What do you generally find to be the best way to add weight to a glide bait to keep it from coming out of the water?

[Ohioguy25]

Fishing slow sinking 1-2.5 oz glides and jointed swimbaits I’ve noticed they tend to blow out even if you aren’t necessarily working them too fast.  
 

Do you prefer lead/tungsten weights or upsizing hooks? How much total extra weight is generally needed?

[JediAmoeba]

Upsizing hooks or heavier split rings

[Ohioguy25]

16 minutes ago, JediAmoeba said:

Upsizing hooks or heavier split rings

How much weight do I want total?

[JediAmoeba]

7 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

How much weight do I want total?

Depends on the glider and what you want it to do... as the water temps increase you have to keep tinkering with them. Do you want it to sink level? Do you want it to nose down when you retrieve it? Do you want it slow float? Super slow sink? 

 

There is no right answer...

[WRB]

Simply slow down.

Easiest method to add or reduce weigh is using Storm SuspenStrips or dots.

Tom

[a1712]

Hang a Bass about 10-7 off the front hook. That usually will keep them lower in the water column. Brian. 

[Ohioguy25]

1 hour ago, JediAmoeba said:

Depends on the glider and what you want it to do... as the water temps increase you have to keep tinkering with them. Do you want it to sink level? Do you want it to nose down when you retrieve it? Do you want it slow float? Super slow sink? 

 

There is no right answer...

I’m trying to keep it from rising too fast

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Simply slow down.

Easiest method to add or reduce weigh is using Storm SuspenStrips or dots.

Tom

You find storm weights preferable to upsizing hooks?

[WRB]

Yes, heavier XXX treble hooks are harder to hook set and the weight gain isn’t more then 1 SuspenStrip. Easy to remove and add strips and dots, expensive to change out hooks and split rings.

Tom

[Ohioguy25]

2 minutes ago, WRB said:

Yes, heavier XXX treble hooks are harder to hook set and the weight gain isn’t more then 1 SuspenStrip. Easy to remove and add strips and dots, expensive to change out hooks and split rings.

Tom

What size trebles do you find to be ideal on say a 6.5” 2 oz Chad Shad?

[WRB]

The lure comes with Gamakatsu #1 trebles.

I would wrap a SuspenStrip around the shank of each hook before thinking of changing to size 1/0.

Tom

[Donnie Beasley]

I agree with keeping the hook size the same. Get yourself a spool of lead wire. Wrap it around the hook shank till you get the fall rate you are looking for. Cheap and effective. 

[PhishLI]

1 hour ago, Ohioguy25 said:

I’m trying to keep it from rising too fast

As far as I know, you have little to no experience with swimbaits. Why not just listen to people who know what they're doing with these baits and just slow down and see what happens? Clearly you have an idea in your head about how this bait should look when swimming, but this isn't in line with how it was designed to work. There are burner baits out there if you like, but if this one's rising and blowing out, you're cranking it way too fast.

[Ohioguy25]

13 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

As far as I know, you have little to no experience with swimbaits. Why not just listen to people who know what they're doing with these baits and just slow down and see what happens? Clearly you have an idea in your head about how this bait should look when swimming, but this isn't in line with how it was designed to work. There are burner baits out there if you like, but if this one's rising and blowing out, you're cranking it way too fast.

Yeah that’s why I switched to a lower gear ratio, hoping that’s all I needed along with a little control.

[AlabamaSpothunter]

How many actual hours on the water with a big swimbait in your hand have you spent?

 

That's the only way to learn these baits, I watched dozens of hours of YT videos, researched a ton, and then discovered I was learning more in a 3-4hr session of having the bait locked into my hand on the water than in all the stuff I watched or read.  

 

I've got well over a 100+ hours with the big baits locked into my hands, 20hrs+ in the last 7-10days.     In that last 7-10days I've learned more about how these big baits are applicable to me than the previous 80hrs+.    

 

In a few months when I pass 200+ hours.....I'm positive I will be exponentially greater at the big swimbait game. 

 

Time on water friend, you literally can't go wrong and will always go right by repeating that over and over and over.   All your questions and threads can be answered by doing this.   I say this not to demean you or your questions, but rather to say that the best knowledge on here is a far cry from the best knowledge gained on the actual water.....your specific body of water.    

 

Go fish these big baits, have fun, all your questions will be answered out there I promise! ?

[Ohioguy25]

12 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

How many actual hours on the water with a big swimbait in your hand have you spent?

 

That's the only way to learn these baits, I watched dozens of hours of YT videos, researched a ton, and then discovered I was learning more in a 3-4hr session of having the bait locked into my hand on the water than in all the stuff I watched or read.  

 

I've got well over a 100+ hours with the big baits locked into my hands, 20hrs+ in the last 7-10days.     In that last 7-10days I've learned more about how these big baits are applicable to me than the previous 80hrs+.    

 

In a few months when I pass 200+ hours.....I'm positive I will be exponentially greater at the big swimbait game. 

 

Time on water friend, you literally can't go wrong and will always go right by repeating that over and over and over.   All your questions and threads can be answered by doing this.   I say this not to demean you or your questions, but rather to say that the best knowledge on here is a far cry from the best knowledge gained on the actual water.....your specific body of water.    

