Just in time for the winter trout stockings, the long awaited Butch Brown Thumper Tail is now available at your local dealer or your favorite online webshop! If they don’t carry it have them contact Optimum Bait Co.
A 10 pound largemouth is a fish of a lifetime for most…Butch Brown has caught over 1,500 10-pound plus largemouth bass in the past 30 years. Many of those being teeners, all the way up to 19 pounds. One of the true pioneers of swimbait fishing, Butch has honed his swimbait skills over the years to be without a doubt one of the World’s Top Trophy Hunters. With all of his catches documented and proven with his Cast to Catch Videos. Butch is very adept at modifying and tuning his swimbaits to adapting to lake conditions and has been working in collaboration with Optimum Bait Co. His keen attention to details has been combined with Optimum’s Handpoured pouring process to produce the ultimate trophy lure. He’s been voted in Western Outdoors’ TOP 40 bass anglers 3 times and was selected as their #15th ALL TIME BASS ANGLER from California over the past 30 years. In 2016, Butch was voted the #1 MOST Influential Swimbait Fisherman EVER by Working Class Zero (an online swimbait forum) and other swimbait sites.
Upon first glance, you may be quick to say that this long paddle tail trout looks just like the original Optimum swimbait. Well the truth is, you are not wrong. But aside from looks, the Thumper Tail is a completely new bait with a long history of catching giant southern Californian bass behind it.
The story of how the Thumper Tail came to be, dates back to 1995. Butch Brown was given prototypes of an unreleased 9 inch version of the Original Optimum swimbait by the inventor of Optimum Baits, Sean Donovan. Aside from length, there was nothing different about this bait. It even had the same rigging and weight system as the other baits. But given Butch’s desire to do things “my way”, this bait has about 20 years of careful tweaking and development behind it. And there may be a good reason it was kept in the dark for so long…
We have all seen Butch work his magic with his custom colored Deps SlideSwimmer 250s or signature rigging techniques spread across the internet. But after years of keeping this bait for his personal use only, Butch worked with the team at Optimum to finally put these baits into production. With its availability, all of the other trophy hunters out there now have another weapon in their arsenal for a shot at the “one”.
Although it still caught just as many fish, this bait was hand carved back in the 90’s and was due for a makeover. Through the use of 3D scanning technology and various CAD design softwares, our design team was able to give Butch’s Thumper Tail a clean new look for 2016!
A quick clip of Butch giving us a run down on his new bait at during its release at Bassathon.
Aside from looks, lets dig into what actually makes this bait so “new”.
Right off the bat you can see that this bait comes pre-rigged BB style. Equipped with a VMC size 1 round bend treble hook, the rigging harness is hand crimped with 60lb wire and rests within a small ridge on the head for ensured alignment . You may notice that the third barb that rests within the head of the bait is slightly bent out. This is done intentionally. Butch’s method consists of slightly bending out the barb that inserts into the bait so that the two other barbs can sit flush with the top of the bait.
What really gives this bait its signature “thumping” action is a combination of two key things. A cleaned up version of the original optimum boot tail and Butch’s offset weight system. The difference with his weight system is that it is set a lot further back in the body than most traditional boot tail style swimbaits. This allows the bait to swim more level on the retrieve in comparison to the weight being in the head.
Suggested Tackle and Lure Specs:
Line: 20lb Flourocarbon
Rod: 8ft Extra Heavy
Reel: 5:1 Ratio
Hook: VMC Size 1 Round Bend
Length: 9″ Weight: 5.2oz
Although the thumper was designed to be burned, Arizona guide and Optimum Pro Staffer, Manny Chee gives us an underwater look at the action at various retrieval speeds.
Apparently these don’t just work for Butch Brown….Manny Chee has also had a blast chucking the thumper!
Butch has numerous color offerings in store for us all. The first 5 colors that will be released in the fall of 2016 are below
