of new baits that trip and here's my analysis- talon swimbaits kick @$$. Castaic swimbaits have very poor action, but look absolutely killer. The talons are very bulky, and fat, but are pretty much solid plastic and sink very very slowly. They also sit in the water very nicely, when not retrieved. They look a lot like a real fish, and very often I'd glance at Brian's bait and for a split second think it was a fish. These baits are only available at Eric's Tackle and Japan. They're apparently huge in Japan, and I've seen them on umaxco.com before, for those of you who aren't in the oxnard area. As for the castaic swimbaits, as much as I like their sardines, I dislike the trouts. The 9" at least needs to be retrieved quite quickly in order to get that frickin tail to kick. It is very poor on the sink and just spirals downward. It's also pretty heavy for it's size. Sean James at JT Tackle told me he stuck a 9 and a 5 on back to back casts at Casitas it I'm not mistaken on that 9" castaic swimbait, and I'm sure they've got their place, but for most conditions, they're not the ones. If the bass are feeling aggressive and willing to chase stuff, but it's really clear water, then they'd probably do well. But, other than that, I'll take a stocker trout. Ok, there's my analysis of my new baits.
-Brian