Swimbait rabbit hole

[PressuredFishing]

So I have collected a few swimbaits and have a few Huddleston, gantarel jackals, and s wavers, but I guess my question is soft vs hard body. Like for instance which performs better in what water visibility, and should you use a soft body close to the surface like a hard body floater or do the floaters just look better near the surface? Thanks for your guys time!

[Big Hands]

I don't think a bass can tell whether or not it's hard or soft until they eat it.

 

Several swimbaits are made in floating, slow sink and fast sink models (usually hard or baits with a soft skin). 

 

Whatever you do with it, it needs to be placed in the vicinity of the fish. Sometimes they will run one down and eat it, but when I see them follow it, they usually end up only being curious. 

 

BITD, we used to troll the AY See Plug (a hard jointed swimbait) at nine colors on lead core line (that would get it skimming the main lake points at about 25 feet deep). That is a hard swimbait made from a piece of 1-3/8" closet dowel that will only dive a couple feet on it's own. It was usually digging into the bottom when it would get slammed for us, but very few people ever knew to try to fish them like that.

 

Ganterels and s-wavers are glide baits. Plenty of videos on how to fish them slowly and then impart subtle twitches and pauses that make them suddenly veer or u-turn.

 

The Huddleston is more of a true swimbait and like most soft swimbaits, they will usually sink if given the chance. It kind of stays on course and the tail wagging is where most of it's action comes from. Some even rig them so they can drag them across the bottom. . . slowly. 

 

Find a spot where you can see your bait on the retrieve and watch how it behaves. There will be speeds where it looks like money and other speeds won't.  

 

It's easy to be skeptical of these giant baits. . . . until you get bit on one. Both types work and they both catch BIG fish, but only if you use them.

 

I spoke to one of our local legends earlier this year (he's actually quite a bit more than a local legend) and he told me that he didn't get a bite the first 13 times he fished this year. Then he caught an 8 pounder and a 13 pounder in the same week. That's big swimbait fishing in a nutshell, even for the best of them.

 

Still, the 'rules' are neither hard nor fast and they're meant to be broken.

[PressuredFishing]

2 minutes ago, Big Hands said:

I don't think a bass can tell whether or not it's hard or soft until they eat it.

 

Several swimbaits are made in floating, slow sink and fast sink models (usually hard or baits with a soft skin). 

 

Whatever you do with it, it needs to be placed in the vicinity of the fish. Sometimes they will run one down and eat it, but when I see them follow it, they usually end up only being curious. 

 

BITD, we used to troll the AY See Plug (a hard jointed swimbait) at nine colors on lead core line (that would get it skimming the main lake points at about 25 feet deep). That is a hard swimbait made from a piece of 1-3/8" closet dowel that will only dive a couple feet on it's own. It was usually digging into the bottom when it would get slammed for us, but very few people ever knew to try to fish them like that.

 

Ganterels and s-wavers are glide baits. Plenty of videos on how to fish them slowly and then impart subtle twitches and pauses that make them suddenly veer or u-turn.

 

The Huddleston is more of a true swimbait and like most soft swimbaits, they will usually sink if given the chance. It kind of stays on course and the tail wagging is where most of it's action comes from. Some even rig them so they can drag them across the bottom. . . slowly. 

 

Find a spot where you can see your bait on the retrieve and watch how it behaves. There will be speeds where it looks like money and other speeds won't.  

 

It's easy to be skeptical of these giant baits. . . . until you get bit on one. Both types work and they both catch BIG fish, but only if you use them.

 

I spoke to one of our local legends earlier this year (he's actually quite a bit more than a local legend) and he told me that he didn't get a bite the first 13 times he fished this year. Then he caught an 8 pounder and a 13 pounder in the same week. That's big swimbait fishing in a nutshell, even for the best of them.

 

Still, the 'rules' are neither hard nor fast and they're meant to be broken.

Thanks for this information!

[WRB]

Huddleston are slow swimmers for sight feeding bass at all depths. Single hook lure.

S-Waver is a slow sinking glide bait that is designed to make change of direction reaction strikes. Treble hook lure.

Gantarel is a wake bait on or subsurface. Treble hook lure.

All the above different classes of swimmers. 

All lures are trail and error to determine what the bass prefer.

Tom

 

[PressuredFishing]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Huddleston are slow swimmers for sight feeding bass at all depths. Single hook lure.

S-Waver is a slow sinking glide bait that is designed to make change of direction reaction strikes. Treble hook lure.

Gantarel is a wake bait on or subsurface. Treble hook lure.

All the above different classes of swimmers. 

All lures are trail and error to determine what the bass prefer.

Tom

 

Than Tom!

[ATA]

ok I want to just add the rate of dive in Huddleston which making difference in result, Is it 5, 10 or 15 feet?, Even if you use same size and same color. Also the modifications made to add a trailer hook(Buch Brown Style) will effect the Hook up ratio.

[WRB]

Hudds are ROF (rate of fall/sink) 5, 12 & 16 feet per minute and come in 6”, 68 (6” with 8 size tail, 8” and 10” lengths with a heavy top hook or weedless. 

Butch Brown modified Hudds adding a top of the head size 1 treble hook. Regardless Hudds are slow sink slow receive soft body life like swimbaits. Patients and dedication is required to successfully fish swimbaits, not for everyone.

Any swimbait over 2 oz requires dedicated rods to cast effectively and line strong enough to get good hook sets.

SoCal lakes that have trout plants are your best choice. 

Good luck,

Tom

 

 

[Hammer 4]

Not much I can add to all the above, except to say, I fish wakes, glides and soft swimbaits regardless of water clarity.

I also would recommend checking youtube for how Butch rigs his baits. Fished with him a couple times, the dude knows how catch monster bass.

[PressuredFishing]

14 hours ago, Hammer 4 said:

Not much I can add to all the above, except to say, I fish wakes, glides and soft swimbaits regardless of water clarity.

I also would recommend checking youtube for how Butch rigs his baits. Fished with him a couple times, the dude knows how catch monster bass.

just watched a video of how butch got into big baits because of your comment and its really cool, thanks!