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Posts: 354
| Hello,
The past couple of seasons I have given the triple d a really hard try. I will describe the places and way I have been working it. Maybe you successful triple d dudes can give me some pointers.
I have been casting it out and upon impact with the water have been cranking it down fast about
five to ten turns on the reel handle. I then let it pause and then give it a rip on the rod of about
a foot or two. I vary the time between rips as well as the length and direction of the rod tip. SO sometimes its a couple of quick rips, one right after the other, and sometimes the rod tip is facing down, up, sideways, etc. When the bait gets close to the boat I rip it up hard near the surface and then let it pause or figure 8 it.
I have been working the triple d over suspended bait fish/open water and along deep drops or
along deep weed lines.
So what do you think? Bad form, location choice? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys!
Bill C. aka the greenduck |
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| I work it like a jerkbait with my jerkbait rod. Jerk-jerk-jerk-pause-jerk-pause-jerk-jerk-pause-jerk. You can give those things some incredible moevment in the water. I use them everywhere. Rip them through weeds, working breaklines, off of rocks... |
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | Ok, Not a DDD expert...but have caught my fair share (and blew others) on them and they are a conf. bait for me so I will comment.
The best way I have to describe the bait is NOT a crank bait...but a Jerkbait....crank bait (I am not the first to say this...but its a good description). I will explain. The most sucess I have had with this bait is in and around the deep weed edge and in the scattered weeds along the edge. For this application I work it a couple different ways. If I am working the pockets of an undefined weededge I will cast and only crank once or twice or so to get the bait down a bit. Then from here I work it more like a jerkbait. Reel twitches and rod tip twitches...followed by short and long pauses. People tend to really over work these baits...cast it in clear water and see what I mean, a little reel twitch in combo with some SLIGHT rod tip action followed by just a hint of slack and watch the action. With the rod Tip up you can actually do this and have the bait work over the tops of weeds that come to within about 2 feet of the surface, not the most ideal, but you can do this for the first 5 feet of the cast as it then breaks into the scattered weeds then eventually to the weed edge.
Once I jerk bait/pause it out of the weeds I will crank a couple extra times to get it deeper now that I am out on the actual weed edge. Then some more dancing and pausing...and pausing...and dancing/pausing...if action is slow...5 seconds is a nice pause...seems long but it really works at times.
If I am working parallel to the deep weed edge then I will do the crank down to get down deeper then follow it up with the dancing and pausing.
Another method is on the rocks. Nothing new here but a slight twist since this bait suspends. Like you do with your depthraders, bang the rocks! After a bang a nice little rip up and then let the magic start....the pause and supsending of this bait is, and always will be the magic....the dancing gets the fish in the mood...the pause makes them eat. Caution though on rock fishing with these baits....boulders etc are OK, jagged knarly stuff...well your bound to get hung up time to time since these don't back out like a depthraider does.
Whether I am on the rocks, parallel to the weed edge or perpendicular to the edge, the end of the retrieve is a good spot, as with any bait, to make the final plee for snack'n.
When I am bringing the bait up from a deeper retrieve I twitch pause the bait deep, but just shallow enough to see it...long pause. Lots of time your over fairly deep water and sometimes at this point they come up out of no where. I have had them smoke it here. Or I will rip it up and twitch in the rip with a pause just under the water next to the boat...same deal..hold on.
You might have them come up on the pause at the boat. I have converted fish to eat here in a fig 8...other times they just smash it...but a lot of times they just show themselves, especially along the weed edge, I heard the suspendos are different and I will touch on that in a moment. So many times they will scream up and go around once or so or sometimes do the up and down, real quick. But at least you have located a fish.
Suspendos, I will let the suspendo experts handle this one. I have heard some different reactions though from fish to these baits over open water vs. structure related fish.
This bait like all baits are tools. Here is why I like it though. It is a jerkbait....but I can vary the depth of this jerkbait as it works its way out of the thick weeds, to the loose clumps, to the deep weed edge...all in the same cast. I have some killer suicks that work great shallow, and some deep...but most can't change the depth as quickly and accurately as this tool...hence a better tool at times.
I was lucky to get some sucess early on with this bait so it got me to stick with it and to improve how I work the baits. Stick with it....it is an awesome tool.
I am not on ERC's "Pro Team" or anything like that. I think they make a quality product and think it is a very productive tool.
Stick with it....
