Midwest Swimbaits

[Carterjig68]

Hey, I fish Indiana and swimbaits aren't exactly popular here but I want to start throwing them. Anyone have any advice about swimbait fishing the Midwest? Any baits come to mind?

[Bankbeater]

I have had pretty good luck using Mr. Twister Sassy Shad in the 3" size.

[Arobb2012]

Try some Keitech fat impact or easy shinners. Reaction innovations skinny dippers are a popular swim bait in sw ohio where I fish. Grab some 1/8 oz to 1/4 oz jig heads and some swim bait hooks and toss them around some weed beds or any visible cover and you should pull out some nice fish.

[Carterjig68]

Good responses I actually use those, but for future reference I'm talking about big swimbaits.

[MarkH024]

Mattlures Hardgill. Deps 175 ss, ms slammers, GC 178, 3:16 FS gill, g2 shellcrackers, 68 hudds. All fish catchers. 

Have patience. Learn 2 or 3 baits before you buy hordes of swimbaits. 

[RyneB]

I like the keitechs an shadalicious for soft baits. Don't hesitate to try glide baits. River2Sea S waver and the Savage Shine Glide get have shined for me

[A-Jay]

Hudd 68 ~

A-Jay

[deep]

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Hudd 68 ~

A-Jay

You guys fishing for sharks or what?

[A-Jay]

45 minutes ago, deep said:

You guys fishing for sharks or what?

Or What.

A-Jay

[gulfcaptain]

Hudds, both 68's as well as the 8", then you also have the option of the Savage Gear Line Thru's, Rago's BVD and BVD jr.  S-Weaver's 6" Spro BBZ, 7-8" Triple Trouts (floating since they run about $75 a piece and if you loose one at least you can try and retrieve it).  Osprey makes some good swimbaits as well.  And a few mentioned above.  Also have the Bull Shads too.  If you're going to be fishing slow, try and go with soft swimbaits, and use the hardbaits for faster presentations and reaction strikes.  There's a good list of baits to look into.

[deep]

3 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Or What.

A-Jay

Muskies?

[A-Jay]

1 minute ago, deep said:

Muskies?

 

Nope ~ Micropterus salmoides.

A-Jay

[Bluebasser86]

Not exactly a big fish factory here in KS either, but I still catch plenty of fish on swimbaits. The Deps 175, Slammer, and Bull Shad did the most damage for me last year. I'd say get a Slammer and a 168 S waver or the 7 1/4" Savage Gear Shine Glide and learn those baits. If you like it then you can dive in deeper. It isn't for everyone and you can spend a lot of money in a hurry just to find out you don't like fishing big baits. The Slammer gets tons of action from all sizes of fish for me and was a big part of why I decided to jump into fishing big baits even more. 

[blckshirt98]

The S-Wavers are a good starting point that won't stress your wallet as much as some of the other baits.

[Fishes in trees]

Here in Missouri I have no experience at throwing the larger hard swim baits.   Several years ago I experimented with the larger soft plastic swim baits, specifically the 7" Strike King Shadalicious.  (I think that is how it is spelled.)    Not a lot to show for the time I spent at it.   At a June BFL tournament on Truman Lake I had one tied on and threw it quite a bit.   Caught one sub legal fish.  Boater didn't do much better, but he was a boat salesman from Springfield and he was much more concerned about passing out cards at the registration meeting and before launching than he was actually fishing.

One other time, fishing at a more local lake, a shallow grass bite was on and so I decided to throw the big plastic and see what might happen.   The biggest fish that I've ever seen in that lake came up and looked at it and swam a foot or two behind it for 15 or 16 feet and then turned and slowly swam away.  Now every time I am in that cove, for the last 5 years now, I think about that fish.  Other than those two instances, my soft swim baits haven't attracted any attention.   I keep them in the boat but I don't throw them that much any more.

For the record I was throwing the bait on my 7'9" Heavy Action Fenwick (It was the model that was replaced by the AETOS, don't remember the name right now)  65 lb braid on a Shimano 200 TEGT.    The same rig that I throw frogs on.

On the subject of smaller swim baits, one day I took a boss fishing, he's using all borrowed tackle ( mine ) and a spinner bait bite is happening and I didn't provide him with anything that would decently throw a spinner bait.

Had a 6' MH spinning rig with 14 lb Fireline I rigged up with a Sling Blade Flutter and a Skinny Dipper.  Fishing behind me he caught a dozen or so fish, mostly slot fish, running the bait similar to how I was working the spinner bait.  So, I've seen the smaller swim baits work - kinda - but just not for me.

[Klebs01]

I haven't caught any fish on my 6"+ baits, but my biggest bass last year came on a biwaa seven a jackal giron. I'll be chucking those as well as the bigger stuff this year. Can't wait to throw the spro rat. 

[mnbassman23]

On 1/13/2016 at 6:50 PM, MarkH024 said:

Mattlures Hardgill. Deps 175 ss, ms slammers, GC 178, 3:16 FS gill, g2 shellcrackers, 68 hudds. All fish catchers. 

Have patience. Learn 2 or 3 baits before you buy hordes of swimbaits. 

This is solid advice. There are a bunch of good baits out there and it really depends on how much you want to spend and what forage you want to imitate. I've had pretty good success and the biggest thing for me was buying 2 lures and learning them well. It gets addicting and you'll want to buy buy buy but that does't give you time to learn the baits you have to be successful. Glide baits like the Deps and Gan Craft are fun to fish and put big fish in the boat. Hardgills, triple trouts, bull shads, etc have a straight swimming action and can be great for covering water. Soft baits like a Hudd 68 are great for working the bottom similar to a jig or slow rolling and shine in colder water and when the fish are inactive but they put big fish in the boat year round. Make sure you have atleast 1 hard bait and 1 soft bait and start fishing high percentage areas. Here in MN we have one of the smallest state records but swimbait fishing is good because people don't throw them. 2lb fish will smash a 6-7" bait without an issue and to a 5lber it's a snack. Be ready to spend some days on the water with little action but the rewards are worth it.    

[Primus]

I'm a little late on this topic. That said I would start with 2. The first one would be a Slow Sink 2 joint Matt lures hardgill as there are Bluegill all over the country and this bait flat out catches them and will build your confidence along with giving you a shot at a Big fish .

 The second I would go with would be a 9" MS Slammer, I would use this mostly as a topwater bait but it can also be effective cranked down as well. I usually slow wake the Slammer or twitch it like a large floating Rapala . 

 There are a lot of other terrific baits out there but these are proven mid priced baits to get you started, fish these hard especially during low light conditions . If you decide you like this style of fishing then you will no doubt want to acquire other baits and build your arsenal, if you don't you should be able to sell these 2 respected baits and get most of your money back as they are very popular with the big bait community .