Super User WRB Posted February 9, 2020 Super User Posted February 9, 2020 My suggestion using swimbaits under 3 oz you can get by with rods rated 1 to 5oz. If you are contemplating using swimbaits with top hooks that exceed 2 1/2 oz to 5 oz use Swimbait rods rated 2 to 8 oz or XHeavy. Rod length depends on your preference, 7'9" to 8' are common in entry level rods. Sitting in a kayak the long rods will not be easy to cast. Reels, Shimano Cardiff 300 series is a excellent entry level choice. Line, Sunline Defier Armillo 25 lb /.016D, 165 yard spool fills a 300 size Cardiff. Good casting line and strong enough for swimbaits, wakes, glides, rats between 1 to 7 oz. I alway suggest going up in Swimbait Rod power because you have a wider range of lures and you don't want to be under powered. Tom Quote
Super User MassYak85 Posted February 9, 2020 Super User Posted February 9, 2020 6 hours ago, TBAG said: Am I going to have a tough time with hooksets with the 795 out of a kayak with the weedless baits? If so, whats a better rod choice? You'll want to consider what line you're using too. If you find you aren't getting the hook planted you could switch to braid to leader which IMO kind of acts as a step up in rod power in this case. Straight mono at the end of a long cast I think you're gonna lose fish. I fish 20lb copoly but that's strictly treble hook baits. If I was using mine for 68's I'd go braid to leader personally. 1 Quote
Super User MassYak85 Posted February 10, 2020 Super User Posted February 10, 2020 @Harold Scoggins My kayak definitely rocks back and forth a bit casting an 8" Hudd lol, not for the faint of heart when you're also fighting waves. 1 Quote
Super User WRB Posted February 10, 2020 Super User Posted February 10, 2020 Haven't talked to Butch Brown for awhile and regard him as the top Swimbait bass angler and he uses 20 lb / .016D Seagaur AbrazX FC line. I don't trust FC line or respool my reels every other trip and use Armillo because it has superior knot strength IMO. Braid with leaders is risky using big swimbaits. I realize Matt Allen uses 65 lb braid with 30 lb Sunline FC100 leaders and Bill Siemantel uses straight 30 lb Maxima Copoly line. Line choice is whatever the angler has confidence in using. Tom Quote
Ogandrews Posted February 12, 2020 Posted February 12, 2020 I have not spent a lot of time throwing big Swimbaits but I do throw 7.8 keitechs as well as 6-7” osprey tournament talons a lot while musky and pike fishing and have had amazing success with them for bass as well. It might not always be your best option, don’t be afraid of big baits. I live in Minnesota and the two biggest largemouth of my life were on musky baits, one on a 9” weighted suick jerkbait and the other on a pounder bulldawg which is 14 oz and 16” long. If you guys are looking for a good jig hook swimbait rod for baits up to 7-8 oz look at the st Croix legend tournament musky big nasty, 9ft heavy but it’s a musky rod so a lot more power than a regular heavy swimbait rod but still really light weight wise. I have one with a tranx 500 I use for big blades for musky and it doubles as a swimbait rod when i feel like bass fishing. I also fish from a kayak a lot of the time and I have no issue throwing musky lures over a pound with a 9’ or 9’6” rod so don’t be afraid of throwing regular Swimbaits with an 8 footer, best piece of advice would be to throw over your shoulder as much as you can side arming it will rock your boat a lot more and you have to use a lot more effort to toss the big baits 1 Quote
Ford Posted March 31, 2020 Posted March 31, 2020 On 2/7/2020 at 8:01 PM, Michigander said: I just started fishing big swimbaits myself. I've done it for days on end and realized that 1) getting swimbait reels was pointless because a regular low profile reel from one of my combos is now on my swimbait rod 2) fifty dollar hard baits are pretty useless. The soft swimbaits get bites ad smaller fish still grab them. I tried the Magdraft Freestyle and caught some, but they fall apart after one or two small fish. The Hud 68 and the weedless version swim great and get a lot of credit from everyone. I made the mistake of believing the hype on a few baits and I can say now that it was a waste of money to buy things like the Bull Gill, Bull Shad 4x4, and DB Shad. I fish water in Texas with a lot of fish in the 5-10lb range and they don't ever touch these baits. The Gantrell looks amazing in the water and you can make it do a lot of stop and go tricks, never had a bite on it, but that could be from not fishing it a lot. The Live Target swimbaits do okay and are a lot cheaper. They definitely out fish the baits I listed. Quote
