Swim baits?

[learnin]

Looking for general info and experience re what's worked as far as brands and rod and reel weight/size to use with them?  Didn't realize how much some swim baits cost. Are the more expensive ones that much more effective?  Are there relatively lower priced ones that work well?

[MediumMouthBass]

The more expensive swimbaits are made with much higher quality parts, and usually have better/detailed paint to them, but you can catch bass on a $15 swimbait or a $500 swimbait. Almost every lake, pond, and river around me has pickerel, musky, and pike so i only buy the cheap ones. That being said the River2Sea (whopper plopper company) makes the S Waver for around $15 its a good, but not great glidebait. Spro makes a BBZ-1 swimbait ($22-25) and its really, really good for me. 13 Fishing has the Glidesdale, this ones good too at around $15. Savage Gear has been making some good, budget soft swimbaits for pike fishing in the UK for awhile and they work great here in America for pike and bass, depending on what generation of the trout swimbaits you want and where you buy them from, the go between 3 for $15 all the way to $25 for 1. 6 Sense has swimbaits that are really, really good for $35 but theres a store now selling them buy 3 get 3.

 

For rods, many recommend IROD or Dobyns swimbaits rods, they are a bit more than i wanted to spend so i bought a few cheaper ones, first bought the Ugly Stik Tiger rod (its a saltwater rod but the specs are 1-6oz) this rod is a broom stick, almost no flex or bend to it at all even throwing almost the max oz lure. 

So i ordered a Daiwa Beefstick Salmon/Striper rod, this rods lure rating is 1/4oz-4oz and is a more flexible and bending rod, so ill use the Tiger for jig hooks and the Beefstick for treble hooks.

I only ordered the Tiger because it was half off, but the Beefstick is a much better rod, just cant cast as heavy oz lures as the other.

The Daiwa Beefstick comes in at $60 but its on sale sometimes for $40. This is in my opinion the best treble hook swimbait rod for people on a budget.

 

For the heavier swimbaits i have 2 Abu Garcia Ambassadeurs, ones a older 6500, and the other a new 5500 C3, these work good but arent for everyone, i also have the Lews Superduty and Daiwa Tatula 150 for the swimbaits 4oz and under, but if you want to get a swimbait reel from Lews upgrade to the SuperDuty 300, and for Daiwa the Tatula 200.

 

 

[Big Swimbait]

Savage Gear also has an entry level swimbait rod that is very good for the money. Don't overlook soft plastic swimbaits, especially this time of year. The 6 inch Magdraft has been money for me. 

[JediAmoeba]

My advice - don't cheap out too much on the rod. You can find some decent ones in the 120-150 dollar range. The reel - you can use a Tatula 200 or Curado 200. 

 

Are the custom baits necessary? No. Are they better? Yes and no.

 

If you aren't a proficient caster with heavy baits, and dare I say, pretty decent bass fisherman - I wouldn't recommend custom swimbaits. Losing a $200 bait is never fun and for someone new to the game could push you out. Custom swimbaits cast nicer IMO BUT, because they are custom, there are nuances between them. I have 4 BGC 7" gliders and all 4 swim differently. Depending on who paints the bait it can affect the swim. If the builder didnt have the right amount of resin to microballoons it can affect the sink rate. Every builder has their own magic resin formula and sometimes it's off - you buy a plastic injection bait they are pretty much all the same.

 

Deps 250's are one of the top tier gliders on the market but they can be tuned to be better. Butch Brown has caught a lot of fish on the Deps 250 and Hudd's which are both mass produced. One of the best mass produced shad glides is the Savage Gear glider and is around $35. You can find deps 250s for around $100. The best wakes I can recommend are the fishlab wakes. 

[learnin]

A lot of good info,  looks like about all I've got for this is the reel, Curado 200K. Guess I'll use my med/hvy rod and go with the lighter and soft plastic swimbaits for starters. Thanks to all that responded,

[WRB]

The term swimbaits now cover baits from 2.8” to 16” that range from prices of under a $1 to well over $500 or soup to nuts.

Standard MHF bass rods and reels can effectively cast and retrieve swimbaits 5” or less, this is your category.

Swim jigs or underspins with a soft plastic swimbait works year around.

The medium size swimbaits 6” to 7” weighing over 1 1/2 oz to 3oz require Jr size swimbait rods rated 1 to 3 oz lures and line  15# to #20, large reels with more line capacity.

The heavy size swimbaits over 7” weighing 4 oz to 7 oz require Heavy swimbait rods rated 3oz to 10oz, larger reels and line 20# to 30#.

XHeavy swimbaits over 8” to 16” weight 7 to 16 oz are the top end of bass swimbaits and need HeavyX or Heavy XX rods and line 25# to 40#.

Name your category and be prepared to budget funds accordingly.

Tom

 

[Darth-Baiter]

Just now, WRB said:

The term swimbaits now cover baits from 2.8” to 16” that range from prices of under a $1 to well over $500 or soup to nuts.

 

 

this sentence covers it completely.  way to wide a topic to cover without homing in on some details.