 

Go fish these big baits, have fun, all your questions will be answered out there I promise! ?

Yeah fair point. I suppose I’m just trying to dial in as much as I can before honing the technique; ie weight, setup etc.

[GreenPig]

Lead wire. This is my floating BS tuned to be a XXXX Slow sink to fish over grass beds.

[Ohioguy25]

2 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

Lead wire. This is my floating BS tuned to be a XXXX Slow sink to fish over grass beds.

See I was always told you didn’t want to interfere with the hook.

[GreenPig]

43 minutes ago, Ohioguy25 said:

See I was always told you didn’t want to interfere with the hook.

I've never had a problem hooking & keeping them hooked. I went with the lead wire after watching Ben Milliken catch many big fish with it on his hooks.

[Ohioguy25]

On 6/1/2023 at 7:15 PM, JediAmoeba said:

Upsizing hooks or heavier split rings

 

On 6/1/2023 at 7:53 PM, WRB said:

Simply slow down.

Easiest method to add or reduce weigh is using Storm SuspenStrips or dots.

Tom

 

On 6/1/2023 at 9:55 PM, Donnie Beasley said:

I agree with keeping the hook size the same. Get yourself a spool of lead wire. Wrap it around the hook shank till you get the fall rate you are looking for. Cheap and effective. 

 

On 6/1/2023 at 10:58 PM, AlabamaSpothunter said:

How many actual hours on the water with a big swimbait in your hand have you spent?

 

That's the only way to learn these baits, I watched dozens of hours of YT videos, researched a ton, and then discovered I was learning more in a 3-4hr session of having the bait locked into my hand on the water than in all the stuff I watched or read.  

 

I've got well over a 100+ hours with the big baits locked into my hands, 20hrs+ in the last 7-10days.     In that last 7-10days I've learned more about how these big baits are applicable to me than the previous 80hrs+.    

 

In a few months when I pass 200+ hours.....I'm positive I will be exponentially greater at the big swimbait game. 

 

Time on water friend, you literally can't go wrong and will always go right by repeating that over and over and over.   All your questions and threads can be answered by doing this.   I say this not to demean you or your questions, but rather to say that the best knowledge on here is a far cry from the best knowledge gained on the actual water.....your specific body of water.    

 

Go fish these big baits, have fun, all your questions will be answered out there I promise! ?

Sorry one last q - what size hyper wire split rings for Owner Stinger size #1 trebles?

[AlabamaSpothunter]

I've yet to buy a big bait that needed new split rings.

 

Got the SPRO Chad Shad yesterday and put about 3hrs in with it yesterday evening, it's hardware for example is perfect.    That bait doesn't blow out with OEM hardware.   The cheaper S Wavers do though, but I haven't felt the need to tune a cheap bait, figure I'll just buy better baits from the jump.     The S Waver 168 was my first "big bait".    I keep buying nicer ones, and the performance and hardware keeps getting better.   

 

The big bait savants like Milliken use the lead wire primarily to get the bait down faster to fish they are seeing on FFS.   If you aren't using FFS or have an extremely great grasp on the cover and depth you are fishing, adding more weight to these relatively expensive baits is a recipe for losing them imho.     Fishing in the blind like many of us non FFS guys do, keeping that bait up in the water column works plenty fine, these fish come from a long way off to examine and occasionally hit these big baits.   

 

You know my opinion, tie those baits on right out of the package, and send it.   The feedback you get will trump anything else.   

[Pat Brown]

I just started throwing glide baits and I can tell you this after catching five or six big fish.  I'm trying to figure out how to get them to sink slower in general. ???

[looking45]

On 6/1/2023 at 4:00 PM, Ohioguy25 said:

Fishing slow sinking 1-2.5 oz glides and jointed swimbaits I’ve noticed they tend to blow out even if you aren’t necessarily working them too fast.  
 

Do you prefer lead/tungsten weights or upsizing hooks? How much total extra weight is generally needed?

 

On 6/1/2023 at 4:00 PM, Ohioguy25 said:

Fishing slow sinking 1-2.5 oz glides and jointed swimbaits I’ve noticed they tend to blow out even if you aren’t necessarily working them too fast.  
 

Do you prefer lead/tungsten weights or upsizing hooks? How much total extra weight is generally needed?

My first guess is the tip of your rod is held too high. Lowering it will help

keep the bait in the water. Watch some videos on fishing glide baits. Look for a Matt Allen video. You should be able to work the bait rapidly without it

 losing out. 

[Donnie Beasley]

4 hours ago, Ohioguy25 said:

 

 

 

Sorry one last q - what size hyper wire split rings for Owner Stinger size #1 trebles?

I would go with size 4 if you are wanting to swap them out. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

3 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

I just started throwing glide baits and I can tell you this after catching five or six big fish.  I'm trying to figure out how to get them to sink slower in general. ???

Exactly, generally speaking the slower the sink on the "slow sink" baits, the more effective, and expensive they are.   

 

[Darth-Baiter]

I think you’re fishing the bait way too fast.  Slow way down