Smalls Posted March 31, 2020 Posted March 31, 2020 12 hours ago, Ford said: I made the mistake of believing the hype on a few baits and I can say now that it was a waste of money to buy things like the Bull Gill, Bull Shad 4x4, and DB Shad. Of all the overhyped swimbaits ever made, you literally named probably the most productive bait on the market. Bucca's baits catch boat fulls of fish from coast to coast. Trust me, there's tons of overpriced and over hyped baits out there, and I myself put a limit on what I'll pay for a bait now. But if he raised the price of the bullshad to $100, I'd still buy em. I get it, it sucks spending that much on a bait and not get bit. But this is a corner of the fishing world that has a large learning curve, sometimes you have to grind. And sometimes it's just not the right tool for the job. $50 barely gets you in the door fishing swimbaits. There's some decent baits for under that, sure. But a good portion of the budget baits are junk. 1 Quote
Super User PhishLI Posted March 31, 2020 Super User Posted March 31, 2020 39 minutes ago, Smalls said: Of all the overhyped swimbaits ever made, you literally named probably the most productive bait on the market. Bucca's baits catch boat fulls of fish from coast to coast. I have to agree with you here. None of baits shown in the picture, and there are actually quite a bit more not shown as they all couldn't fit on the table, can match the Buccas so far, even with their raw, unfinished texture. The Bull Gill, 4x4, and Bull Shad are straight up killers. Several have received fancy paint jobs this past winter. It'll be interesting to see how that pans out. 1 Quote
Jig Rookie Posted March 31, 2020 Posted March 31, 2020 1 hour ago, Smalls said: Of all the overhyped swimbaits ever made, you literally named probably the most productive bait on the market. Bucca's baits catch boat fulls of fish from coast to coast... ...$50 barely gets you in the door fishing swimbaits. There's some decent baits for under that, sure. But a good portion of the budget baits are junk. Yeah the first part I totally agree with: you named the baits that pretty much every big bait fisherman considers staples in the big bait game. It's REALLY hard to fish a Bullshad variation for any good amount of time and NOT get bit, they just catch fish. So much so that it's a recommended beginner bait to gain confidence in swimbait fishing. The second part, though, I must respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree with: I've been swimbaiting for three years now and I still don't own a single bait over $50. But I slay on "cheap" baits: Savage Gear Shine Glide ($18.99) and the Jenko Booty Shaker (2-pack of 7-inchers for $8.99) get eaten like CRAZY. I can name others for under $50 (Black Dog Shellcracker, Hudd trout, Spro Rat are just a few) that big bait enthusiasts also swear by. Just do your research, you'll find winners. Pic below is the Shine Glide. Pic below is a 5.42-pounder (my PB at the time) caught on a Japanese Shellcracker equivalent ($29 US). 1 Quote
Smalls Posted March 31, 2020 Posted March 31, 2020 16 minutes ago, Jig Rookie said: The second part, though, I must respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree with: I've been swimbaiting for three years now and I still don't own a single bait over $50. No, there are definitely cheaper baits that work, but for every one of those, there's 15 that suck. I also wasn't looking at $50 as a hard number, it was just a generalization of cheaper baits. I left out soft baits because there really aren't many over $50 to begin with. Quote
Jig Rookie Posted March 31, 2020 Posted March 31, 2020 2 minutes ago, Smalls said: No, there are definitely cheaper baits that work, but for every one of those, there's 15 that suck. I left out soft baits because there really aren't many over $50 to begin with. Word, I can dig it. Quote
Adam Markley Posted March 31, 2020 Author Posted March 31, 2020 I'm still trying to piece together a beginner lot. What are some of your guys absolute must haves, everyone says bullshad; which ones? slow sink, 4x4, bullgill, wake etc. I'm trying to get one lure for each type wake, crank down, soft for bottom creeping, and a glide. as well as anything else im not thinking of Quote
Super User PhishLI Posted March 31, 2020 Super User Posted March 31, 2020 30 minutes ago, Adam Markley said: I'm still trying to piece together a beginner lot. What are some of your guys absolute must haves, everyone says bullshad; which ones? slow sink, 4x4, bullgill, wake etc. I'm trying to get one lure for each type wake, crank down, soft for bottom creeping, and a glide. as well as anything else im not thinking of We fish lots of shallow weedy lakes, so slow sink is a must. I stick with the 5" bull gill. 6" bull shad and 4x4 for when fishing those particular spots. Deeper water lakes is where the fast sink and/or larger baits are thrown. The depth of the 4x4 and Shellcracker g2 can be controlled by feel and cranking speed. 2 hours ago, Jig Rookie said: and the Jenko Booty Shaker (2-pack of 7-inchers for $8.99) I've had a grand old time with the Beast Coast Miyagi 4.75". Just a killer bait and looks nearly identical to the Jenko. I have to pick some up in the larger sizes. Which hook do you like for the 7"er? Quote
