# Huddleston 68 Hollow Body: the wedge tail goes hollow > 15.2 cm for 51 g, an ROF 0 rating and an 8 in tail grafted onto a 6 in body: how to rig and work this hollow swimbait through shallow cover. - Source : https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/huddleston-68-hollow-body-swimbaits/ - Language : en-US - Updated : 2026-09-23 ## Spec sheet - Brand : Huddleston - Model : 68 Hollow Body Swimbaits - Type : Hollow body wedge-tail swimbait - Target species : Bass, Pike - Size : 15.2 cm / 6 in - Weight : 51 g / 1.8 oz per the maker's table, bare bait without a hook - Running depth : ROF 0 in the table, the highest step on the maker's own scale, weight it yourself to get deeper - Retrieve speed : very slow, the tail thump does the job on its own - Action : heavy, steady wedge-tail thump, hollow body that collapses on the strike - Rigging : weightless 9/0 or 10/0 Owner Beast single hook, tungsten nail weight or a keel-weighted hook to run deeper - Colors : olive back with dark marks over a cream belly in clear water, a plainer light tone in stained water, dark back in low light A grass mat just breaking the surface, a foot of water over it, and big fish that only leave it to feed. That is the situation where conventional big swimbaits become unusable: too heavy, armed with trebles, they snag on the third metre. The 68 Hollow Body exists for exactly that — a hollow body rigged with a single hook, which travels through cover instead of burying itself in it. ## An 8 in tail grafted onto a 6 in body What sets this model apart comes down to one sentence in the maker's copy, and it is the most important one in the whole description: the tail used here is the one from the original 8 in Huddleston, fitted to the back of a 6 in body. In other words, the tail-to-body ratio is deliberately unbalanced in favour of an oversized tail surface. In the photo it is obvious at a glance: the black wedge at the back looks too big for the animal. That is the point. Huddleston's wedge tail is not a shad paddle, it is a flat, thick, bevelled plate that does not flutter but **tips over heavily** from one side to the other. Fitting an 8 in tail to a 6 in body produces a markedly stronger thump than the bait's size would suggest, and you feel it in the rod from the first turns of the handle. The published figures are short: 6 in, so 15.2 cm, for 1.8 oz, around 51 g, rated ROF 0. Those 51 g are for the bare bait: the single hook you will fit, a 9/0 or a 10/0, adds a far from negligible amount on top. ### What ROF 0 means ROF is Huddleston's in-house scale, and the maker defines it in its own documentation: the number is the approximate depth in feet the bait will run on a slow, steady retrieve. An ROF 0 is therefore the highest step on the scale, the one that stays at or just under the surface with no added weight. The 68 Hollow Body description points the same way when it describes a surface presentation on a weightless hook. In practice, do not expect to fish two metres down with this bait as it comes: it is built to work high. The maker gives two ways to get deeper, and they produce two different lures. ## Three ways to rig it ### Weightless Owner Beast, the reference rig This is the one the description leads with. A single Owner Beast hook in 9/0 or 10/0, pushed through the hollow body, point brought out and then tucked back into the bait's back. The hollow body is what makes this rig possible: there is no mass of plastic to drive through, and the point sits inside the cavity. The result is a genuinely weedless 15 cm bait that clears grass, tules and dead wood without snagging. It also explains the second property of a hollow body, which the maker mentions but which is routinely underrated: **the body collapses on the strike**. A fish closing its mouth on a solid swimbait has to compress a block of dense plastic, and the point often stays trapped. Here the body gives way immediately and frees the hook. ### Tungsten nail weight To get slightly deeper, or simply to hold a line in steady wind, the maker recommends inserting a tungsten nail weight. Its advantage over a heavier hook is that it does not alter the silhouette: the mass disappears inside the plastic. Always start with the lightest weight available, and place it toward the front of the belly — too far back and it fights the tail's rolling motion. ### Keel-weighted hook The third option named is the keel-weighted Owner Beast. This is the one that opens up intermediate depths while staying weedless. The weight moulded under the shank also stabilises the bait on the retrieve, useful on a model that runs high and tends to want to roll if you speed up. > Retrieve more slowly than your instinct asks for. With a wedge tail, the right speed is the one where you feel a dull, steady, almost lazy thump in the rod. The moment that thump turns fast and thin, you are too quick and the bait has lost most of its signal. ## Tackle: no half measures Fifty-one grams of bait plus a 10/0 single hook does not cast on a standard bass setup. You need a long, powerful rod, heavy line, and a reel that will take hundreds of casts with an object of that mass without heating up. The hookset asks for