Havoc Sick Fish

[BONZ]

Been looking to pick up a few of these swim baits. What colors of this bait would be best to mimic a bluegill, sunfish or yellow perch?

[ripinthem]

Not impressed with the action, kind of a dead bait IMO.. The colors are nicely done, though, and should be easy to match, and available at TW.

[TNBassin']

Get some Lake Fork Live Magic Shad instead. Great action.

[tomustang]

We just passed on these saturday, the feel alone wasn't right, nor did the hook placement

[Zackbassmaster]

Yea look great but don't work to well.. Fisherman catcher IMO

[WRB]

Skeet Reese used the original Little Crippers Trash Fish to help win his Angler of the Year in 2011, Trash Fish work!

I haven't tried the Sick fish and tend to stay with originals in lieu of knock offs.

Go online and look at the colors available, not by name but by color scheme.

Tom

[Packard]

From Benno Himself:

 

"Hi folks, This is Benno from Little Creeper Baits. I have seen some of the posts about the Berkley Sick Fish. I just wanted to clarify that the design was not stolen and we are not getting screwed by the big guys. When the our Trash Fish first came out I sent a few to Skeet and a few other friends who fish at the pro level. Skeet loved them and used them to great effect that season, he even was able to get us a little national attention because of his 5th place finish on Clearlake. About a year and a half ago Skeet contacted me and wanted to make a version of the design for the mass market. At the time we were struggling through our darkest days. I made a deal with Skeet that allowed him to use the original Trash Fish design and allowed us to continue making our Trash Fish. At the time we received enough to get us through those very dark days and survive long enough for people discover our baits and give us a fighting chance at success. We also have the promise of a modest residual income once their bait started to sell. Hopefully the future income will help us continue to keep going. Skeet has done his part to honor our agreement, and we have done ours. I new when the deal was struck that Berkley would be making a very different bait with the same shape. To us the design only half of the story. The materials we use and way we make them is at least as important in making the Trash Fish (and eventually all of our baits) what they are. My hope is that people will be exposed to the design and get curious about what our baits are all about. We really appreciate that people have come to love and rely on our baits as a well made tool that fishes like nothing else made. We also are very humbled and grateful that people are recognizing what we trying to do and really want us to succeed. We are still a very small company working very hard to make the best baits possible. We are not rich, or even very comfortable at this point. But with your support we think we have a chance at a solid future that will allow to make many more baits that will help you catch a ton of fish. We thank you again for your support. We will continue to make our baits by hand in the USA, and do our best to continue bringing you the best lures we can possibly make. Thanks again to everyone."

[Comfortably Numb]

From pics, the 3" looks like it would be great on a drop shot.

[Bluebasser86]

I have several packs of the 4" Sick Fish and they have been a great bait so far. I've been fishing them on a keel weighted swimbait hook with a screw lock keeper with a belly treble and just crawling them along extremely slowly. I have one in the Green Penny color I've caught 15-20 fish on that's still going strong minus both eyes and a few scratches. I've caught largemouth, white bass, crappie, and even a channel cat that had the bait choked and it barely did anything to the bait. This is a picture of the exact bait and rigging.

I haven't fished the 3 or 5 inch versions yet but I'm sure they'll work. They have a Tennessee shad color that looks a lot like a bluegill along with a clear bream color that looks like almost any kind of bluegill/sunfish. The bait does not have a big wag or wobble, it's a very subtle swimming action. It must look a lot like a baitfish cruising along the bottom not paying attention because they really thump it. 

[War Eagle 44]

I hate to hear that people aren't liking the action of these baits, I picked up 6 packs a few weeks ago but I've not gotten around to trying them yet. I hope I'm not to let down because I was fairly excited about these things.

 

Bluebasser86, your post gives me some hope, I planned to fish mine like you are minus the belly treble. I'm going to have to try them soon.

[Avalonjohn44]

From Benno Himself:

 

"Hi folks, This is Benno from Little Creeper Baits. I have seen some of the posts about the Berkley Sick Fish. I just wanted to clarify that the design was not stolen and we are not getting screwed by the big guys. When the our Trash Fish first came out I sent a few to Skeet and a few other friends who fish at the pro level. Skeet loved them and used them to great effect that season, he even was able to get us a little national attention because of his 5th place finish on Clearlake. About a year and a half ago Skeet contacted me and wanted to make a version of the design for the mass market. At the time we were struggling through our darkest days. I made a deal with Skeet that allowed him to use the original Trash Fish design and allowed us to continue making our Trash Fish. At the time we received enough to get us through those very dark days and survive long enough for people discover our baits and give us a fighting chance at success. We also have the promise of a modest residual income once their bait started to sell. Hopefully the future income will help us continue to keep going. Skeet has done his part to honor our agreement, and we have done ours. I new when the deal was struck that Berkley would be making a very different bait with the same shape. To us the design only half of the story. The materials we use and way we make them is at least as important in making the Trash Fish (and eventually all of our baits) what they are. My hope is that people will be exposed to the design and get curious about what our baits are all about. We really appreciate that people have come to love and rely on our baits as a well made tool that fishes like nothing else made. We also are very humbled and grateful that people are recognizing what we trying to do and really want us to succeed. We are still a very small company working very hard to make the best baits possible. We are not rich, or even very comfortable at this point. But with your support we think we have a chance at a solid future that will allow to make many more baits that will help you catch a ton of fish. We thank you again for your support. We will continue to make our baits by hand in the USA, and do our best to continue bringing you the best lures we can possibly make. Thanks again to everyone."

