paul.

cool post. 4 ways to guarantee you will hook (but not necessarily catch) a big bass: 1. forget the net (or make sure it is under or tangled in something). 2. forget the camera. 3. forget the scale. 4. forget spare batteries for the camera or the scale.

yes, definitely. do not set on the blowup. chill a sec and wait until you actually feel the fish on. bass will hold on to a soft frog just like they will any other soft plastic. after you are sure the fish has the bait, drop the hammer and then smile for the camera.

overpriced piece of crap. there are much, much better swimbaits you can buy in that price range.

jig fish rock. nice fish man.

got out to one of my favorite lakes a little after lunch today. was an absolutely gorgeous day here too. slightly overcast with the perfect breeze blowing. water temps are back down in the low 80's now and that seems to have some good fish on the feed. caught several quality fish, one of which i am absolutely sure was one of t-rig's swiss bass that has somehow migrated to tn. man that thing was fat! ;D the action was mostly on big plastics today. found several good areas, but one that seemed especially hot. after working it over pretty good, i left and caught a few elsewhere, giving 'em a chance to regroup. came back to the hot spot about 2 hours before dark and commenced to catching 'em again with a 12" t-rigged worm. made a cast to a grass patch i had found in about 6 ft. of water and THUMP!!! she bit with some authority. i was pretty sure she was a good 'un just by the way she hit. any doubt was erased when i dropped the hammer hard with the loomis and still barely budged her. i was tickled to death when she jumped and showed what a nice one she really was. she was extremely strong and really put up a great fight too. 8-6 on the digi. a quick pic and she was back in the drink to be caught again. after a few more the bite shut off and i left the lake a happy man. hope y'all are catchin' some too.

kent, other guys on here could probably give better pointers than me about how to fish the bait since i have so little experience with it. but it basically seems to be a chunk and wind bait. let it sink to the depth you wanna fish and start cranking. throw in a twitch or pause here and there and make sure you have a good grip on the rod. ;D tony, i'm not really sure how the line cut the bait. but my guess is that it was on the hookset. i'm sure when the fish hit the bait, there was just enough slack in the line that some of the line got behind the bait. when i set it probably clipped the tail right off in the fish's mouth. when he came up and shook his head the tail just flew out of his mouth probably. but like i said that's only a guess. but i'm pretty sure that it was the line that cut the tail though given the clean nature of the cut.

unweighted it weighs 2.6 oz.

dave, i'm pretty sure it was the braid that cut the tail off the bait.

a while back, i actually had the good fortune of having a mattlures ultimate bluegill given to me by a friend when i told him i was gonna start trying to learn swimbaits. the bait was used and needed some work, so i pretty much put it aside to work on another day. it was by no means in bad shape, but it had some tears, was missing an eye, and needed a touch up on paint. fast forward to trey catching his 2 hawgs a few posts ago. i decided then that maybe it was time to pull this bait out and see what i could do. i went to work with some colored sharpies, spike it dye, super glue, and a razor blade to repair and rejuvenate the bait a little. after my admittedly amateurish nip and tuck job, this bait was ready to rock and roll. took the bait out today with a front quickly moving in. right after i got to the lake, i noticed a pack of 2-3 pound fish cruising down the bank and headed my way. make a cast and the nicest fish in the bunch shoots out and hammers the bait after only a few cranks of the handle. i was happy to say the least, but my joy was short-lived when i saw the tail fly off the bait when the bass came up and shook his head. after getting this pic and unhooking the bass, it started to rain and i was disgusted with myself and just went back home. all this taught me a very important lesson the hard way. braid and soft swimbaits do not mix. tearing this bait up was totally my fault. given the amazing debut of this bait, i can only imagine what might have been. fantastic bait matt. totally lives up to it's billing, and then some. even in a less than mint condition, it still rocked the house. i post this cause it seems a lot of guys are getting into swimbaits on here now. hopefully this will keep anyone else from making the same mistake with braided line. here's the fish and bait (minus the tail). good luck out there y'all.

great advice so far. follow that and you'll be fine. i agree with it all. only thing i can think of to add is to not over think it when a big bass is on the line. i have seen lots of people lose big bass because they panic and try to do something different with a big one on than they normally do with regular size ones. in other words they lose the fish because they are trying so hard to NOT lose the fish. i'm sure you have caught plenty of bass. fighting a big one is usually not that much different than fighting a regular size one for the most part. it's just a matter of degree. if you can catch a 3, you can catch a 6.

nightmare is right. i'm glad y'all are o.k. though.

thanks randall. nope, no custom paint job. well not really anyway. i tell you what i have done though. i have made a real effort to keep this bait looking new and fresh. i went and got a pack of permanent markers at walmart. you can even get metallic ones. i use brown, purple, silver, gold, green, and black in the appropriate spots any time even a tiny chip of paint comes off. this bait still looks brand new after catching several fish. that's cool about what you did to the tail on your bait. makes a lot of sense. did you round off the "points" on the tail too? this kinda bothered me a little about the tail of the bait since bluegill have roundish tails rather than pointed. i might tinker a little with the tail on mine too. what tool did you use, a dremmel? thanks for the great tip randall.

