Swimbaits......

[Kevin Beachy]

Ok, so last night, me and my buddy were fishing a pond that has become fairly tough to fish. It was dark when he hooked up with one on a Jackall ganterall Jr. It was around 4Lb. The question i have is, if there is NO trout is this pond, will the bass go after a trout colored swimbait as much as a bluegill swimbait? Btw, bluegill are the primary forage....

~Kevin

[geo g]

If your cranking the swim bait they will hit a reaction bite, especially under low light conditions.  Color really doesn't matter, the bass is reacting to the vibration.  The bait can be magical at certain times.  My favorite is the Gambler E-Z Swimmer, just keep it moving.  Use a weighted swim bait hook.

[d-camarena]

Bass arent as smart as you think. I catch them on artificial shrimp everyday. When bass are hungry youll catch em.

[blckshirt98]

If it fits in its mouth a bass will eat it!

[Raul]

16 hours ago, Kevin Beachy said:

Ok, so last night, me and my buddy were fishing a pond that has become fairly tough to fish. It was dark when he hooked up with one on a Jackall ganterall Jr. It was around 4Lb. The question i have is, if there is NO trout is this pond, will the bass go after a trout colored swimbait as much as a bluegill swimbait? Btw, bluegill are the primary forage....

~Kevin

I don´t know how many times I´ve said it but apparently nobody ever pays attention: you don´t have to mimic anything.

I don´t know how many times I´ve said: where I live bass have never seen a trout nor will ever see a trout still, trout imitators are some of my most productive baits, why ? because they imitate food.

[j bab]

Let's just say I caught a giant last night on a trout swimbait in a lake where the bass have never seen a trout. Bluegill & shad are the primary forage here.

[Raul]

1 minute ago, j bab said:

Let's just say I caught a giant last night on a trout swimbait in a lake where the bass have never seen a trout. Bluegill & shad are the primary forage here.

Down here where I´m at mirror & common carp, tilapia & "charal" are the main forage and the last thing I´m worried about is "matching", now if we become a little bit purist, yellow perch and mirror carp have similar color patterns, hitch would look common carpish, tilapia ? hmmm, that´s a tough one because some are blue with red cheeks, others are black, others are pure white, others are white with black patches or white with orange patches, others are bright orange while others are orange with black patches ( and I could continue listing like 15 more tilapia color patterns ), "charal" is a term used widely to describe several species of little fish which may or may not share anything in common. One of the most common "charales" found looks like this:

"Minnowish" ?

Other "charales" look like this:

 

 

[clh121787]

Trout baits will work anywhere but Texas. Don't even bother trying

[Raul]

8 hours ago, clh121787 said:

Trout baits will work anywhere but Texas. Don't even bother trying

True, they work on the Mexican side of Falcon and Amistad but not on the gringo side.

[Bluebasser86]

Bass aren't smart enough to know if a fish is supposed to be in the pond with them or not. All they know is it's another fish that they can probably fit in their mouth, which is all they need to know.

[CarolinaBoy4Life]

A bass is a predatory species. In certain cases a specific pattern may be better but they aren't going to look at a trout colored bait and say "Wait a minute, I've never seen this fish before I better not eat it." I throw a Hudd in trout pattern here in NC in the triad area and catch fish all the way up to 9lbs on it being the biggest and all the way down to 2.5lbs being the smallest. That tells me the size and the pattern does not stop them from being a predator by instinct and nature. 

[primetime]

I actually like some of the trout colored patterns as they look similar to other fish or have some nice contrasting colors and I actually think sometimes a different colored bait that is rarely used in a pond for instance can be a good thing...Bass that are keyed in on Golden Shiners and Bluegills are constantly pounded with baits in those color patterns. I often like to purposely try to not match the hatch since a Bass that sees shiners all day long will quickly notice that your bait is not the real deal. 

I think size and action of a bait is often more important than color, but I have had success fishing shad colored baits in ponds that do not have any shad but most fish have silver scales or flash, blue or black backs, so I think it is a reaction strike most of the time. Some of the trout colored baits I have could be mistaken for a crappie or a bluegill or even a small bass since they all take on different colors during different times of the year, water color, deep or shallow etc...I like swimbaits both soft and hard to have some flash and a light color bottom and darker top and that is as deep as my thinking goes....I used to get way to concerned with trying to get a perfect match with custom baits etc. and never did any better personally...

Sexy Shad seems to be a color that works anywhere from my experiences....I like some chart for flash on the bait, but profile and action is the key in my opinion as well as figuring out the retrieve and depth...So many variables, but I would use a trout color in a pond that only had golden shiners since it would stand out and Bass are curious by nature, and if it is wounded,they will smash it....

When I was a kid we would buy Gold Fish in the winter time for bait, and fish would kill them...They worked as good as any bait you could buy, and that is a color we never use...Bright orange....I am guilty of overthinking color, but working on just trusting my gut instinct.

[BassObsessed]

There's no trout in the ponds where I have caught bass on trout pattern hudds. Heck in one pond they were eating a crankbait painted liKe the American flag.

[Jon P.]

the most important thing with fishing in low light conditions is profile. the bass cant see color well but he can see shapes. and if it looks like food it is definitely food to him.

also, bass try very hard at night to find food, and any food that they notice can and will be eaten.

[Bluebasser86]

48 minutes ago, Jon P. said:

the most important thing with fishing in low light conditions is profile. the bass cant see color well but he can see shapes. and if it looks like food it is definitely food to him.

also, bass try very hard at night to find food, and any food that they notice can and will be eaten.

I believe that vibration is as important, if not more important in low light conditions. That's why a lot of popular baits for dirty water and night fishing give off lots of vibration (spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, buzzbaits, cranks). Of course the only way to tell what is really most important is to ask the bass, and they're not talking!

[gobig]

I wish there was a generic answer to your question. I am going to tell it like I see it. Some lakes  they eat big trout style swimbaits, some lakes the eat bluegill baits. Some lakes swimbaits suck. Some lakes they eat crawdads. You have to plow through and see what they want. For example at Clearlake I normally do well on large huds and glide baits because of the hitch. But this year because the shad population done so well I have caught more big fish on a 3.8 keitech than big baits.