22nd Century
Fishing the 22nd Century Triple Trout
This article is dedicated to the hottest hard swimbait to take the big bait world by storm over the last few years: 22nd Century’s Triple Trout. Arguably the most versatile swimbait available, this proven producer can trigger strikes in a variety of ways. We’ll go over Triple Trout variations, some techniques, equipment, upgrades, and other helpful hints to get the most out of your 22nd Century swimbait.
The Triple Trout is currently available in four standard sizes: 6, 7, 8 & 10 inch. The standard sink rate is “slow sink”, with these baits falling slightly less than a foot per second. There are some limited runs on floating, heavy, cut tail, and 4 piece variations but production on these baits has all but ceased for the time being. Almost all the baits available on store shelves are 3-piece slow sinking models. These are the baits that this article will be focusing on.
With 4 size options and about 15 available colors, choosing a bait can be a tough decision. Match the size and color to your local forage and fish the combination that you have the most confidence to begin with. These baits push a lot of water and have a profile that fish of all sizes including the trophy’s find appealing. It can be easy to get overly concerned about color, just keep in mind that often times the best baits are the seasoned baits that have a lot of paint missing.
One of the strengths of the Triple Trout is that many of the patterns available resemble more than one species of baitfish. The “Light Trout” for example really doesn’t resemble most rainbow trout, however that shade of green could possibly resemble sunfish, black bass, hitch, etc. Same goes for the “Dark Trout”, it comes fairly close to matching smallmouth, carp, hitch, suckers, etc. Colors like Chartreuse Shad and Bone are good choices for off colored water. Kokanee and Green Shiner aren’t as flashy and do well in clearer waters. Basically it boils down to picking a color, or colors that you believe will get bit and fishing them.
The proper equipment is crucial to fishing big baits successfully and effectively. The Triple Trout is basically an oversize lipless crankbait, so a rod that acts like an oversize crankbait rod fits the bill. With the hard body and sharp treble hooks, fish will usually hook themselves and utilizing a sweeping reel set is very effective. The key with these big baits is keeping fish hooked long enough to get them in the net and in the boat. A powerful swimbait rod with a bit of a forgiving top section will cushion those trebles from ripping out of jaw of most fish.
Okuma designed 2 rods specifically for these hard baits, the Okuma Guide Select Series Swimbait Rods. They offer a 7’6” and 7’11” version in a heavy model that fishes the 22nd Century Triple Trout as well as most other 7-9 inch hard baits very well. These rods represent the most value for the money, as they were designed by a well respected big bait fisherman who is familiar with actually fishing big baits. There are a lot of “swimbait” rods out there that were designed by guys who have never thrown some of the truly BIG baits, let alone tango with some of the brute fish that try to eat them. With a lifetime warranty you can fish these rods hard and not have to second guess at least one aspect of your equipment.
Hooked Up Tackle has a custom line of swimbait rods that fishes the Triple Trout extremely well. They feature custom blanks, black hypalon split grip handles, downwrapped guides, collapsible blanks, and that custom touch that you could never find in a production model rod. The “medium” action swimbait rod has put many fish in the boat for us, with a lot of them coming on the 8 & 10 inch Triple Trout.
These baits are fairly light for their size, but still can cast a long way. Take advantage of that by using high quality reels, either round or low profile that have the capability of making long casts and picking up line fast. Shimano Calcutta’s, Curado 300D/E’s, Daiwa Luna’s, Okuma Induron’s are all great reel choices that have strong drags, casting ability, and line capacity to handle all four sizes of the Triple Trout.
Monofilament/Copolymer lines are best suited for this style bait. Many great lines are available to the modern swimbait angler. Berkley Big Game, P Line CXX & Evolution, Maxima Ultragreen, Triple Fish, Izorline Platinum & XXX are just some of the quality lines on the market that will work very well with 22nd Century swimbaits. Flourocarbon lines work well for the slow sinking version of the bait when you want to get it down and keep it down deeper. Line shy is not how you would normally describe fish that will eat a swimbait so don’t over think the low visibility issue. Braided lines work well for this bait as well, however you lose those shock absorbing traits of monofilament which can keep an extra lunging fish or two hooked long enough to get it in the net.
One of the absolute best and most innovative features on the 22nd Century line of baits are the swiveling hooks. Instead of a standard screw eye, the hooks are attached to
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