tru-tungsten bluegill. and make no mistake, this bait ROCKS!!! a bit costly, but keep in mind you are really buying 3 baits in one because of the versatile weighting system. check out the video of ish monroe talking about the bait. http://www.***.com/descpageSWIMTRUTUNG-TTSB.html

sorry to hear about that dave. good ol' fall fishin' is just around the corner though. hang in there buddy. it's days like this that make the good ones especially sweet.

i'm really not the one to ask swimbait questions to since i've only been using 'em about 2 months now. if you tell what you are looking for in a bait and what kind of equipment you are using, there will be guys on here that can help you.

very cool. glad you got your lunker. hope you get plenty more before the year is up.

but wait, i said there were 4 myths debunked, right? well, here's the 4th. myth #4- big baits will always produce better quality fish. sound surprising? well among several other nice 1 and 2 pound fish i caught on this bait, the fish of the day, a fat 5-14, came on this small finesse worm rigged "flick shake" style on a small jighead. the key to consistency with nice fish is not big baits, even though it helps sometimes. if there is a key, it's versatility. here's the bait that got the fish of the day. sorry for no pics of her, but it was getting hot and i was in a big hurry to get her back in the water to make sure she survived after a long, epic battle on fairly light spinning tackle. good luck to y'all out there.

as i headed to the lake this morning, i really didn't have anything in mind other than relaxing, catching a few, and having a good time. but a couple of hours later, driving back home, i realized that it had been a very unique outing indeed. reflecting on the trip and what i had learned, i realized that in this one single outing, i had debunked 4 pretty commonly held fishing myths. myth #1 - bigger swimbaits are unlikely to catch "regular size" bass. aside from cost, this might be the single biggest reason some anglers will not use swimbaits. they are afraid their catches of nice "tournament size" fish will go down dramatically. within 15 minutes a nice "regular size" bass of about 3 pounds (pictured below) bit my pet swimbait. i also had another couple of 2 pounders miss the bait that i could not get to come back for seconds. myth #2 - big swimbaits will not work in super shallow water. the 3 pounder i caught was in about a foot of water. i should have seen this fish the water was so shallow, but i didn't. as my bait swam parallel to shore, a nice size wake shot out to meet the bait from the side with a vicious strike. myth #3 - swimbaits are "specialty baits" only good for limited situations and applications. this is what i used to believe and it really kept me away from swimbaits for a while. i coulda caught the fish below on anything, a jerkbait, a crank, a spinnerbait, a topwater, etc. but that's my point. i am quickly learning that swimbaits will work anywhere these "tired and true" baits will work, probably even better where fish have seen tons of these old standards. here's the fish. hope y'all are catchin' some too.

ladies and gentlemen, i give you the mike long of georgia, trey nordone. rob? castamasta? where y'all at? y'all are falling seriously behind here. ;D way to stick 'em bud.

paul, are you throwing those things in stained/muddy water w/ success? cause i havent tried them much except in the clear water lakes i fish. well, i'm not really the guy to ask swimbait questions to since i've only been throwing them about 2 months and i'm still very much in the learning stages. to answer though, i have been using them in clear water. but i see no reason at all they wouldn't work in stained or muddy water, or even at night. i do believe the primary appeal of these lures is visual, and i have had my best success during the middle of the day (when the sun is high and visibility is good). others might have had completely different experiences though. i do think that just like a spinnerbait, a ripple on the water will help your cause with a swimbait in clearer water.

great post and fantastic fish trey!!! the whole bb is going swimbait crazy. :o - and for good reason, these things catch TOADS. period, paragraph, end of story. yeah, swimbaits are expensive, especially the good ones. but i look at it as an investment in lunker stock, likely to return huge dividends. there's not many people i know that wouldn't pay $23 (or more) for a guaranteed shot at a trophy class fish. that's exactly what swimbaits offer. i'm happy for ya trey. that's a hoss of a bass anywhere in this country. swimbait fever - catch it! ;D

that is absolutely unbelievable. definitely one to be proud of.

what a giant smallie! that's awesome.

sorry about the hook incident. but seeing that smile in that pic has to ease your pain. that's priceless man. i know you are proud. good luck on your next trip.

a couple of questions to help clarify and make sure you get good answers: was the fish truly missing the frog or could you have been taking it away prematurely in your excitement after hearing/seeing the strike? when you say jumping, what do you mean? was the fish coming out of the water after the bait? was there any open water in the pads or was it a solid mat? did you try any other baits besides the frog? just off the top of my head, i would suggest throwing back in there with a fluke or a senko. do not react to the sound or the sight of the strike. wait until you actually feel the weight of the fish on your line. then strike fast and hard. good luck on your quest. sounds like this fish has you all tore up. hope you get her.