Bassdozer tests the Triple Jointed Sebile Magic Swimmer with Patrick Sébile

Introduction: Bassdozer fishes with Patrick Sébile to test a wide range of the company’s baits on Lake Powell in Utah for three days. Russ gives us a play by play of the action and how he and Patrick Sébile targeted a wide range of fish with Sebile branded baits.

Bassdozer: I have had the pleasure for Patrick Sébile to visit me and to fish with him on Lake Powell (in Utah) three days (Nov. 10th to 12th). Let’s start with some background on Frenchman Patrick Sébile, he has fished in 61 countries and caught 564 species of fish. He holds over 300 records - over 50 IGFA world records, 100 European continental records and 150 French national records.

He has written seven books and a thousand articles on fishing. His photo has appeared on 150 fishing magazine covers around the world. He has been the foremost tackle designer in Europe, including rod and lure design for many companies for many years and he is possibly the best angler in the world today, maybe ever. There is no one else who comes close to his accomplishments.

The site of Bazzdozer's test with Sebile's hard baits... Lake Powell, Utah

During our trip to Lake Powell and we caught many striped bass, smallmouth and largemouth for the duration. We got into a number of surface feeding blitzes instigated by the stripers, but of course the black and brown bass nose in on that kind of surface action as well, courtesy of the stripers' efforts!

Patrick Sebile is a serious fisherman with serious credentials and has set many world records

On our first day (Nov. 10th), we fished in the backs of creeks:
to the right and left of Labyrinth Canyon, within Padre Canyon,
the western and easternmost of the three Kanes, and
Mexican Hat (behind the floating restroom at mile marker 24)

On our second day (Nov. 11th), we stayed in the westernmost of the three Rock Creeks (our best day)

The first two days, we found similar conditions in the backs of many creeks (to the sides of Labyrinth, Padre, the Kanes, Mexican Hat and the Rock creeks). Medium-sized shad were found in the brushy backs of all these creeks, wherever water was trickling into the lake. Shad were buried deep in the brush lines, and they did not come out into open water, but were entrenched deep in the brush lines. Needless to say, predators were present and buried within the brush lines also. Likewise, we the anglers had to fish within the brush where the bait and predators were thickest. If you fished outside the brushlines, it wasn't where you needed to be. Many times, we had the boat behind the brushlines or smack in the thick of them.

Caught on Slim Stick 118 topwater walking stickbait

There were many shad schools milling aimlessly on the surface in the brush, going with or against any slight current. They were pale green backed and from the boat, could detect a fairly thick dark lateral line and the distinct dark shoulder spot was quite obvious from our viewing angle. We found the Holo Greenie (hologram green back) closely matched the pale green-backed shad, but we tried many other colors that produced fish.

Although creeks were trickling in, the current was barely perceptible or we fished far enough away from the trickles at times that there didn't seem to be current in some of the brushy areas that held shad. They seemed slow-moving or slightly lethargic. Stayed on the surface in the brush, and tight together. Really in the center of the brush lines.

Caught on Koolie Minnow 90 SL (short lip) suspending jerkbait

We did not know why the shad were so concentrated in the brush. We can speculate they were getting a little more sun or heat from the radiator effect of the brush plus the more sun-reflective (slicker) water surface within the brush - but it is just a guess. So we do not know why, but we did recognize it was the key to our fishing trip - or you can say it became the pattern we fished for our three day trip.

We fished a different big basin each of three days, and the pattern held up for the first two days and basins.
 

Our third day (Nov, 12th), we could not repeat the pattern (find sufficient shad in the brush) - at least not in the spots we tried the third day. We stayed in Wahweap basin the third day, which was our least productive day. We failed to find shad in the brush in the areas we checked in Wahweap basin. However, there were fair numbers of small bass in those places anyway (just little or no shad), and we both dumped what felt like they could have been decent bass that day, so it was still fun.

Caught on Flatt Shad 66 SK (sinking).

Since he has his own hard bait product line, we decided to fish solely Sebile hard baits for the duration. I decided to rule out deep water fishing for this trip. With the limited time we had to put Patrick's hard bait product line through the paces, I elected to forego deeper water and instead concentrated on the backs of creeks for most of our three days together. This is because the shallower depths in the backs of the creeks enabled us have fun with a wider range of Patrick's product line which includes hard plastic topwaters, jerkbaits, minnows, stickbaits, crankbaits, lipless cranks and double-jointed swimbaits.

Flatt Shads in 54 SK, 66 SK, 66 XH-SK (shown here) and 77 SU with a whipping retrieve were the best producers this trip.

We did not get anything too big, but there was certainly enough action to keep us on our toes for the entire three day trip, particularly the first two days. Several sizes and depths of Sébile's Flatt Shad lipless crankbait proved best for the duration:

- 54 SK (sinking)
- 66 SK (sinking)
- 66 XH-SK (extra heavy sinking)
- 77 SU (suspending)

At first we fished the Flatt Shads on normal retrieves, which proved productive. A few times, however, reeling in quickly at the end of the cast, we observed some followers and flashers reacting to the quick pace. So we began to burn the Flatt Shads by reeling rapidly, and fish began to react and chase instinctively.

Caught on Slim Stick 118 topwater walking stickbait.

We further modified our approach to whipping the Flatt Shads by sweeping the rod tip quickly up from water level to say 11 o'clock, pausing slightly at the top of the sweep, and then reeling in the slack on the downstroke as we lowered the rods to whip again. The whipping tactic gave us the fast lure movement on the upstroke that caused the instinctive chasing - plus a falling hesitation each time we reeled down to match the sinking Flatt Shad's fall on the downstroke. This whipping tactic proved most productive of all.

Landed on Magic Swimmer 110 F-SK (fast sinking).

Other Sébile hard baits that landed plenty of stripers, largemouth and smallmouth for us were:

- Koolie Minnow and Acast Minnow in several lengths and lip sizes, worked with jerk-and-pause retrieves as well as trolling long lip models in 25-35 feet of water

- Slim Stick topwater walking baits in 98 and 118 sizes

- Stick Shadd 72 SK, 90 SK and 90 FT hard plastic stickbaits in floating and sinking models

- Double-jointed Magic Swimmer 95 SK, 125 SK and 110 F-SK models

Beauty bested by Rattsler VLL (very long lip) flat-sided crank.

- Crankster MR 65 medium-running fat-bodied crankbait

- Rattsler flat-sided crankbaits

- Proppler Buzz buzzbaits in the very thickest of heavy brush

It was strictly a Sébile hard bait outing for us as we elected not to try other brands or styles of baits.
                 
                   -Bassdozer

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TackleTour would like to thank Bazzdozer for the inside scoop of his recent trip. Stay tuned for upcoming in depth reviews of some of the very baits previewed in this article.