Cory Painter |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | timing is everything .... really working to develop my deep water work this year. got my first ddd this afternoon for the weekend on the water and had the same question as this post. Cory, thanks for the response .... solid, quality advice worth reading! and the timing for me at least was perfect. visitors arrive at 4pm. for a full weekend of this stuff. |
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Posts: 3242
Location: Racine, Wi | Well said Cory. I don't throw DDDs as much as I should, but when I do, it is usually on clear water, and I echo Cory's words, in that you need to see it to know how soft you can actually work it to get action. I will be chucking it this week as I am hitting the LDF chain, and I love working this bait there. (even though I have only caught pike and bass on it there. LOL) It helps me see how to work it though. |
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Posts: 354
| Thanks for the great responses. A couple of thoughts come to mind. I have been working it almost exclusively in deep water. I have been probably under some fish and I have been ripping it way to hard at times. I have a lake I fish often with the type of weed edges that Cory describes. I am going to try some of the shallow 1-4' foot jerk bait retrieves. Thanks guys again for the good advice.
BillC. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | isn't the dd (double d) the shallow version of the same with the squared off lip? |
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Posts: 1996
Location: Pelican Lake/Three Lakes Chain | Wow, how do you add to what Cory had to say. That is a How to Triple D handbook. The one thing he mentioned and is very worth repeating. Work it like a glide bait. Crank it down and give it taps. Tap tap pause.....tap tap tap tap pause. The pauses are very vital to success with this bait.
From your description it sounds like you may be overworking the bait, take it easy with it and keep it wet! |
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | Glad the info was useful.
The DD is just a DDD with the lip cut off. I have a couple and I like them. I can work the regulars ALMOST as well in shallow water as the DD. If I am faced with working shallow weeds for only a few feet in a retrieve I usually stick with the DDD, but if I am working a shallow weed flat with pockets I pull out the DD.
Jon...stick a pig this weekend on one!
Greenduck, I think you probably been working it too hard too....try a gentler approach.....
Another fun thing to try....Squirrely D.....its a beautiful thing 
Not quite the side to side action....but the added plastic dance on the pause.... gives me wood just thinking about it! Now honestly, I have only done this to one DD that I made on my own, cut the lip too short so didn't have the greatest action...so I figured I would play some more. The fish up in Canada last year LOVED the tail on the end. In fact the more I think about this, I think I might have to sacrafice a DDD to make a squirrely DDD.....Travis, Jlong you out there...dance with the suspendos with this thing....
Cory
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | Also for rods...some folks have different opinions...but lately I have been throwing them on long rods...I have a ~9 foot all star rod I use. Long rod lets me get more work out of the bait with less forearm movement since the rod is longer. try it on different rods in clear water so you can see the action.
The best time I have found to do this....bright sunny day....no wind....clear lake....Get out in the basin and give it a go....just MIGHT run into a suspendo doing it. I haven't yet while I have been playing....but it sure would be nice!!
Cory
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Posts: 80
Location: IL | The only thing I could recomend is to used a very long pause at the boat.... about 10 feet out. Lots of fish get caught on the DDD at the boat. Works best when the DDD has a very slow rise in my humble opinion.
matt
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| Pause and rip it up right at the boat, I have had some big fish hit right there. My biggest fish so far this year came doing that with a Legend Perchbait during my week on the Chip. As Jeremy said, you can also work it like a jerk bait. He had a mid 40 up on Monona doing that the last time we matchfished together. The DDD is a great bait, and I have several of them in different custom colors. They are also great trolling baits. I use mine for medium and deep water applications, but for shallow water go with the DD instead |
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Posts: 1938
Location: Black Creek, WI | Cory summed this bait up pretty well.
I also think this bait is "over worked" and perhaps even worked too deep (especially for suspendos).
I originally favored a 6'9" Heavy action rod for working the TripleD, but have progressed to longer rods to minimize the work involved (yah... I'm lazy). I now mostly work the bait with sharp turns of the reel handle to make it "walk the dog".... along with maybe a 1-3 inch rod tip movement. If you time your "pumps" to happen just after a "thump" of the bait's swimming action... it will scoot out sideways just like a good glide bait. Like Cory said... the TripleD is best worked like a JERKBAIT.
The more violently you work the lure... the longer you should pause the bait. Fishing this lure in clear water has amazed me at how many MISSED strikes occur with this and other erratic lures. Sometimes the long pause triggers strikes... other times it gives the fish time to strike AGAIN after it whiffed on the first shot.
