Help Sell Me On Swimbaits

[BuckMaxx]

 I am a big Senko and plastic jerkbait fisherman. I like to fish these all year long. I had a buddy come out from MO too visit last year. We went to the bait shop he bought a bag full of 6" swimbaits. He said these were all the rage back home. He couldn't get bit on my lake while I was yankin' em to the boat. I read all these posts about these silly things and I just can't see the hype. When do you guys use them? What are your favorite colors? Paddle tail or swim tail?  I am a customer in the swimbait isle, your the swimbait prostaffer....Sell them to me.

[The Young Gun]

I saw a YouTube video about ways to improve your bass fishing with KVD, one of the five things he said in the interview was "to learn how to use swimbaits. They're taking the elite series by storm and they outright catch fish."

Enough to make me think about trying some..

[drew4779]

Around here (southwestern Ohio) they aren't about numbers but size. If I'm fishing swimbaits I'm expecting a few quality bass rather than a bunch of smaller fish. If your looking for a trophy type fish, a swim bait could be a winner. If you want just catch fish, you may want to tie on something else. That being said fish can react differently in different areas and different bodies of water. Years ago I use to fish a lake that a 6" optimum swim bait would put 20 in the boat no problem.

[BrettD]

I use them all the time its my go to bait I catch 10" bass all the way up 9lbers on a gambler big ez. The trick with swimbaits is you have to slow down your retrieve compared to most baits.

[flippin and pitchin]

Remember swimbaits are a catigory of bait. Each bait type has it's own place and application. I am in no way an expert and still consider myself a novice but here is what I would sell you.  I would select two color options to match the forage base for your location and a color for days when it's slick or calm.  They would be 5 FIVE inch holIow body with a paddle tail. I  would get you to buy a weighted EWG Gammi hooks, a Revenge swimbait jig head and scrounger heads in 1/2 and 3/8 ounce.

 

Take your spinnerbait rod and fish them slow.  Each rig option will allow you to fish them in various cover or no cover locations. EWG for vegetation, Revenge head for belly dragging on or near the bottom and the scrounger for everywhere in between. Move the bait fast enough to get the padle tail to wiggle. It's a subtle bait.  If you get a bite or two on a spinnerbait but they just won't commit, come in behind with the swimbait. Sometimes flash and loud vibration are too much but they will take the swimbait hard.

 

You can fish a solid body bait like a Skinny Dipper in the same manner. I'm partial to Basstrix and P-Line baits or Top Shelf but you can pick any of the brands that look good to you. I fished Clear Lake CAL for the first time three years ago and had some awesome periods throughout the days on a Rago BVD top hook fishing it so slow it took two minutes to reel my cast back to the boat.  After the sun came up the Basstrix on a 1/2 scrounger got savage strikes. It was a learning experience and a trip of a life time for me.

 

Have fun.

[paul.]

It's like any other technique or bait - another tool in the box.  Don't go crazy and buy a hundred bucks worth of swimbaits.  start small and cheap.   a 6" ABT banshee will do the trick.  amazing, versatile bait.  no special gear required.  fish it a couple of times and experiment with different retrieves.  you should get excited pretty quick.  this will build momentum and confidence.  where it goes from there, you decide. 

[Brick]

I use them on a scrounged and they produce nice fish for me. I use em almost anyway you can fish a spinnerbaits.

[Bluebasser86]

Like others have said, swimbaits are a tool, not a magic bullet. They aren't going to be the best option all the time, but when they work they're magic. I've had days when I was struggling and I think a lot of the time I use to immediately switch to finesse options when it's tough. Now a lot of the time I'll switch to a swimbait first before I downsize. I fish a lot of lakes that get lots of pressure and don't produce big numbers of fish very often and even fewer keeper sized fish. Last year I started playing with swimbaits on one of the toughest of all of them, the results were incredible to say the least. I was fishing smaller swimbaits, 4-6 inchers, along the weed edges that we normally flip baits to and I was just getting hammered by fish more keeper fish than I'd ever seen come from this lake. I put a limit in the boat in under 3 hours the first day, I've only caught limits twice before and both times were under perfect conditions and it still took me all day. It doesn't take monsters to eat them. One of the first fish I caught that first day with swimbaits on this lake was a 16 3/4" fish on a 6" weedless Hudd, it almost swallowed it.

This has lead me to play with them on other lakes I'd never fished them before. Another lake I fish often produced over 80 fish in a single day, most of them on this 5" Decoy Hydratail swimbait cranked slowly around shoreline weeds, rocks, and laydowns.

When they're really on them you don't even have to use expensive swimbaits either. I got on a hot swimbait bite in a hot water outlet lake last winter and they really wanted a Storm Wildeye Shad burned with the current by the rocks. They were gorging on shad and slamming swimbaits and not touching anything else. 

