Some of you folks may have never experienced fish turning off to a particular bait seemingly as if by a switch. When that happens one of the ways you can combat that is by changing the size of your offering.
The Berkley Havoc Pit Boss Jr. is a bait made just for this situation.
How big is it?
You can downsize to the Jr. which is a 3” bait. This may sound way to small to be effective but nothing could be further from the facts.
We have used the 4” version for some time now and found it to be a reliable creature type bait that has some awesome colors and an even better price.
So why would Berkley bother with making a version that is 25% smaller? Because it can be the key to getting fish to bite when they have lockjaw.
We have fished “junior” every way that we fished the original. Of course we have had to make adjustments to our equipment to do so but that’s really not a big deal. Downsize your hook, line and weight and you’re ready to go to work.
How to rig it
The Havoc Pit Boss Junior can be rigged exactly the way its larger siblings are rigged whether your game is punching, dragging, swimming, flipping, as a jig trailer or any other method that works for you.
The name of the game is that in this case, the action hasn’t been compromised by downsizing the bait. Those four little legs still have the same swimming motion as the larger versions as well as the same glide given you adjust your weight.
The Junior comes in some colors that are only available for it but doesn’t come in all the colors that the larger versions are produced in. However it is manufactured in those colors that are most effective.
For the most part we have been using the Pit Boss Junior in three ways.
Simply Texas rigging this bait and throwing it anywhere you would toss any creature bait is probably the most often utilized rigging option. It comes through cover well and affords the angler plenty to work with as far as playing with your retrieve.
Yo-yo it, drag it, hop it, jerk it or anything else that trips your switch. It doesn’t disappoint as long as you keep in mind that it is on the smallish side.
One of the adjustments that we make when fishing the Junior is to use smaller movements when manipulating our retrieve.
Another way to use it is to flip and/or pitch it into holes in cover. With the Junior, a 1/2 weight will suffice the vast majority of the time for getting it down quickly with a minimum of hanging up. Especially if you’re using a tungsten sinker. This combination will slide easily through most areas.
We’ve caught some good fish using the Pit Boss Junior this way when larger baits weren’t drawing a strike.
Another way to use it is as a jig trailer. When it’s time to downsize your jig, this is a good option. It’s flat enough so that even on smaller jigs, it doesn’t interfere with your hook set or negatively impact the action of them. The subtle swimming action of those four legs can be just the ticket for coaxing wary bass into striking.
A Favored Alternative
As we are prone to do with a lot of soft plastics, we have rigged it on a 3/0 belly weighted swimbait hook with some success as well.
Some folks still don’t appreciate what a difference this presentation can make for baits that are designed to glide to a greater or lesser degree. It appears very natural in the water while not giving off any negative cues to uncommitted fish.
The Berkley Havoc Pit Boss Junior may not appear to be much when you look at it in the package but for getting small, it gets the job done.
“Junior” is value priced, has good color options, is fairly durable, is relatively consistent from one bait to the next and is versatile little bait.
| Berkley Havoc Pit Boss Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Overall Rating |    |
| A compact, subtle creature bait | |
See ya’ on the water …
