Soft trout hook orientation?

[PressuredFishing]

What rig do you guys perfer for soft trout swimbaits, exposed jig hook, line thru, or stinger treble hook style. I have two of the three but have not caught enough fish on either to make a confirmation on what hookup ratio is better

[Hammer 4]

Open water, top exposed hook. For heavy cover, weedless hook. 

[PressuredFishing]

18 minutes ago, Hammer 4 said:

Open water, top exposed hook. For heavy cover, weedless hook. 

Thanks for the input ? 

[WRB]

Name the swimbaits?

[PressuredFishing]

4 minutes ago, WRB said:

Name the swimbaits?

Savage gear pulse tail rtf swimbait (top hook jighead with stinger) vs savage gear pulse tail 4d line thru swimbait.

[WRB]

To start with I am not a fan of Savage Gear swimbaits, tend to stay with Hudd 68’s and 8” ROF 12’s Top hooks.

Added stinger hooks Surfline 40 lb wire behind the dorsal fin occasionally.

Swimbaits are a dedicated lure that requires hours of fishing without strikes and few moments of fighting big bass, not for everyone.

For me most committed strike you don’t need stinger hooks as the bass engulfs the lure. Stinger hooks can increase strike ratio from curious bass bumping the lure but hook up ratio is still low.

Watch the trout planting schedule and focus your efforts around that week.

Sharpen the hooks, slow down and be patient. If you want to work a swimbait get 1 good glide bait.

Tom

PS, Sold over 40 swimbaits last year along my rods and reels. 

 

[PressuredFishing]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

To start with I am not a fan of Savage Gear swimbaits, tend to stay with Hudd 68’s and 8” ROF 12’s Top hooks.

Added stinger hooks Surfline 40 lb wire behind the dorsal fin occasionally.

Swimbaits are a dedicated lure that requires hours of fishing without strikes and few moments of fighting big bass, not for everyone.

For me most committed strike you don’t need stinger hooks as the bass engulfs the lure. Stinger hooks can increase strike ratio from curious bass bumping the lure but hook up ratio is still low.

Watch the trout planting schedule and focus your efforts around that week.

Sharpen the hooks, slow down and be patient. If you want to work a swimbait get 1 good glide bait.

Tom

PS, Sold over 40 swimbaits last year along my rods and reels. 

 

Wow thankyou for this information, I will avoid the savage gear swimbaits and get some more Hudds with top hooks. I never thought of going out on the weeks the plant, I will try that, I never have.

[Hammer 4]

I agree with what Tom said. Re: trout plants, be there when the truck rolls up to the dumping spot. Try to get as close as you can to the truck. When the trout start hitting the water, the bass are waiting. Stocker trout are usually small, maybe a wee bit larger than a hudd 68. For that reason I prefer to throw an 8" Hudd, as it presents a bigger meal. A 68 will get bit also.

[bulldog1935]

While I'm guessing this is a bass-lure thread, a point about the trout and hooks. 

If trout catch and release is your goal, hook point keeling down protects the fish, though I've caught and released many fine trout bottom-bouncing a keel-up cats whisker on Teeny fly line. 

 

The reason for C&R concern is trout's spine is so close to their mouth, a keeled-up hook can impale their spinal cord. 

Only time I saw this happen was my daughter on Rio Chama with a size 12 nymph - it's ok, legal bag there, and we papered the trout for her dinner. 

 

When I'm fishing floating line, cats whisker + dropper, my cats whisker is tied with conehead, and keels hook-point-down. 

[J Francho]

11 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

If trout catch and release is your goal

The goal is catching largemouth bass with trout swimbaits.

 

I've caught on the Savage gear baits pretty well.  I like the Hudds and Trash Fish better.  For the top hook baits, I usually use a Butch Brown rig.  For the line through, just use a strong Owner ST-41 hook of appropriate size.  For Weedless, I much prefer the softer Trash Fish to anything SG offers.

[bulldog1935]

6 minutes ago, J Francho said:

The goal is catching largemouth bass with trout swimbaits.

 

I've caught on the Savage gear baits pretty well.  I like the Hudds and Trash Fish better.  For the top hook baits, I usually use a Butch Brown rig.  For the line through, just use a strong Owner ST-41 hook of appropriate size.  For Weedless, I much prefer the softer Trash Fish to anything SG offers.

If it makes you feel better, in the C&R zone of our tailwater, we target the stripers that take big trout from the end of people's fly lines.  Never heard of one caught one on a trout swimbait, (Castaic, etc.) but they take the same bottom-bounced cats whisker the rainbows will. 

[J Francho]

1 minute ago, bulldog1935 said:

Never heard of one caught one on a trout swimbait

It's the striper guys trolling trout pattern plugs (AC Plugs) giving up the ghost about all the big bass they caught that was one of the contributing factors that got the whole swimbait craze started in the early 90s.  Pretty sure Tom can back that up - he was there for it all.