A buddy and I braved the gale force winds and rain on Sunday up at Don Pedro. The wind was too much for us in his 16 foot Tracker and we spent most of the six hours we fished tucked in behind a point that where we graphed a ton of bait fish and saw trout pushing bait to the surface. I used the time to throw swimbaits while my buddy drop shotted and dragged a jig. The only fish we caught on the day was a 3 1/2 pound trout that came on my buddy's drop shot. The day was not a total waste for me as I was able to compare the actions of a few swimbaits, here are some observations that I made.

Castaic Platinum: My slow sinking 8" Platinum was the first bait I threw. The finish is good and looks very lifelike. The bait does seem very fragile like it will rip in half if a fish short strikes it, I do not expect it to last for more than one or two fish. It sinks slowly and slowly swims on its fall. Its swimming action looks good in the water but it is definitely the most unrealistic of the three baits I threw. It swims in an exaggerated "S" pattern which looked the best when crawled in as slow as possible. The magnet hook hanger idea is good but after a few casts both of the magnets had fallen out of the bait. Over all I give it a C+.

Original Castaic Swimbait: This is still one of my favorite swimbaits, perhaps because it was the first swimbait I ever used and the bait on which I caught my personal best bass. The finish is lifelike, and it has a more trout like profile than the Platinum. I do not like the pectoral fins on the bait; they may look real when the bait is in the package but when the bait is swimming they stick out and look unnatural. The action of the bait is good, with a nice wide kick to the tail. I do like the pelvic fins as the hook hanger for the extra treble is between them and it hides the treble very well. I also like the placement of the hook hanger as it is almost dead center in the bait which, in my opinion, negates the need for a stinger hook behind it. Overall I give the bait a B

Hudd: I was able to coax my friend into letting me throw his ROF 12 Hudd and all I can say is WOW! This is the fist time I have seen one in the water and I can see why they catch so many fish. The finish is the most realistic, as is the profile. The action is the most realistic that I have seen in a swimbait. It is understated with a very tight tail kick, but looks incredible. When I saw it in the water it looked exactly like the trout I used to watch in the streams I fished in the Rockies and Sierras. The hook hanger sits more to the front of the bait but I still do not think I would use a stinger on this bait (until I start loosing fish.) I give this bait a solid A.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

John,

If it's not too much to ask, could you submit your comments to the review pages for those individual lures? If you go to the review page, look at the bottom of the review for the 'write your own review' link and copy paste your comments into that form, add your rating, name, etc and hit submit.

Sorry to hear about the weather, those big lakes can get knarly sometimes. I was lucky last year in my small boat to never hit any bad weather days but I expect I'll hit a few this year.

-Rob

No prob Rob. I have been on that lake many times and when it gets nasty it gets NASTY!

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

thanks man :)