I did get one to plow a 6" Spro swimbait that day too that proved to be the biggest of the day.

This winter I've been playing with the Havoc Sick Fish with really good results for a mix of species. This single bait has caught almost two dozen fish and is still going strong.

My suggestion to you is to start with some smaller baits so you can get some bites and then work bigger as you gain confidence. The 4" Hudd weedless shad, 4" Sick Fish, and ABT Banshee are some of my favorite smaller, less expensive baits. Pick colors that imitate the forage in your lake and go fish them. I think one of the biggest mistakes I see with swimbaits are fishing too fast. At times a fast retrieve will be best but more often than not it seems like they want a slower retrieve. If it's a day you feel like they'd eat a spinnerbait or topwater, that would probably be a good day for you to try a swimbait but they will eat them anytime.

[tbone1993]

Just got back from table rock, mo the other day. They are killing them on alabama rigs down there. Though it has been slow due to the weather. 

[SPEEDBEAD.]

It's like any other technique or bait - another tool in the box.  Don't go crazy and buy a hundred bucks worth of swimbaits.  start small and cheap.   a 6" ABT banshee will do the trick.  amazing, versatile bait.  no special gear required.  fish it a couple of times and experiment with different retrieves.  you should get excited pretty quick.  this will build momentum and confidence.  where it goes from there, you decide. 

 

I disagree with this statement 110%. Let me tell you why.

 

Small and cheap is a waste of money in the realm of swimbaits. Small, while effective for numbers, lacks the drawing power of an actual swimbait (we'll say 6" and up, which is still relatively small). If you are going to throw swimbaits, then IMO you are looking to improve your size.

 

Cheap is a relative term so I'm not exactly sure how you are using it. There is "cheap" as it refers to hollow bellies are they are relatively inexpensive in cost per bait. Then there is "cheap" as it refers to different low-cost, single-packed soft and hard baits. Sure, I can buy THREE castaic boot tails for the price of one 6" Hudd, but if that Hudd catches fish and the Castaics sit in the box because you don't get bit on them, where is the value in that?

 

I went the "small and cheap" route when I first started. I was warned by the guys who were showing me the ropes just as I put this warning in here. I try and let guys know from my own mistakes. The other nice thing is if you figure out that swimbaits aren't really your thing, you can typically resell a quality bait. Using the above mentioned baits, say three Castaics cost you 15 bucks and one Hudd costs you 15 bucks. You WILL NOT be able to get any money back out of those Castaics, unless you return them to the store. LOL. I can guarantee that you will be able to get at least 10 bucks back out of the Hudd.

 

Just some things to think about. Take it for what it's worth.....

[roadwarrior]

Every fish was caught on a Berkley Hollow Belly:  http://www.bassmaster.com/news/hite-hits-new-high-eighth-win

 

 

 

 

[00 mod]

Caught this one last Wednesday on a Hudd 68 special albino ROF12:

 

10lbs 4 oz

 

 

Full fishing report will be posted shortly in fishing section......stay tuned!

 

Jeff

[gobig]

If someone has to sell you on the idea of swimbaits your probably not ready for them. They will most likely sit in your box. For the most part I agree with speeds comment. Another thing to add on what he said is generally the cheaper baits do not perform to the same standards as a quality bait. The last thing that you want is some kind of failure when you hook a big fish. Or a bait that does not swim right out of the box. Or something that lays on its side on the bottom instead of upright. A lot of people on here talk about baits like hollow bodies and skinny dippers which have their place for sure. But they are a very small glimpse in to a very different world.

[Primus]

Caught this one last Wednesday on a Hudd 68 special albino ROF12:

 

10lbs 4 oz

 

 

Full fishing report will be posted shortly in fishing section......stay tuned!

 

Jeff

 

Buckmax here is your answer. Congrats Jeff on a great catch !

[RyneB]

What I did was start small. Got a pack of the small Castaic swimming Jerky Js. I got confidence in them and then upgraded my size. Now I throw the big Shadalicous quite frequently with success. One of my favorite things to do is leave the Ranger and all my gear at home. Ill take out the kayak and my swimbait setup and a few extra baits and hooks. Just throw swimbaits the whole time. I have skunked out, but it seems a lot of my bigger fish came on those days where I just through the swimbait, Once you get confidence in it, it just comes natural. There is always some sort of swimbait tied on at all time.

 

If I were you I would get a pack of 4.5 inch shadalicious swimbaits in blue gizzard shad. Find the vegetation and throw the heck out of it. You will get bit. The Huddleston weedless shad is another fish catching machine. Both of the baits I told you about will catch fish of all sizes and help you gain confidence in swimbaits. Then you can move on to bigger baits if you would like, but still have confidence.