Ok Northern Guys

[jtharris3]

I fish mainly in the north, (Michigan, Ohio, Wis, etc.) I'm not big into swim baits so for those of you who fish up in the northern states which swim baits do you like to use for smallies and for largemouth? Please include size and favorite color. The bait monkey has been whispering in my eye to buy some swim baits! 

[frogflogger]

One of each

[Cgrinder]

I have been looking at Mattlures U2 Bluegills for the same reason.

[smalljaw67]

I use a lot of different ones, right now the finesse soft plastic are what you want. I use a small manufacturers swim baits, the River Rock Baits RR Striker, it is very similar to the Keitech Easy Shiner, the Strike King KVD Swim-n-Shiner, and the Gene Larew Sweet Swimmer, these are all 3.5", 3.75" and 4" and do good during the summer. I throw them on the back of swim jigs for largemouth in weeds but I use them on a 1/8oz and 1/4oz swim bait heads for smallmouth. I also like the Hollow Body swim baits, my favorite being the Bass Magic is 3.5" and 4.5" and the Berkley Hollow Belly, I fish them on a jig head for deep water and on a weighted hook for shallow water. The hollow body baits seem to work better during the fall, right when the grass is beginning to die and I guess it makes sense as most forage fish are at their biggest. Hard body swim baits were a mystery to me, I loved how they would swim in the water but the fish didn't and then one day I found out about a cold water swim bait bite and started trying out my hard baits like the Sebile magic swimmer and I discovered a lot when I did that. I like the Sebile Magic Swimmer, the Storm Kickin Stick and the Storm Swimin Stick, and I use them in mid spring when the water temp hits the low to mid 50s, it is very close to the way you would work a jerkbait. I'm not as far north but I'm in PA and while some will get a decent fish on a big swim bait I won't because there are not enough big fish here to devote a lot of time to it but the smaller 5" hard and soft swim baits work well if you use them when conditions call for them.

[Nice_Bass]

Berkley flatback shad on a 3/4oz conquistador jig head rigged sideways.  perfect size to not be intimidated, catch large fish and large numbers, and to throw where you need to due to it being a cheap setup.  Lunker city shaker for a bit larger of a bait.

I own a lot of expensive swimbaits but I use this every time I fish.  I would not spend too much on softbaits but matt lures boot tail is good as well.

 

hard baits...obviously just depends on how much you want to spend.

[HeavyFisher]

Mattlures U2 Bluegills, 6"  Huddleston, 22nd Century Triple Trout Cut Tail, Mike Shaw Slammer, 6" Spro BBZ-1 Swimbait, Mike Bucca Shad

[ChrisAW]

The only thing I've been using lately is the the new BPS Speed Shad, which is the Keitech Swing Impact Fat shad being packaged for BPS in limited colors.

 

Either or are about the same price. I was using them on St Clair and a couple local lakes, and the fish were willing to hammer them. Definitely a good choice if you want to do some soft baits.

 

Last year I tried out my first Huddleston... I lost it in a matter of about 20 minutes to what I could only assume was a rather large Pike. But they will produce, no doubt about it.

[Kevin22]

You have to watch buying the expensive swimbaits.. you have one thing to deal with that the guys down south do not... northerns/musky. They'll take a $30 swimbait before you can even figure out what happened. 

[papajoe222]

I've been using hollow body swim baits anywhere from 3" to 8"  BassTrix and Money Minnows mostly.  I fish the 8" for musky and have landed a couple of bass over 20in. when doing so.  The only time I use hard body swimbaits is for musky fishing, so I can't help you there.

[primetime]

I would simply get some speed shad and sizmic shad in 4" and the Kalins 4.8" is much more tapered than the speed shad 4.8" and has a much wider roll and swings wide, and can be tough to rig unless using huge hook, take time to balance it as it does not have a hook slot, and it is awesome since it fishes big as a slow rolled wake bait, crawled along the bottom, or for alot of bulk and wobble to a swim jig.....speed shad is much more streamlined and has 2 slots which help as baits are hard, tails come of easily but ribs are great since they hide hook points and you get solid hooksets and can fish them anywhere....Smaller hook = better action in my mind, less hardware,and the speed shad also seems to swim true and penetrates weeds easily, can be fished at more speeds and is like comparing a Flat crankbait to a wide model and they are necessary as trailers and versitle.

 

Other good ones I use and I know there are more....Skinny dipper, Assassin Turbo Shad and Die dapper, Grass Pig, Ez Swimmer and bass pro swim sally and of course mr twister sassy shads and berkley ripple shad/Rib shad....

 

Colors....besides Pearl,white ice, and Green pumpkin, bluegill shades, I usually match to forrage or water color, time of day and if you have one translucent like say smoke with blue and silver flake, ayu, green pumpkin, pearl or white ice, firetiger pattern, blue shad....somethin in baby bass.....I used to fish alot of Crappie and Firetiger, baby bass, and natural smoke and browns, blacks up north and favorite color swimbaits are always a bluegill or sunfish pattern, Shad, or Ayu/Smoke type color.....

 

I would pick a few bright colors like a limetruese or FIretiger, smoke and green pumpkin shades and some greens....Houdini is a good color as well as tenn shad and then so is some green pumpkin gold....

 

Hope that helps....Then have fun rigging on what hook, jig head, modify them with jigs that have blades, add belly weights, nail weights, ratttles.....I am still a novice with swimbaits and they are not easy to fish like a fluke at least for me, but I need to throw the power team swing hammer baits more as I have heard they are dynamite, seen the evidence, tried them at the wrong times, and I have never read a bad review on them on Tackle warehouse and that is rare for any bait or lure.....I love floating baits and thin and large, so I need to get that going in the arsenal and from what I hear it is easy to fish and rigging also easy..Also have a great tube, Large Worm, and some creature craw a friend keeps telling me to get and toss it on a football jig so I need to find some new baits myself....have the Monkey on my back now and bad time of year for that.

[OntarioFishingGuy]

1oz jighead, zoom swimming super fluke Houdini color or berkley hollow belly in a white/shad type pattern. 15lb 832, med-hvy spinning rod. Ripping it off bottom near humps, deep points, drop offs and deep timber in 20+ feet of water is one of my go to ways to catch big bass! and HUGE walleye as a bonus.

[jtharris3]

Thank you so much for the feedback! I've got a lot of baits to look into and a nice variety of ways to fish them!