The Bass Junkies always are on the lookout for anything new, different or even older lures that have been mildly tweaked to create enough of a change to arouse our curiosity.
So our meeting with FLW Tour pro angler Michael Murphy at the ICAST show last July really got our brains to wondering about the possibilities of a new lure he showed us. Murphy had the new Optimum Baits “Double Diamond” Swimmer and was proud as could be while telling us about it.
Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but we’re quickly warming up to them, too.
Optimum Baits has been around for 12 years, established in California with the bottom-line desire to make quality baits to help anglers catch more fish. They’ve done that quite well, with more than 15 styles of baits from 2 to 16 inches and 50 different colors. You can find topwaters to swimbaits in basic shad or pearl to wildly eye-appealing colors that will cause a bass to take a second look.
The Double Diamond is one of those that will do just that. Its 3-D profile was completely created on a Computer Assisted Design machine. The lure has a flat, smooth top with a narrow taper to the wide tail that has tremendous action. The belly is pointed at the bottom and includes a hook slot to assist in rigging, which is so critical with swimbaits.
Our Tests
The Double Diamond comes in 3.75- and 5.75-inch versions with a textured belly and super color schemes. The combination of the diamond shape and taper leading to the big tail helps create three actions. One is a bit of a side-to-side movement. The one we saw most pronounced was a rolling body and awesome tail action. And when retrieved quickly on top after figuring out the right speed, we could make the tail kick up water like a big shad fleeing from a pursuer – especially with the big 5.75-inch model.
Murphy suggested we rig the Double Diamond on a Mustad Ultra Point Power Lock Plus sliding weight hook, which comes in four weight sizes. The hook has a “push pin” style bait gripper attached to the line tie which you put into the head of the plastic lure, and then rig the hook through the body.
Those worked quite well and held up until we caught a fish or two, and then the nose of the Double Diamond Swimmer tore a bit. That’s to be expected with soft plastic baits, especially with hand-pours like the Optimum swimbait, and we fixed it right up with a drop of glue to extend the life.
We also gave the lure a shot with the new Daiichi 7/0 Bleeding Bait ButtDragger, which has a screw-in “Hitchhiker” that secures the nose of a bait to the hook. The ButtDragger works best with the 5-inch Double Diamond but because of the small, pointed nose on the 3-inch version we didn’t care for the screw-in system. It and the pin-gripper style have their places and both work well.
Our test rig was a 7-foot, 11-inch G. Loomis SWBR955 swimbait rod paired with a Team Daiwa Zillion baitcaster and 15-pound Vicious Fluorocarbon. We’re looking forward to trying out the Double Diamond on striped bass and saltwater fish, too.
The Inside Scoop
Optimum’s Double Diamond is a winner, no doubt.
It’s soft, well-designed, comes in a great array of colors and includes packaging designed to keep the lures from being bent or malformed in a tackle box or the resealable bag. Because the lures are hand-poured each color has a bit of a unique quality to it, which is nice.
The 3.75-inch model comes in a pack of three, while you get two baits per pack in the 5.75-inch version.
They’re available in 13 colors at tacklewarehouse.com.