Good luck.
jlong
I see no benefit from the DoubleD. The TripleD can be worked plenty shallow and has more action than the DoubleD. If lures are tools... then converting a TripleD into a DoubleD is like throwing away half of your socket set. Why give up the versatility? |
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Posts: 341
| I have 8 DDD's in custom paint colors with no teeth marks.
Hey DDD's to the front line with ya!!!!
Nice info Cory! |
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Posts: 120
| Core Those colors rock learn to fish and they will get bit!!!
We just got back from LOW and my freshly painted DDD got chewed up just fine 3/3 on it
Great clear water rock bait. I think most people over work it myself inc. I guess im not limp wristed enough to fish it like the maker.
I guess you should try lightly pulling it with a pause. Also you can ballance them to be perfectly nuteral boyant by changing hook size. the set up i go with is a 4/0 in the middle and 3/0 on the front and rear.
all in all a great tool. oh troll them too rippppp
KEITH |
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Posts: 2754
Location: Mauston, Wisconsin | I'd follow the adice of JLong & other's -slow it down!
I watched JLong work this lure at New London when it was introduced to the muskie fishing scene! Awesome action. If I wasn't throwing my own lures this would be my lure of choice. I can't imagine how you could work this lure wrong, other than to try working it to fast.
Good Luck!
Al |
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Posts: 80
Location: IL | One more thing....
Jack Burns from EA probably catches more fish on the DD than anyone and was really one of the first to modify the Triple D to a shallow version the Double D. The way he works the bait is different than anyone else that I have seen. It is more of a reel-pause....reel-pause. He might have a small jerk here and there but for the most part it is just a reel-pause.
I asked him why he doesnt try to get it to juke and kick out....and before he could reply...Dick Pearson (from the front of the boat) interupted and asked....why would he want to do that??? Then Jack said..."ya..why"
My answer was that "it triggers strikes"...
They LAUGHED and kept casting...
I am not saying that I agree 110% with them but it got me thinking.... It might turn out to be one of the most important lessons I have learned in muskie fishing. Presentation is really the only thing we can control and I think most of us have illusions on what muskies prefer.... For instance, try 'burning' a jig all season instead of a bucktail.....Does the blade really matter? There are guys that I know, with more experience than I, that say it doesnt matter. The only thing they use a blade for is to slow down the bait...
matt
Edited by matt 7/22/2005 6:23 AM
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Posts: 1938
Location: Black Creek, WI | Everyone catches more fish on the DD than me... cause I choose not to use it. Personal preference I guess. The DD is more like a plastic suick in my opinion because it lacks the ability to do some serious "jukes" like the DDD. So... the DD is not simply a shallow running version of the DDD in my opinion.
I'm not sure what the LESSON was that Matt learned from Dick and Jack.... but I think it was that "the jukes" are more for the angler than they are for the fish? I'd agree to a certain degree.... but I feel strongly that there are times when "the jukes" will make a big difference. But, in those cases... I opt to NOT throw the TripleD. When speed and efficiency are top dog.... the TripleD stays in my box. When you are just trying to get a lure in front of a fish... there are much better options. Like maybe a bladeless bucktail???
jlong
Edited by jlong 7/22/2005 7:07 AM
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | Jason arent' you on the way to the woods yet!!!
At times I do work the DDD fast....but have had most of my sucess working it slower, more methodical...still a lot of jukes but trying to pick apart the structure. If the fish are moving I too will switch up to a bait that I can move quicker.
Interesting tid bit from Dick and Jack...Kind of the Doug Johnson method of working a suick I guess.
Cory |
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Posts: 341
| Keith maybe that's why I don't throw my D's because you painted them to pretty..
I'll bring over some cranks that catch muskies for a new paint jobs.
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Posts: 1938
Location: Black Creek, WI | Cory... leavin' for LOTW in a few hours!!!
The TripleD is more of a "finesse bait" for me. When I"m fishing aggressively, I'll favor things like a bucktail (with a blade).
Nothin' "wrong" with the DD... I just like the DDD better.
jlong |
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | hummmm...I guess I never thought of it like Jason put it...about the pause letting fish take a SECOND poke at the bait...makes sense to me!
Deep thoughts...
