the first "3" swimbaits.........

[RMANZO]

if you were asked to name the first "3" swimbaits, what would they be???? seriously guys, "swimbaits"

[Ray L.]

Worm King, A.C. Plug, and the original Castaic wood bait

[Brian Linehan]

Dinosaur, AC Plug, Castaic Trout

[smpboy]

definitely #1 ac plug #2 problie castaic #3 debatable optimum

[Chris N]

Renowski Super Shad?

[Ray L.]

That was the name of the worm king..... Dinosaur

[some guy]

ray is dead on.

[Bill Siemantel]

Back in the days it started out as

1. RedFin, 2. J-Plug, 3. Big Sassy Shad, and then as we found out that we can truly target the Stripers and the Big Bass we started
with what some remember as.

1. Home Made "Wood "
2. Worm King ( needed for the tail section of the "Wood " baits, and for the boot tail swimbaits )
3. in any order you would like to remember Z-Plug, BS Plug, A/C Plug, Renoski boot tail, Castaic, Tru-Trout, Deadly Duo ( Tubes/swimbaits ), Optimum, Hat-Trick Plug, TNT Plug and a bunch of home made soft baits from local fishermen.

The Swimbait thing started with the Striper Boys in the early 80's and My Dad and I were shown how to make the "Wood" plugs buy a Asian guy up at Pyramid lake in 85 with two of the true old school guys ( Tim and Bob ).

Just my 2 cents

Bill Siemantel

Keep it in the BBZ

[Ray L.]

thanks Bill.
Man I remember all those plugs.
Heck I remember those guys throwing the z plug at Silverwood at night for those big stripers. I also remember the incedental catches of big bass they would catch. I also remember throwing the big white sassy shad for stripers at Pyramid.
Man you make me feel old...
Are you gonna be at Castaic in the a.m. for the w.o.n.?

[basshunter4u]

A lot of guys dont know of the tru trout. This was a garage bait built by Jeff Manning of Castaic CA. It had a hard tail with one trebel hook with a long rubber small paddle tail. To see one go to www.donsbaits.com and look for the tru trout

Don O

[JohNNy Utah]

The first time I saw the Worm King, I thought it was a joke..........until I thought about it.

[tunaman]

I started using the Worm King tails with leadheads back in the mid-80's out on the salt, and they kicked butt for the calico's and such... I wasn't into black bass fishing, but I could see how they would have been a killer 'sekret bait' when they first came out.

Based on the same thread on the Northern board, I don't think this was intended to be a walk down memory lane though... with that in mind, here are my 3 (+ 2 since I can't exclude any of these) staples, in no particular order:

• BBZ-1
  LA Slider
  Triple Trout
  Huddleston
  Swimbabes

I do remember, Bill, reading in WON about the pioneers with their hand-carved concoctions whacking the stripers and bass at Castaic and Silverwood.

Roger

[Brian Linehan]

Guys were winning tournaments 10 years before the Northern fishermen even figured it out.

[tunaman]

Uh oh... duck!

[bassindon69]

I remember back in 78 I friend had what I thought were Tuna swimbaits. They were about 6 to 8" with a sassy shad or paddle tail. They looked like they had kind of a frog hook style hook on them. Looking back I am sure they would have worked LOL! Then again I did not bass fish till 1985. Would these count? It is unreal how far lures have come. I think the guy that caught my eye back then was Dana Rosen from So-Cal (stickin pigs!)
Because I lived so-cal 21 years Do any of you know what bait this was? I was young so I am guessing on the size, They looked big.

Don.

[Pearl Swimbaits]

HOOCHIETOAD

Not sure but sounds like it, I have two if you have a pic I could tell
you. Harder plastic/rubber?

[bassindon69]

Yes. They were much stiffer then the plastic we use today.

Don.

[2@low8]

I have swimbaits from the 1930's. This topic could get crazy and would be really tough to prove anything. Maybe I can put up some photos later of my collection. By the way the dino was come up with in front of my eyes. They were designed for Jim Mason because He wanted something larger then the renowsky. Take a look at alot of the older musky baits they look very close to what we have today. A.C. is the man that made them famous. eric

[Brian Linehan]

Dana and Doug Riha were catching fish on the Dinosaur and other trick stuff way before 99% of us had a clue.

[Eric Wong]

It may not be a true "swimbait", but I'm pretty sure that Dan Warme put big baits on the map, when he was kicking all our asses with the giant Tora Tube. He was winning tournaments before the big wood and Dinosaur came to light.

Eric

[bassindon69]

Brian, yes and you guys were sticking um before we had a clue too LOL!!! I am just glad I saw the light. It just took years to open my eyes first LOL!!
I Like where this is going. WAY back in the day. If any body has pics of some of these baits Before AC that would be cool. 2@low8 If you have pics I would like to see them

Thanks.