 

I always wonder when lure makers borrow designs from one another if there is any compensation for borrowing that design. It's good to hear there is at least one instance of this happening.

[WRB]

The Trash Fish is very soft, yet fairly durable, a unique combination. Result is a swim bait that can swim very slow with a strike reaction from bass or can be swam at a moderate rate when you change cadence and not roll, this makes this swimmer different.

Lakes that have perch as bait fish the profile looks like a perch. I have fished the shad colors in 4" and 6" Trash Fish, doesn't look like a shad, however catches bass feeding on shad!

Senko's took several years to catch on because they have an action that was unlike other soft plastics and the suttle wiggle triggers strikes on the fall. Trash Fish trigger tikes on a slow retrieve, give this design try, slow it down and change it's pace.

Tom

[Bluebasser86]

I hate to hear that people aren't liking the action of these baits, I picked up 6 packs a few weeks ago but I've not gotten around to trying them yet. I hope I'm not to let down because I was fairly excited about these things.

 

Bluebasser86, your post gives me some hope, I planned to fish mine like you are minus the belly treble. I'm going to have to try them soon.

 

The main reason I put the treble on was white bass/crappie hitting at the bait. I never did catch any white bass on the treble, just the main hook. I did catch a couple 12-14 inch crappie that were hooked on the belly hook. All the largemouth I had were on the main hook.

The Trash Fish is very soft, yet fairly durable, a unique combination. Result is a swim bait that can swim very slow with a strike reaction from bass or can be swam at a moderate rate when you change cadence and not roll, this makes this swimmer different.

Lakes that have perch as bait fish the profile looks like a perch. I have fished the shad colors in 4" and 6" Trash Fish, doesn't look like a shad, however catches bass feeding on shad!

Senko's took several years to catch on because they have an action that was unlike other soft plastics and the suttle wiggle triggers strikes on the fall. Trash Fish trigger tikes on a slow retrieve, give this design try, slow it down and change it's pace.

Tom

I think that is probably one of the main things with this bait is to fish it slow. I feel like one of the biggest mistakes people fish with a swimbait is fishing too fast. Sometimes a fast retrieve is best, but it seems more often than not a slow retrieve gets more bites for me. This bait doesn't have a lot of action but neither does a Hudd and I've heard that they catch fish alright 

[BONZ]

Thanks for the information. I''ll try a few colors and see what happens.

[webertime]

Boil the rear end for a bit more kick?

[Bluebasser86]

Boil the rear end for a bit more kick?

You probably could but I like the gentle wobble they have out of the package. The natural swimming action of a baitfish is a very subtle movement like the sick fish has. Would probably be better if it had more thump in dirtier water or over heavy vegetation. 

[Big Bassman]

I ordered a bunch, hope I like them as well? BB86, thanks for the fishing reports on this bait, I have heard so much talk both ways it leaves a guy scratchin his head. It's nice when somebody can speak on a topic from actual usage. I gotta feelin they will be just fine though, particularlly considering they copied Beanos.

[War Eagle 44]

I got a chance to fish one today in a pond close to my house and I love the subtle action of these baits!  The wind was blowing really hard here today so I didn't stay that long and couldn't fish it nearly as slowly as I wanted but I did get my first look at its action and I'm really excited to use them at the lake soon. I was using the smaller version, 4" I think on a 4/0 Owner Beast 1/8oz hook.

[BONZ]

I got a chance to fish one today in a pond close to my house and I love the subtle action of these baits!  The wind was blowing really hard here today so I didn't stay that long and couldn't fish it nearly as slowly as I wanted but I did get my first look at its action and I'm really excited to use them at the lake soon. I was using the smaller version, 4" I think on a 4/0 Owner Beast 1/8oz hook.

What colors are you using? Just curious as I have several small ponds by my house also.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

Trash Fish is a better bait IMO.

 

Kinda like what happened with the Basstrix and the Shadalicious/Money Minnow/etc except in this instance money and credit given to the original.

[J Francho]

Trash Fish is a better bait IMO.

 

I agree.  The original is such a versatile bait.

[War Eagle 44]

The one I tried yesterday was the Tennessee Shad color, though it doesn't look much like a shad to me. It doesn't really look like anything in the pond either for that matter but I guess it does somewhat look a little like a Bluegill maybe. The action was good though so I'm looking forward to trying the more "shad" colored ones at the lake. I'm going to try and get out tomorrow so I may try one then.

[TNBassin']

Got a pack of the TN shad color as well. More blue gill colors than TN shad. Hopefully I will fish these this weekend. I rigged one up on a ZMAN chatterbait, so I wanna see how it produces. One thing I noticed, is that they stink horribly. Not a scent that Berkley uses, but more of a plastic/chemical/paint smell.  Hopefully that doesn't scare the fish off.

[SPEEDBEAD.]

. Hopefully that doesn't scare the fish off.

 

It won't. My 3:16 hardbaits that I get direct from the manufacturer have the paint smell to them too.

 

Just to ease your mind, slather the bait with Megastrike. It will mask the scent and also lube the bait up to come through weeds better. Also helps soft plastic baits slide past bass teeth without getting torn up as bad.

[TNBassin']

Called Skeet out on Facebook about his videos saying he designed the sick fish. How do you design something that's already...you know...designed and out on the market? Skeet did say Benno is cool with it, but I think it makes him look bad when he's taking all of the credit while the bait is being marketed. Watching the promo videos he does for the bait "he designed" is funny.