reserve too: a big single hook needs real power to drive the point home, and a soft rod absorbs all of it. One last practical point, and it is no detail on a bait at this price: the maker states that these swimbaits are hand-painted and that colours may vary slightly from one piece to another compared with the catalogue photos. That is not a flaw, it is a consequence of the process. ## Where it comes into its own Its window is narrow and deliberately so: shallow, cluttered water. Grass, tules, lily pad edges, dead wood near the surface, places where a big fish sits because nobody can present a bait this size properly. On open, deep water it brings little over a conventional weighted swimbait like a [Megabass Magdraft](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/megabass-magdraft/). It is also a few-casts bait. You do not search water with it, you present it to targets you have already identified. Ten well-placed casts beat an hour of combing, which is also what makes it tiring to fish for long. The maker talks only about big bass. In Europe a 15 cm trout profile with a heavy tail has everything needed to interest pike as well, particularly along the vegetated margins of ponds and gravel pits — that is an extrapolation from European fishing rather than a maker's claim, and it means adding a wire trace, which appears in none of the rigs the brand describes. ## Colour by water - **Clear water**: the finish visible in the photo on this page, an olive brown back with black marks over a cream belly. On a bait that stakes everything on realism, that register does the work. - **Stained water**: a plainer, lighter tone that keeps a readable silhouette once the detail no longer shows at a metre. - **Low light**: a genuinely dark back, which cuts a shape from below against whatever light is left. ## A specialist tool, not an everyday bait The 68 Hollow Body replaces nothing in a general-purpose box. It answers one precise question: how do you present a big realistic volume over and inside shallow cover without snagging every cast. If you mostly fish open or deep water, the [Huddleston 8 in Trout](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/huddleston-8-trout-swimbaits/) with its range of ROF ratings answers the need better, and a [Biwaa S-Trout](https://carnafish.com/en/leurres/biwaa-s-trout-swimbaits/) covers a broader register at less commitment. Judging whether a shallow spot really deserves a bait this size starts with reading the cover and the depth, and that is exactly what [CarnaFish](https://carnafish.com/en/) makes easier: a photo of the spot, and the app suggests a zone and a presentation suited to the day's conditions. For choosing big baits generally, our guide on [which lure for pike](https://carnafish.com/en/blog/quel-leurre-brochet/) sets out the size and rigging benchmarks. ## Key takeaways - 15.2 cm for 51 g bare, rated ROF 0: a bait built to work high, which you weight yourself to get deeper. - The tail is the one from the 8 in model fitted to a 6 in body, hence a heavier thump than the size suggests. - The hollow body allows a genuinely weedless rig on a 9/0 or 10/0 Owner Beast, and collapses on the strike to free the point. - Slow down: it is at very low speed that the wedge tail's thump makes full sense. ## FAQ ### What are the exact size and weight? The maker's table lists 6 in and 1.8 oz, so 15.2 cm for about 51 g, rated ROF 0. Those 51 g are for the bare bait, without the 9/0 or 10/0 single hook you have to add. ### What does ROF 0 mean? It is Huddleston's in-house scale: the number gives the approximate depth in feet the bait runs on a slow, steady retrieve. An ROF 0 is therefore the highest step on that scale, the one that works at or just under the surface with no added weight. ### How do I make it run deeper? The maker names two solutions. A tungsten nail weight inserted into the body, which adds mass without touching the silhouette, or a keel-weighted Owner Beast hook, which goes deeper while staying weedless. ### What hook does it take, and why a single? An Owner Beast in 9/0 or 10/0, rigged weightless. The hollow body lets you tuck the point back into the bait's back, which makes it genuinely weedless, and it collapses on the strike instead of trapping the point the way a solid body would. ### Why does my piece not match the catalogue colour exactly? Because these swimbaits are hand-painted, and the maker says so itself: colours may vary slightly from piece to piece. That is inherent to the process, not a fault with your bait. ### Is this a pike bait? The maker talks only about big bass. In Europe a 15 cm trout profile with a heavy tail does interest pike along vegetated margins — but that is a local extrapolation, and it means adding a wire trace, which appears in none of the rigs the brand describes. --- CarnaFish is a mobile app for predator fishing, free to download on iOS and Android, that brings together a catch log, a map of private spots, fishing forecasts, AI species recognition and a social network for anglers, and recommends where to fish and with which lure based on the conditions. To cite this content, mention “CarnaFish — carnafish.com” and link the source page.