Adam Markley Posted March 31, 2020 Author Posted March 31, 2020 6 minutes ago, PhishLI said: We fish lots of shallow weedy lakes, so slow sink is a must. I stick with the 5" bull gill. 6" bull shad and 4x4 for when fishing those particular spots. Deeper water lakes is where the fast sink and/or larger baits are thrown. The depth of the 4x4 and Shellcracker g2 can be controlled by feel and cranking speed. appreciate that, i was debating grabbing either a 4x4 or toxic wnc for a crankdown. most of the lakes i fish are very weedy and shallowish as well, in the pocono mountains. the g2 shellcracker intrigued me too because most of the forage is gill, although i do spend a good amount of time fishing a deep reservoir with minimal weeds. theres too many baits to get too little cash lol. Quote
Super User PhishLI Posted March 31, 2020 Super User Posted March 31, 2020 8 minutes ago, Adam Markley said: theres too many baits to get too little cash lol. Do your research. There're affordable(inexpensive) proven baits out there. If you go on the FB swimbait pages you can go down the rabbit hole quickly. Lots of "you gotta have this" and "you have to this" and "you can't do that". You can keep it simple and relatively inexpensive if you don't purchase blindly and listen to people who are obsessed. Swimbaiting is no different than "regular" bass fishing. You actually need just a few types of baits to be successful, and not 20 versions of each of them either. 1 Quote
Adam Markley Posted March 31, 2020 Author Posted March 31, 2020 8 minutes ago, PhishLI said: Do your research. There're affordable(inexpensive) proven baits out there. If you go on the FB swimbait pages you can go down the rabbit hole quickly. Lots of "you gotta have this" and "you have to this" and "you can't do that". You can keep it simple and relatively inexpensive if you don't purchase blindly and listen to people who are obsessed. Swimbaiting is no different than "regular" bass fishing. You actually need just a few types of baits to be successful, and not 20 versions of each of them either. i hear ya, i'm trying to get one bait for each part of the water column to start out. Quote
Jig Rookie Posted March 31, 2020 Posted March 31, 2020 56 minutes ago, PhishLI said: 've had a grand old time with the Beast Coast Miyagi 4.75". Just a killer bait and looks nearly identical to the Jenko. I have to pick some up in the larger sizes. Which hook do you like for the 7"er? The 10/0 weighted Beast is perfect for me. 1 Quote
Adam Markley Posted March 31, 2020 Author Posted March 31, 2020 3 hours ago, PhishLI said: I have to agree with you here. None of baits shown in the picture, and there are actually quite a bit more not shown as they all couldn't fit on the table, can match the Buccas so far, even with their raw, unfinished texture. The Bull Gill, 4x4, and Bull Shad are straight up killers. Several have received fancy paint jobs this past winter. It'll be interesting to see how that pans out. I see you have a couple slammers, are they worth the money in your opinion? Thinking about a 9” single jointed one at some point for a wake bait Quote
Super User PhishLI Posted March 31, 2020 Super User Posted March 31, 2020 1 minute ago, Adam Markley said: I see you have a couple slammers, are they worth the money in your opinion? Thinking about a 9” single jointed one at some point for a wake bait Much more success on the 7" around here. Even dinks bite it. 1 Quote
Super User MassYak85 Posted April 1, 2020 Super User Posted April 1, 2020 To me, the must-haves starting out are a bullshad (I like the 4x4), slammer (7 or 9), G2 shell cracker, Hudd 68, swaver 168 and spro rat. If I had to restart those would be the first baits I'd buy again. And don't be afraid to buy second hand. If it's got hook rash it was fished hard and caught fish. 1 Quote
Adam Markley Posted April 1, 2020 Author Posted April 1, 2020 51 minutes ago, MassYak85 said: To me, the must-haves starting out are a bullshad (I like the 4x4), slammer (7 or 9), G2 shell cracker, Hudd 68, swaver 168 and spro rat. If I had to restart those would be the first baits I'd buy again. And don't be afraid to buy second hand. If it's got hook rash it was fished hard and caught fish. Thanks, I was considering many of the baits you listed already. I see bullshad has a drop for their gill glide today, I’m tempted to grab one because they’re hard to come by apparently. Quote
Super User PhishLI Posted April 1, 2020 Super User Posted April 1, 2020 29 minutes ago, Adam Markley said: Thanks, I was considering many of the baits you listed already. I see bullshad has a drop for their gill glide today, I’m tempted to grab one because they’re hard to come by apparently. The gill glide is huge 1 Quote
Adam Markley Posted April 1, 2020 Author Posted April 1, 2020 Just now, PhishLI said: The gill glide is huge Oh is it? I thought it was the same profile as the bullgill. Quote
Super User PhishLI Posted April 1, 2020 Super User Posted April 1, 2020 13 minutes ago, Adam Markley said: Oh is it? I thought it was the same profile as the bullgill. It's chunky. 4.5 OZs 1 Quote
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