Swimbait Tips?

[Alex Phillips]

So I'm from Wisconsin and want to get into swimbait fishing. The bass don't get very big where I fish, so does anyone have and tips for swimbait fishing such as how to fish it and another thing, what is a good swimbait that I should start out fishing? The main forage is bluegills where I normally fish. Any suggestions and tips would be greatly appreciated! 

[MassYak85]

If you are looking for bluegill swimbaits savage gear recently came out with some.

 

The smaller 5" one is light (and won't break the bank) enough you could probably get away throwing it on a heavy flipping stick or frog rod without buying dedicated swimbait gear, but if you are looking to throw larger baits like Hudds you will need dedicated gear. They also aren't intimidatingly large, and even fish under 2 lbs could eat them, so if you are looking to build confidence in swimbaits they might help you out since you aren't eliminating as much of the bass population like you would throwing larger baits. 

[Bluebasser86]

They don't get big in NE Kansas either, but I still catch plenty on swimbaits up to 8". I wouldn't get too hung up on the "match the hatch" thing. I catch them on shad swimbaits in lakes with no shad, trout swimbaits in lakes with no trout, and colors that don't look like any baitfish I've ever seen.

The 168 S waver, 6" Savage Gear Line Thru, 5" Savage Gear bluegill, 7" or Mini MS Slammer, are all smaller baits that you can throw without specialized gear. Plus they'll catch numbers along with big fish to help build up your confidence. 

[WRB]

Huddleston HuddGil weighs 1.7 oz, Blackdog G2 Shellcracker weighs 1.5 oz and both can be fished using standards bass rods rated to 1 1/4 oz or heavy crankbait rods.

The G2 is a bluegill wake bait, the HuddGil a slow sinking weedless bluegill swimbait.

Tom

[Scarborough817]

i would say start with the 6" savage gear line through

as bluebasser said don't worry a ton about colour i can garuntee there are no trout in lakes i fish and i caught a 5.06 on a 7" savage gear real trout earlier this year

[blckshirt98]

Check out the Gantarel Jr's as well - they're a hardbait so you don't have to worry about tearing plastic, and they're fairly affordable.  Also the matte Black Impact Gill might be the sickest paint job I've seen in a mass produced bait.