The paddle tail or boot tail swimbait can be a very effective deal for just about any kind of bass and in a super wide variety of applications. Not news. At this point its common knowledge that sliding one on a jig head can and does get bites pretty much anywhere in the country.
Whether it be a solid or hollow belly bait, small, medium or even the larger versions, these baits seem to have some serious strike drawing power at times.
I’ll start off with ‘The when’; and this may be the easiest aspect of this one.
Seasonally, as soon as there is open water here and straight through to hard water, I almost always have a swimbait on a jig head rigged up & ready to throw. This is the deal I’ll be discussing here and I’ll get to the where and how in a bit. But yea, when the local brown bass population is on the feed, they almost always seem fairly eager to choke one of these things.
Now let me get into some of my more common ‘where’ scenarios.
Right off the bat, the versatility of these things does lend them to be effective in a wide vary of ‘wheres’. So it can literally be one of those 3 feet to 30 feet deals. However for me, up in this clear water, regardless of season, time of day or body of water, a swimbait on a jighead is an effective way to cover water and it’s usually ‘deeper’ stuff.
I’ll quantify that by saying I’m throwing them up on to or off of mid lake humps, up & off points, as well as drop-offs and into saddle areas. Usually targeting bass in 10-20 feet.
Bottom composition and cover can vary but in super heavy soft cover (weeds) I am not probing them with this bait. I might swim one over and around it, but IME, they don’t fish very effectively through the slop. Great way to cover a big mid-lake flat though. Slow rolling one over the weeds can help find biters (and a bunch of Pike, unfortunately).
On a hard bottom, I like the lift & fall technique, on both a tight & slack line, as well as the cranking it along slow and letting it deflect; trigger deal.
On a sand bottom I am all about grinding the bait. Reeling it along in such a manner, and at whatever speed I need, to maintain constant contact with the bottom. This is one of my more productive approaches that also gets me a ton of by-catch; walleye mostly. A Football head is a solid choice.
Now for the gear, and it’s really nothing special.
I use spinning & casting gear, pretty much interchangeably.
Almost always using 7 ft Medium action in both blanks.
Spinning gear is done with 10-15 lb braid and an 8 – 10 lb FC leader.
And the casting gear is straight 10-12 lb FC.
I will say that the spinning gear is usually selected when I’m looking to keep the baits deeper, say below 10 – 15 feet and the casting gear often gets the nod in anything shallower. Incidentally, this is the same tackle I fish a tube with.
The Jig heads & Baits ~
There is a plethora of good quality swim baits and matching jig heads to choose from now. On line vendors literally list what seems like hundreds. I’ve fished a dozen or so types & brands. To keep it simple, I’ve pretty much settled on two; listed below.
I do prefer softer baits in the 3 to 5 inch size range, with something close to 4 inch being a big player. While clearly less durable, I seem to get more bites. Along with that, having the right action, especially on the fall, is a must for me.
When it comes to jighead shape, design and the all-important hook, again I like to keep it simple but here I am fairly particular. Brand Name is my desired direction but will go with a Lesser-known deal when there’s merit. I am eternally looking for jigheads with a quality medium and medium light wire hook that is also The Right Length. Too stout here can be tricky to sink on the medium gear I use; especially on a long cast or very deep running bait. Additionally, too long of a hook seems to ‘mute’ and can even over power a bait. I seem to get the best action when the bend is coming out the top of the bait no more than half way back of the baits overall length. More than that is No Bueno.
My favorite heads match up to baits when they only go in about a third of the way (if that makes sense).
Colors I keep close to the bait color and my default is just a plain lead, black or tungsten. Head shape & design includes where the line tie placement is located on the head itself. The right local will allow the bait to swim nicely, especially along the bottom and on the glide without forcing the bait to pick up unwanted & bite killing debris. A decent keeper helps; a couple of different ones work for me. In a pinch (meaning I ran out of a certain weight size) I’ve even used my tube jigheads with decent success.
Jighead weights range from 1/8 oz for the smallest and shallowest presentations up to ½ oz for the other end of the spectrum I’d say I use ¼ oz and 3/8 oz the most though.
Before I wrap this one up, I have two final thoughts.
First, a bait type that has been deliberately omitted here,
are the ‘pre-rigged’ deals. Not because they don’t get bites or that I don’t use them, because they can be killer at times and I do throw them.
Storm Wild Eye Shad and the Megabass Dark Sleeper are two of my favorites. The Dark Sleeper sees local action and the Storm bait is an international Rock Star performer for me. While I fish them in much the same way, I didn’t include them here because comparatively, I only recently started using them. For me they seem like a separate deal, one that I may cover in a future Brown Bass Tools installment; especially that Dark Sleeper.
And second, and I sort of hate to add this but it is relevant.
Virtually every bait I have covered in this thread, has accounted for at least a handful, if not more, 5 lb plus Brown Bass; except this one.
There are few things I enjoy more than adding a too close to the lens pic of a brown fatty to the end of one of these write ups. But alas, I cannot do that, because despite my best efforts, it hasn’t happened. Instead, what I will say and where I find myself throwing these swim baits the most, is to cover water & find biters. Done it a ton of times; plenty of 3’s & 4’s.
Can be especially helpful on new water. This style of swimbait is as close to a ‘confidence bait’ for me as I have. Pretty sure this approach has indirectly led to a few tanks, by showing me areas that the bass are using.
Strike King Rage Swimmer ~ Keitech Swing Impact FAT
Owner Ultrahead Football Jig Head ~ Owner Ultrahead Round Jig Head
Gamakatsu Round Jig Head ~ Dirty Jigs Tactical Bassin' Finesse Swimbait Jig Head
Fish Hard
A-Jay