Cory |
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Posts: 3518
Location: north central wisconsin | I always used to think that rattles were the way to go in the darker water. I also thought that with the hot weather of the past two weeks and the fish moving a bit deeper(on average where I fish), that rattles would also be key. I never tried a triple D as I was always a heavy Hi Fin Trophy Diver fan(rattled lure). I aquired a DDD through a trivia contest held by Matt about a year and a half ago, and decided to try it a few days ago. One thing that I always liked about my weighted trophy divers, was the unique darting(or shi##ing out as we call it) on a slack tap, that was always a great trigger. The only problem with the Hi Fins was the fact that I had to drill into a brand new lure, weight it, and wonder if it was going to be as good as the others. If it was, it might last for 10-12 fish before becoming too scarred,broken, or action was lost. Using the triple D that I got for the first time a few days ago, has shown my wife and I what a perfect twitching diver it is, with couple suspended nice ones to 50". I really like that it will do the very thing that I liked about my good trophy's, in the darting out of rythm. I prefer to crank, pause, and give a quick reel handle turn, before returning to cranking again. I don't twitch the thing the whole way back to the boat, but do it about 4 times during the retrieve. Each fish taken on it so far has hit just before the initiation of the retreive after the dart(or very slight pause as the lure darts to the left or right out of cadence). I actually like using itand my other suspending cranks) quicker than most here have said they do. I have not been able to get the bucktails that I like down to the depths I desire lately, and find that a crank like the DDD can be worked quite quickly, effectively. Sometimes the fish seem to like speed(relatively speaking) but also the eratic action that can't be acheived with some of the other lures.
That said, I still love my floating trophy divers for weed ripping, rock bumping and trolling, but I think my days of tinkering for the perfect floater-turned-suspender-via drilling and weighting, are in the past. |
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Boy not too much to add, so I'll probably just reiterate what others have said by telling you my cast sequence.
Splashdown. Reel a few feet (slow), sharp pull-sharp pull-pause (1 sec.), reel 1/3 the way (slow), sharp pull-sharp pull, reel 1/3 of the way (slow), sharp pull-sharp pull-pause (split sec.), reel slowly to within a few feet of boat, sharp pull-sharp pull-pause-pull-paaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuse-sharp pull, reel up to an L-turn.
The next cast may be similar, but the pulls may only be one instead of 2, or 3 instead of 2. The whole key in my opinion is the pulls are not to speed up the bait, but to get it to kick out. The first pull is to usually create slack line, which causes the bait to kick out when you do the second pull. Most cranks will kick out by doing this. The DDD just takes less effort. If your bait just wiggles forward quickly, change your pull, jerk, snap, or whatever you do to make the bait kick out. Sure the fast wiggle may elicit some strike, but the kick out is by far more effective.
As mentioned, pause that bait at boatside. Some days this is the only way you will see a fish let alone boat one. Also at boatside, do your rips fallowed by quick cranking and the bait may sometimes swim straight up. Do this, and you now have another boatside tactic that the fish absolutely go nuts over. Learn how to get the bait to do that everytime, and you may become a legend! 
I should mention my pulls aren't just a pull, but a quick rod tip movement up (shallower) or down (deeper). If you do it too slow you just get the wiggle. I don't consider it a jerk, but others might.
If you're fishing it suspend don't expect to get a ton of follows. A lot of times you either catch a fish, or nothing. Some days you will get follows, but those are the days I just get follows and very few strikes. I actually like the days I see few fish taking looks because those are the days the fish just munch. It just takes patience and confidence to fish one bait for hours. Give it time.
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Posts: 7090
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Though a lot of guys are throwing the DDD in early spring and fall, who is using it now, and in through the summer months? |
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Posts: 11
Location: on a musky lake | ya i got a triple D during the pittsburgh musky show and i thought i would give it a try on my second musky outing this year. it has really nice action when u twitch it and thats the way i would recommend using it. it works nice with just a straight crank but there are so many other crankbaits that work the same and better. |
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Posts: 425
Location: Elkhart, IN | Slamr - 6/24/2006 9:51 AM
Though a lot of guys are throwing the DDD in early spring and fall, who is using it now, and in through the summer months?
Just gave mine its first real workout today and had a really good fish on it, unfortunately I lost it after a short fight, but it was definately a good fish. I think summer is a prime time to use a bait like this. |
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Posts: 1168
| DDD's get wet on opening day, through the summer, and until the season closes. Since it is such a versatile bait that can be worked in a number of ways it is good all season long. |
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Posts: 281
Location: Girdwood, Alaska | ulbian, you don't like that bait do you?? |
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| Like topwater, ice out until ice up. DDDs are great baits |
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