Fourbizz or any other swimbaiters

[fourbizz]

Well if I might offer some help on which to get:

About 50%of my fish come on hardbaits and another 50% on softbaits.... ;D

[osbornj2]

For a novice that is anxiously awaiting his first Ultimate Bluegill, what advice do you offer concerning the best type of rod and line for throwing "big baits" (or whatever it is that we're calling them now ;D ) ?

Also, I stand the risk of completely embarrasing myself here, but here goes :-? ... I haven't heard anyone mention the Strike King King Kong

(hardbait). I rec'd a BPS giftcard for Christmas or something, so I decided to go a little "wacky" and bought one. It looks like it will have decent action in the water, but I haven't really fished it yet. Should I donate it to 4Bizz for his new painting business , or would it be worthwhile to keep ?

One last question for you diehard "swimmers"...do you ever use more "traditionally sized" baits, or is all of your fishing time dedicated exclusively towards throwing the big stuff? Just curious. Thanks!

[fourbizz]

I hear good things about the King Kong, but I have not fished it. For bass that dont see many big baits I am sure it will do well.

I fish regular baits pretty often.

There is a pretty decent article on big bait rods on this site

[Randall]

For a novice that is anxiously awaiting his first Ultimate Bluegill, what advice do you offer concerning the best type of rod and line for throwing "big baits" (or whatever it is that we're calling them now ;D ) ?

Also, I stand the risk of completely embarrasing myself here, but here goes :-? ... I haven't heard anyone mention the Strike King King Kong

(hardbait). I rec'd a BPS giftcard for Christmas or something, so I decided to go a little "wacky" and bought one. It looks like it will have decent action in the water, but I haven't really fished it yet. Should I donate it to 4Bizz for his new painting business , or would it be worthwhile to keep ?

One last question for you diehard "swimmers"...do you ever use more "traditionally sized" baits, or is all of your fishing time dedicated exclusively towards throwing the big stuff? Just curious. Thanks!

One of my first hard swimbaits I used was an ABT Titan which is the same bait as the King Kong. I caught a bunch of big fish on it while learning more about hard baits and throwing them. I have been using big soft baits for around fifteen years but only used the big hardbaits for the last three or four years. In the past couple of years there have been a lot of hard baits  out there that are easier to get since so many stores have swimbaits now. So, I have been trying a bunch more  of them. After  trying many of the others I don't even use my ABT/Strike King baits much at all any more. There are just better choices out there now for the same price or a little more. I am not saying it not a good bait but there are plenty of much better baits that are great baits. For the same type of hard bait at near the same price the Mattlures Woody and  Spro BBZ  are much better baits. A Triple Trout, Rago baits or 3:16 baits are all much better baits for a little more money. One of my favorite photos of a fish though was caught on a King Kong. As you can see it almost swallowed the whole bait.

For the Mattlures Bluegills I use a 7' 6" heavy action flipping stick with braid and prefer it over most swimbait rods since I get the extra power from the braid. If I was going to use mono or fluro I would use something like the Okuma that Matt recomends on his site. I am sure if you do a search on here you can find a lot of info on rods for the bluegills.

[Raul]

Why not spend a little more and get a hard swimbait? If you get one that floats or sinks slow, you don't get snagged, it last longer..right?

Any advantages of soft over hard when it comes to swimbaits?

I catch more 1-2 pound fish with hard swimbaits than bigger fish. There 's something about hard swimbaits having smaller dangling treble hooks ( which most soft swimbaits usually don 't have ) from the bait that makes smaller fish impaling themselves on those hooks a lot easier, all they need to do is to strike the bait, not really mouthing it to get hooked.

Or it may be a matter of population, with so many smaller fish hanging around bigger fish don 't stand a chance in getting to the bait before the little guys do.

For me hard swimbaits are not such great big fish producers as soft plastic swimbaits.

[LCpointerKILLA]

Why not spend a little more and get a hard swimbait? If you get one that floats or sinks slow, you don't get snagged, it last longer..right?

Any advantages of soft over hard when it comes to swimbaits?

I catch more 1-2 pound fish with hard swimbaits than bigger fish. There 's something about hard swimbaits having smaller dangling treble hooks ( which most soft swimbaits usually don 't have ) from the bait that makes smaller fish impaling themselves on those hooks a lot easier, all they need to do is to strike the bait, not really mouthing it to get hooked.

Or it may be a matter of population, with so many smaller fish hanging around bigger fish don 't stand a chance in getting to the bait before the little guys do.

For me hard swimbaits are not such great big fish producers as soft plastic swimbaits.

It seems that way for me too

[fourbizz]

That is an awesome picture randall! I loved those "choked it" shots!

[osbornj2]

Randall, first of all...AWESOME shot!  Like Fourbizz said, it looks like she is choking on it !

Thanks for the suggestions.  I will be sure to check out some of the baits that you mentioned.  And, also, thanks for the heads-up re: rod size and line type.  It definitely sounds like 7'0" is a bare minimum, and is actually maybe a little too short.  Most everything that I have read so far indicates that 7'3" to 7'8" Fast Heavy is the optimum.  Looks like the Bait Monkey just WILL NOT get off my back  ;D