Orso Swimbaits: oldies but goodies

[Cuervo Jones]

Dave Roberson was a guy with an interesting background. He began manufacturing and selling Orso swimbaits (the trout-imitating "split tail" and the sunfish-mimicking "Gillzilla") in about 2008. Known for his POV videos (long before GoPro vids were a thing), he did a lot to promote swimbaits and swimbaiting. Dave died unexpectedly on Dec. 27, 2009 at the age of 34. Orso baits haven't been made since and are scarce as hen's teeth now, so I was overjoyed to see a couple of Gillzillas for sale on my local forum at a great price. Today, they were waiting for me when I got home from work.

I know these baits will be dynamite on Amistad and some of my local lakes and I'll be thinking of "Orso Dave" when I throw them. If you have a few minutes, find his videos on YouTube, where he posted under "roberdave". The quality is primitive and gritty, but it's some of the earliest documentation of crazy guys throwing big baits for "donkeys" and you might just get bit by the bug that Dave helped to spread!

[Smallie_Stalker]

Thanks for sharing that info. I always like to hear the history of things. Those look pretty interesting too.

I still have one of the original Castaic Lures Sunfish swimbaits in the green box. I bought it in the late 90's. I tried fishing it on a flipping stick during a club tourney once but I knew on the first cast I had the wrong rod for that job.

I haven't thrown it since, but I look at it every once in a while and think maybe I should give it another try.

Maybe someday.  

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[Cuervo Jones]

Definitely give it a shot! Swimbaits evolved very quickly and now there are hundreds (thousands?) of designs. But they're still very underutilized on most waters so bass don't see many. I guarantee they haven't seen many Orsos or Castaic sunfish! A LOT of characters in the swimbait world especially early on. It's a fascinating history to be sure!