Meet Little Creeper's take on the Bluegill, the All American Sunfish

Impressions: Once in a while a bait comes along that everyone that fishes it tries to keep it a secret because it is just that darn good, and yet inevitably the cat gets out of the bag and there is a run on the bait. The original All American Trash Fish from Little Creeper was one such bait. So good was the lure that it was soon adopted by Berkley in a variation called the Havoc Skeet’s Sick Fish Swimbait. Proving that the Trash Fish was not a one hit wonder, Benno, the owner and lead designer at Little Creeper, has introduced a variety of new baits, most notable of which is the All American Sunfish, which is designed to effectively mimic bluegill and juvenile sunfish. This bait features the same basic construction and ultra-soft plastic found in the Trash Fish, but in a profile that is all its own.

The baits come two per pack and retail for $19.99

Real World Tests: We fished the All American Sunfish for an entire season, winter through fall, targeting a variety of freshwater fish in lakes and river systems from California to Arkansas. We used a variety of different outfits and employed all three line types, mono, fluorocarbon and braid to determine the best way to present these baits. We had a lot of experience with the company’s Trash Fish and while we really liked that bait we always found it among the more challenging swimbaits to rig up perfectly. The Sunfish is a lot easier to rig, and using a 4/0 Owner Beast Hook we found we could properly position and rig the bait just right. Unlike the Trash Fish we didn’t find we had to doctor the bait as much with the deep offset top hook pocket which help keeps the bait from snagging up unnecessarily.

The All American Sunfish features a deep hook pocket which conceals the hook and helps this bait fish more weedless

Once the Sunfish is rigged up it is important to give it a soft toss and watch it come back to the boat or shoreline. If it is rigged up correctly it will come back naturally and perpendicular to the water’s bottom. Rigged incorrectly the bait seems to lean to the side, all it takes to make an adjustment is to simply re-rig the hook. Once you have this sorted then it is time to do some damage.

A look at a rigged up All American Sunfish

Casting: The All American Sunfish is an easy bait to cast and unlike many other swimbaits it can be effectively fished with just about any rod that is rated up to 1oz., and a traditional heavy powered casting rod will do just fine in most situations. Due to the flat profile of the lure it also makes for a pretty decent skipping bait and with a little practice you can skip it under branches and docks with ease. It also can be pitched for stealthy presentations. During testing in the Delta I was just messing around and pitching it into open pockets in weedbeds, remarking how easy the bait was to make pinpoint drops, and BAM, a 5lbr. hit the bait no more than a second after it broke the surface. Thank goodness I was using straight braid!

A look at the Crappie pattern. These are not the most realistic looking baits but once they are in the water they really seem to come to life

Next Section: So many ways to fish the Sunfish