Shiner Swimbaits

[N Florida Mike]

What's your favorite ? I've heard the live target one is good. A friend had one but I didn't hear of him catching much on it. But that thing looks real!

We have a lot of wild shiners around here, the bass can't resist them , so I'd like to try one this year.

How have y'all done with them ?

[MIbassin]

savage gear shine glide! very affordable and gets whacked

[Mike L]

Its close to the color but the most success I've ever have with a swimbait is a Houdini RI Skinny Dipper.

They love those shiners down here too. 

 

 

 

 

Mike

[DINK WHISPERER]

Fish 30 Acre dirty shad in the golden shiner pattern. The live Target is also a favorite of mine. 

[MassYak85]

Real Prey Shiner, I want to try out the Smashtech Shiners though, those can be rigged weedless and look pretty good. 

[Primus]

Real Prey baits are a very good recommendation by MassYak85 , Bullshads painted in Golden Shiners have also done well for me. 

[Big Swimbait]

Another vote for Smash Tech - great baits, great price.

[BassB8Caster]

i would look at the realprey (either 7.5 or jumbo 8.5), savage gear roach (10") or the shine glide. Seeing that you are in florida, i would go big. If the funds allow, go with a shine glide (7.25) and a 10" SG Roach. Go check out some savage gear videos. there are a few good ones of the roach. Swims awesome (like a glide and swimbait in one bait). And they are very durable, seeing that SG makes baits designed for pike. A 10" bait for $25 is a great deal. these are the 2 i plan to pick up this spring. 

[MassYak85]

4 hours ago, 1201vilbig said:

Another vote for Smash Tech - great baits, great price.

How have you found these to hold up? I've heard they are pretty soft. Also what hook works best? I've got the larger owner beast sizes laying around. 

[WRB]

 Your talking about Golden Shiner or in Florida a roach. What ever you use it should be weedless and slow sinking ROF 5 or similar. 

Basstrix 7” paddle tail hollow body swimbait that started this class is still excellent choice in Ayu or light hitch. 3:16, 8” Mission Fish is another over looked weedless swimbait that also comes light hitch and Ayu both work good at a reasonable price point.

Tom

 

[N Florida Mike]

I've never heard anyone call em a roach here. Only shiners.

How would you work these baits ? I have only used the small Swimbaits that you basically just cast and retrieve.

I've been with a friend that used them and he did everything except dead stick em.

[BassB8Caster]

Through cover (weed less), around cover, on the bottom etc. Fast retrieve, slow roll on bottom, wake on top, stop go twitch etc. Really all the above. Remember these big baits have bigger drawing power. So even if they don't get bit that specific time the fish will show themselves. Just buy one and go experiment with it. You will figure it out. YouTube has great videos on this. 

[Montanaro]

49er big ez

 

/end

[WRB]

Roach used for Golden shiners is a common term and surprised you never heard of it.

Robert Linclon the editor of Outdoor Life magazine has a chapter in his 1950's book on Black Bass dedicated to shiner fishing and mentions roaches.

My early trips to Florida during the late 60's to work on Saturn 5 program the local bait shops referred to shiners as roaches. Roland Marten referred to shiners as roaches.

I have no idea where the term came from or means, but traveling around the country for 50 years you hear a lot terms in fishing that make little sense.

Swimbait retreives; you don't want to over work a swimbait with adding a lot of action, a slow steady retrieve letting the swimmer do it's natural swimming motion will trigger more strikes. If you feel a bump reel faster a few feet instead of stopping, this usually trigger a strikes.

Tom

[N Florida Mike]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

 

Roach used for Golden shiners is a common term and surprised you never heard of it.

 

I've heard of the term before from reading somewhere, but never heard them called that from fishing buddies or at bait stores, either backwoods ones or closer to cities.Maybe it's more of a south Florida thing. I don't think live ones get used as much as before, they are real expensive  ,unless you catch your own ( which I usually do ). But a bass cannot resist them !

That's why I want to try the shiner swimbait.

