Don Moorman, Swimbait Trophy Bass Hunter, shows us the Double Hudd Rig (continued)
 

Moorman’s arsenal of swimbaits is pretty impressive consisting primarily 3:16 Lure Company baits and a ton of Huddleston Deluxe rainbows in both the eight and six inch size. Some of his Hudds have seen some serious action and it showed. There is no amount of plastic surgery that can bring these veteran’s back to new condition, but then again, they look even better beat up! Moorman saw us examining his battle scarred Hudds and he had a story for each one.

Don explains how a big fish hits the bait

“You ain’t fishing the Hudd right if the nose isn’t beat up,” he joked. “You know sometimes I’ll give one of my old beat up Hudds to a friend and he will be fishing out of the boat just killing them while I’m trying to get a fish to strike. They may look beat up, but they still work, and in some cases, they work better. In fact, after they land a few fish I find myself trying to trade them one of my brand new baits back for my beat up old ones!”

Zander prepares a full sized Hudd

The remainder of the afternoon saw all three of us were slinging big baits ranging in size from the easy to toss 6” Hudds to the massive 3:16 Armageddon. “You know I’m very thankful for these swimbaits,” Moorman commented. “I have no doubt that if these baits didn’t exist that I wouldn’t be getting into all these big fish. I’ve caught fish in totally different places than I used to get fish, and there is absolutely nothing like a good swimbait bite.”

Launch! With serious swimbait rods these baits are able to be catapulted

Unfortunately our day on Pardee wasn’t one of those magical hot swimbait bite days, but we did get a unique look the approach and mindset of a big bait antler. In the ultra clear water Moorman spent a lot of time observing the water trying to get a gauge on what the fish were up to.

 
Cal loads up the 3:16 full sized Wake Bait

We saw a lot of fish on beds, so we knew we were in for a long day. “When the fish are on beds like this, you know it’s going to be tough. They just have their mind on other things,” Moorman said as he winked at us from behind his shades. There was one rocky area where Dan stopped the motor and pointed straight down and said, “Look at that big fish, see that shadow right there?”