What are the advantages of using large soft plastic swimbaits over traditional swimbaits like huddlestons?

 

I keep playing around with idea of gamblers gz and really big gz for slow rolling for big bass. 

 

Hook options are more varied and they are cheaper but are less detailed and not as bulky.  Florida boys do just fine with gamblers so I wonder why even buy highly detailed expensive swimbaits?

Are you fishing in Florida?

 

Perhaps there is a reason they fish a certain bait/way.

The main advantages of using soft plastic boottails over huddlestons is that the soft plastic versions are cheaper and easily weedless rigged.  What the Huddleston's have over the regular boot tails is a different action, a lazier, more realistic action.  Plus if you think it matters, they have very realistic paint jobs.

The advantages I see are the weight differences. From what I keep reading they rig them weightless or with as little weight as possible and burn them over vegetation. And if you rig them with the traditional way (on a jig head or a swimbait hook) then you don't need to go out and buy a specialized rod to throw 3 oz plus swimbaits. 

work a weightless big EZ on top like a buzzbait across scattered vegetation. That's something a Huddleston can't do. 

 

WEEDLESSNESS

10 minutes ago, RyneB said:

work a weightless big EZ on top like a buzzbait across scattered vegetation. That's something a Huddleston can't do. 

 

BINGO!

In one word: "Weedlessness"

 

Roger

 

One of he reason's why I choose the big bootails is because there are endless ways to rig them. You can put it on a belly weighted hook, shakey head, underspin, and much more. It also is better in cover; I would rather lose a big soft plastic swimbait than a hud. 

Very different applications, me thinks.

Targetting big bass with slow steady retrieves?

41 minutes ago, Paul Roberts said:

Very different applications, me thinks.

 

In what respect, Paul?

 

Fishing a Hudd is a bit different than fishing a paddle tail, even a large one.  Fish them both, and you'll see what I mean.  Neither is simply "slow rolling a bait," if you want to truly master the bait.  Though you can get bit doing just that.  It is true that soft belly swimbaits, and paddletail style grubs offer more rigging options, but the sheer effectiveness of a Hudd, if put in the right place, at the right time cannot be ignored.  I keep both around, and probably don't fish the Hudd as much as something like  a Keitech Fat Impact on a J-will head (open Hook) or Owner Beast (weedless), but I would not rate it "over" or against large, pre-weighted, soft swimbaits.  It's like saying a jig is a better bait than a Texas Rig because there are more options for the latter.

2 hours ago, RoLo said:

 

In what respect, Paul?

 

The Hudds are massive baits -even the 6"er- and I suspect that a chunk of their effectiveness is how much water they move, as well as how they move with both head and tail kicking. The Big EZ and others are slim with... wimpy tails. I'm not a big swimbait chucker so I dunno really. But I've bought a few different big paddle-tail type grub/swimbaits, including hollow bodies, and not found anything yet that swims and thumps like that. 

5 hours ago, Paul Roberts said:

The Hudds are massive baits -even the 6"er- and I suspect that a chunk of their effectiveness is how much water they move, as well as how they move with both head and tail kicking. The Big EZ and others are slim with... wimpy tails. I'm not a big swimbait chucker so I dunno really. But I've bought a few different big paddle-tail type grub/swimbaits, including hollow bodies, and not found anything yet that swims and thumps like that. 

 

About 5 or so years ago Paul, I was fishing both soft and hard swimbaits. Among others brands, I was chucking

a 6-inch Berkley Hollow Belly (only available in 5” today). At that time, I was also throwing a Huddleston 6” x 1oz

Weedless Trout Holdover (hard swimbait). Indeed the Hudd moved more water, but I'd hesitate to say

that its thump was noticeably greater than a soft swimbait of equal size (e.g. Hollow Belly, Big EZ or Basstrix).

What impressed me most about the Hudd was its rhythmic cadence.

What impressed me least was the short lifespan of its weedless slot.

 

I believe that hard and soft swimbaits have a lot in common. Tail activation at low speeds
is very important to me, and in that regard both the hard and soft versions remain active

to a near standstill. As far as running depths go, its adjustable in both the hard & soft versions.

Be it hard or soft, bass tend to blast swimbaits like it’s their last meal, and I’m not quite sure why.

 

IMO, the most notable difference between hard and soft swimbaits (aside from cost)

is the difference in ‘weedlessness’ (is 'weedlessness' even a word?). In a weed-strewn lake

you can cast a soft T-rigged swimbait with your eyes closed,

but I wouldn’t advise that with a hard swimbait 

 

Roger

 

 

You realize that a Huddleston is the first soft plastic "boot" tail swimbait, before they were all paddle tails like Basstrix hollow body paddle tail and still are. Big Hammer makes a square shape paddle tail and works good if you desire a solid body that you rig yourself.

3:16 Mission fish is weedless and one of the first line through soft plastic swimbaits that you rig yourself.

Tom

Weedlessness is indeed a word. Or it should be. We should all write it in the margins of our dictionaries. (If anyone actually own a dictionary anymore.)

 

I've messed around with a number of less expensive soft plastic paddle/boot tails and am pretty much ready to bite the bullet and get some of the more expensive ones.

I fish them differently. A 6" EZ shad to me looks better on the fall and when fished with a little bit of pace. 

 

A Hudd is for the slow rolling when a fish that isn't actively feeding just can't pass up an easy meal.

 

As far as weedless a Hudd 68 weedless will go anywhere a T-rigged paddle tail will go.

Much easier to slither an ez or gz through pad stalks than a weedless hud.

 

Anyone have experience with the Jenko booty shaker?  Comes in multiple sizes up to 8 inches and has a larger profile compared to slender boottails.

I should add, I don't consider the tail on a Hudd a "boot tail."  It differs greatly from most of the boot tail type baits I see from others.  If you're looking for a GREAT weedless bait, look no further than the American Trash Fish.  A little pricey, but so effective, slithering through weeds. As always, get a bottle of Mend-It, and something like Megastrike to get max life out of your baits.

You'd be surprised what you can get a hudd through.

 

The water displacement on a "typical" boot tail (hollow belly) is so much different than a hudd, they don't even belong in the same discussion honestly.

 

316 now has a weedless rising son you rig on a 12/0 beast hook, that could prove to be a good option for you.

 

Owner is now making the beast flashy swimmer as well. That gives the added bonus of a fixed weight swimbait hook with a little extra flash.

 

Lots of options for lots of applications. Sometimes trying to reinvent the wheel does more harm to guys' confidence than good.

Reinventing the paddle tail or foot tail or boot tail depending on what you know it as started back in the early 60's shortly after the French Vivif rubber lure hit our shores.

Jim Smith of Smitty's lures made soft plastic kick tail lure with the Vivif heart shaped tail design called a Kelp Critter for calico salt water bass. In the 70's Worm King came out with a 12" 16"  giant trout color version called a dinosaur. 

Huddleston made the profile look more like a tail by fattening the shape into a boot. The fat boot tail creates a head side to side swimming motion unique to the Huddleston swimbaits.

Tom

It's extremely hard to determine who invented something first.

 

H & H Lure Company a family owned business based out of Baton Rouge, Louisiana has been manufacturing their Cocahoe Minnow since 1959.

Picked up a 6 inch top hook osprey

 

Not much different from hudd 68 but should be good.