 

[gobig]

Trash fish with an 8/0 owner Beast. One of the best weedless swimbaits made. Don't cheap out and buy the sick fish it's not the same bait. There is a lot of secondary action in the fins and they flat out get bit. 

[BassB8Caster]

13 hours ago, dupert said:

I have Realprey golden shiner and it is really a nice bait.

Not to hijack..but how is the durability? I know they are silicone, so durability is better. I fish around pickerel and i hate to spend on these custom baits and have a pickerel bite a tail off on the first cast. Another reason i hesitate to buy a hudd. 

[Primus]

That's always a risk when fishing around toothy critters and it will happen occasionally, that said I forget about all that when I stick a big fish. For those who can't handle losing a bait because they are concerned about the cost of replacement I would suggest baits like the Reaction Innovations Skinny Dippers and similar baits where there are multiple baits in a bag for about 5 $ . Use what you can afford and have fun fishing !

 

[MassYak85]

4 hours ago, BassB8Caster said:

Not to hijack..but how is the durability? I know they are silicone, so durability is better. I fish around pickerel and i hate to spend on these custom baits and have a pickerel bite a tail off on the first cast. Another reason i hesitate to buy a hudd. 

The great thing about real preys is you get awesome action with top notch durability. Could a pike/pickerel chomp down and bite off the tail, maybe, it would have to really not want to let go, but I do have teeth marks in mine from pickerel. But you won't find a more durable soft plastic bait out there IMO. 

[Fishing_FF]

I've looked at the trash fish as they have good action and can be weedless. Haven't pulled the trigger because I don't have the room in my tackle boxes to store them. 

 

A friend of mine uses a bunch of the LiveTarget swimbaits like the mullet and pinfish for inshore fishing. He has nothing but good things to say about the tails on them thumping through the water. He's used them for bass, too. He was anticipating the shad and shiner LiveTarget baits coming out as they were out a couple months ago when we talked. He said he has been busy, so hasn't gotten around to getting the new LiveTarget swimbaits yet. 

 

The first swimbaits in my collection that worked and I've kept are the Berkley Powerbait Swim Shad. Yeah, I know you said, "shiner."  Oddly enough, the shad colors haven't worked for me. The colors that are my keepers are bluegill and chartreuse shiner. Got these in the 2", 3", and 4" size. 

 

For bigger swimbaits, I also have the Yamamoto Heart Tail Shad Swimbaits and the Keitech Swing Impact FAT Swimbaits. Both are near the 5" range. In an attempt to keep it simple, it is a white and black of each. Yeah, kind of boring. I have a can of Spike-It Aerosol spray in Orange and Chartreuse in my bag that I use to provide highlights if needed (a little yellow on the back of a white plastic for chartreuse shiner and a little orange on the belly of a black plastic for a golden shiner). 

 

BassPro has knock-offs of the Berkleys and Keitechs. BassPro's version are more durable, but the tougher plastic is stiffer and doesn't copy the action as well. 

 

I don't have any hard swimbaits. The treble hooks and Florida weeds aren't a nice combo when I'm bank fishing. 

[WRB]

Toothy fish it may be wise to use a hard 7" to 8" glide lure or a 7" to 8"  Triple Fish.

Tom

[MassYak85]

The trash fish are really nice but if a pickerel even looks at one funny you are losing the tail. I had to say goodbye to one of mine before it caught it's first bass last year. 

[rboat]

On the real prey, do you guys prefer the top hook model or the bottom hook? Just curious in case I save up some extra cash. Lol.

[N Florida Mike]

Lots of choices ?

I'll probably start with a couple of the less expensive ones and see how they do.

 

[BassB8Caster]

My plan is to buy a golden shiner gantarel, shine glide 7.25", and a real prey or Savage gear roach (10"). I like the value of the 10" sg for $20 on ebay. I am a fan of the real prey and I would consider them before a Huddleston. Rp shiner is $25 for a 7.5" and $40 for their jumbo 8.5" shiner. YouTube videos of the sg roach look fantastic. The action looks killer. Another hard bait I'll eventually pick up is a bbz-1 8" trout. Sg line thrus are nice because they allow you to rig hooks on top or bottom depending on your target zone.