Don.

[2@low8]

I can't figure how much time Ken Huddleston and I have talked about the history of the swimbait. I wish I would of documented more but I didn't figure anyone would give a ****. Try reading "the quest for world record bass" by Bart Crabb. No offense to Doug and Dana(they did catch alot of big bass) but the boys getting big bass at casitas were Jim Mason and Jay Carter. Remember Porter Hall? He moved out here to chase a record and went back east later. Great guy, I heard from him about 5 years ago. Still see Shawn Donovan(optimum swimbait founder) about once a month. Internal lead head, what a great idea. I didn't keep track of castaic lake enough to say much there but casitas was my back door. The collection of baits I have is really cool because everyone of them was given to me. Shawn gave me three very early Castaics, all are pre production and one is unpainted. Harry gave me a hat trick. Mason gave me an HMPC. Jay gave me a JC bait. Jason Stettler was making Bass Hawg's and handed a couple to me. Tachihara did the same thing. I have a triple trout that Whitmore gave me when he was starting out. One of the coolest baits I have is from trouser trout I think he was about 17 when he made it. When I was buying baits from Rago he would bring me one for my collection every time he came down. Don you might get jealous. Brown Trout and Striper 13" tools got those? Jerry also gave me a half a dozen super odd AC plugs. They are completely different then the others I have seen. I'll work on pictures tomorrow. Airforce jr. come by and help me out I'm a computer idiot.

[Oldschool]

Bill Murphy made a swimbait back in the early 70's; CD18 Rapala cut in half and added a molded trout soft plastic trout body. Bill caught the first 60+ 5 bass limit with that lure trolled at SanV.
The Bagley 9" Bang O lure and Rapala F18 were also an early swimbaits back in the 70's. Local hand poured 6" and 8" calico kicktails were made years before Sassy Shad or Worm King injection molded lures, that we used for bass. I fished Modified original Scroungers back in the late 70's by adding a 6/0 hook worm hook and soft plast trout body, which predates most of the lures mentioned.
1. George Perry; WR bass on a Creek Chub jointed wiggle fish, 30's
2. Jointed musky Pikie minnow, trout colors; 60's
3. Murphy's CD/trout; 70's

Tom

[Rob Cummings]

Eric..I'll stop by after work on Tuesday and take pics for you.

[DanWarme]

Thanks Eric! The Tora tube was definitely one of the first to catch on. Man when the guys figured it out, EVERYBODY was throwing it. lol How you been?

My 2 cents, anyone remember Harry Jioras' Hat Trick Plug? First big hard bait that I'm aware of that was molded not carved. Popped an 8# the first 5 minutes I threw it. Of course the next 5 hrs. came up empty, but thats big bait fishing!

[2@low8]

Harry was a regular customer. I have a signed Hat trick. Harry also turned me on to Osprey lures which led me to turning UMA-X on to them. I think it helped start the big bait thing in Japan. Mason was by today. He told me the HMPC he gave me he had caught well over 50 10# bass on. He quit counting at 50.

[Oldschool]

It's good to hear that Jim is still fishing, haven't seen him on the water for some time.
Tom

[oakview]

3. in any order you would like to remember Z-Plug, BS Plug, A/C Plug, Renoski boot tail, Castaic, Tru-Trout, Deadly Duo ( Tubes/swimbaits ), Optimum, Hat-Trick Plug, TNT Plug and a bunch of home made soft baits from local fishermen.

Who made each of these baits? Just wondering?

D.

[Will Hesch]

The very first boot-tail, soft-plastic "swimbait" is, without a doubt, the Mister Twister Sassy Shad, it's been around since the mid '70's.

[Oldschool]

Mister Twister Sassy shad was introduced about 1982.
A few local hand poured lures like the kick tail and twin tail kelp kritters pre date the sassy shad by at least 10 years. I was fishing salt water calicoe bass soft plastics back in 1973 for example, when Castaic was first opened and caught some big Van Norman bass transplanted there. As I recall Bunkers tackle sold the first lures of that type.
Tom

[2@low8]

what about the vivif precurser to the hoochie toad?

[Oldschool]

what about the vivif precurser to the hoochie toad?

The French Vivif predates all the others and they made a salt water 8" version back in the early 60's. The orifinal Vivif's were rubber and they had a pateneted tail design. The was another surgical rubber swimbait that had a hinged tail design like todays BB1's etc; called a plunket as I recall. caught a big brown trout in Huntington lake back in the 50's on that lure.
Tom

[2@low8]

There was a bait made by "the musky bait company" in the 30's very similiarto the flex bait about 10" long. Have one some where in my collection. Check these baits .