Question for my fellow MN bass fisherman

[Vinny Chase]

I like throwing hollow belly swimbaits, but have yet to buy into the hard body swim baits. My thought process is that those types of baits are for areas with a larger average size fish, am I wrong?

[Bluebasser86]

You don't have to throw 12" trout baits. I have a friend that lives on Minnetonka and I've done very well up there with the Strike King 4" king shad. Fish them along the edge of docks, weed lines, rock piles, whatever. The only problem is the price and the potential for toothy fish. I got lucky and didn't get bit off while I was up there but he loses 1 or 2 baits a month to pike and muskies. I'm sure you could use a fine wire leader but it may kill some of the action. The Spro BBZ shad is a very good one to fish above the top of shallow weeds also.

[Jeff H]

Keep in mind that many good size MN bass are caught every year on Musky baits.  I am seldom chasing big fish anymore because I have a young son that I need to entertain and keep his interest up so we go for numbers, but those big swimbaits are not immune to success up here!!

Heck, losing 1-2 baits a month to gators up here is pretty d**n reasonable.  I often lose more than that in a single day. Not expensive swim baits though.  I don't like them d**n gators one bit!!

[northern basser]

Generally speaking, bigger baits= bigger fish/ less numbers. However there is always the exception. A small fish strikes a bait the same size as him or you catch a big one w/ a 3" tube.

This was the first year I dabbled w/ swimbaits. I had 2 different sizes of strike king ones. A 4" and I believe a 6". Anyway, the 4" was a more "normal" sized bait. The other was pretty big. Like casting a log. I couldn't get a strike w/ the big one, but did manage to catch some fish w/ the "normal" sized one.

Speaking of gators,  I lost about a dozen lures trying to bass fish on a lake near Winnie this summer in 2 days.  Most of them topwaters and the cut was instant wether it was 10lb. mono or 50lb. braid.

[BassThumb]

I picked up a SK King Shad last fall, and I was immediately impressed with the action.  Too bad it was snatched by a 5 lb snake after about 15 minutes of fishing, before I had even a single hit from a bass.  I short wire leader might be the only way to go up here if you want to toss expensive hard swimmers.

I would love to try one of the Mattlures hard sunfish or crappies, but it wouldn't last long w/o a leader.

[bassinbrian]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that has lost countless lures to those d**n gators.

[MSPbass]

Joe's, in St. Paul, started carrying those Castaic swimbaits last year. About $12 if I remember correctly.  Too big for my liking, but check 'em out.  I'm sure they're elsewhere too.

And yeah, I HATE getting my pricey buzzbaits bitten off by those dang things. You can see them stalking sometimes, and you know it's going to happen, but there's nothing you can do. I can't believe I've never actually seen one with a bait attached to it's jaw.

[shimmy]

There is NO way i would throw a hard swimbait in MN waters. Just a suicide mission. I don't doubt one second that they would work with the bigger bass, i just think it would be rare that it actually made it to the bass. I have nightmares of those snakes. You know what gets me, how can you cast a lure and reel it in and NEVER feel a tug or anything but start reeling in slack line. That intrigues me. How do they do that? Just terrifying.

[Bluebasser86]

There is NO way i would throw a hard swimbait in MN waters. Just a suicide mission. I don't doubt one second that they would work with the bigger bass, i just think it would be rare that it actually made it to the bass. I have nightmares of those snakes. You know what gets me, how can you cast a lure and reel it in and NEVER feel a tug or anything but start reeling in slack line. That intrigues me. How do they do that? Just terrifying.

That is crazy how they do that. A couple years ago I was fishing a Lucky Craft slender pointer in a little private lake that stocked a few pike several years ago but stopped when everyone found out they ate their precious crappie and walleye. I've only heard of a few being caught and have only caught 2 of them myself but I twitched my pointer and next time I tried to twitch it nothing was there. I thought a fish was swimming to the boat with it so I started really like crazy only to find no bait on the end  >. I have no doubt what happend to my poor bait.  :'(

[BassThumb]

I'm thinking that a hand tied wire leader like those that fly anglers use for pike and muskie flies wouldn't be so bad. They're a lot more limp and less visible than any of the commercially made ones since they're not plastic coated, they use thinner gauge wire, and don't have the crimps, swivel, and snap. I might have to try because I really like using smaller hard swimbaits like the Sebile, but I lose too many.

Something like 30# CXX may do the trick too, and that would be easier than using wire.

[shimmy]

I'm thinking that a hand tied wire leader like those that fly anglers use for pike and muskie flies wouldn't be so bad. They're a lot more limp and less visible than any of the commercially made ones since they're not plastic coated, they use thinner gauge wire, and don't have the crimps, swivel, and snap. I might have to try because I really like using smaller hard swimbaits like the Sebile, but I lose too many.

Something like 30# CXX may do the trick too, and that would be easier than using wire.

I tried the wire leader before. It was between 20 to 30 pound test and was 12 inches long. I would pull back on the hook set with my worm and the stupid snakes would still snap my line above the leader. I really do not know how they did that. But, they are evil, they find a way

[smbrule]

(quote "Im thinking that a hand tied wire leader like those that fly anglers use for pike and muskie flies wouldn't be so bad. They're a lot more limp and less visible than any of the commercially made ones since they're not plastic coated, they use thinner gauge wire, and don't have the crimps, swivel, and snap. I might have to try because I really like using smaller hard swimbaits like the Sebile, but I lose too many."

I usually bass fish Minnesota lakes three weeks out of the year and also a week on Lake of the Woods for smallies.

Have used wire leaders for a number of years and also flexible hand tied ones in the past several years.

On LOW I'm throwing a lot of cranks for smallies. The advantage of the flexible wire leaders over the triaditional wire leaders is that they don't kink nearly as much. The disadvantage, besides cost is that you must make sure your knot is well tied. I use 10 and 13 pound test flexibile wire and prefer the 13 # test.

The directions on one of the wire packages recommend a "clinch" knot but do not show the tag end of the line coming back thru the loop you've created. Not coming back thru the loop has caused knot failures on 10# test wire.

By the way, I was concerned about the 10# test so tied several leaders to 17 # test mono and the wire to a hook with a clinch knot--snagged the hook to a tree and backed off 20 feet and with a medium heavy Loomis 783 set the hook as hard as possible multiple times and could not get the leader/line to break.

[BassThumb]

I usually bass fish Minnesota lakes three weeks out of the year and also a week on Lake of the Woods for smallies.

Have used wire leaders for a number of years and also flexible hand tied ones in the past several years.

On LOW I'm throwing a lot of cranks for smallies. The advantage of the flexible wire leaders over the triaditional wire leaders is that they don't kink nearly as much. The disadvantage, besides cost is that you must make sure your knot is well tied. I use 10 and 13 pound test flexibile wire and prefer the 13 # test.

The directions on one of the wire packages recommend a "clinch" knot but do not show the tag end of the line coming back thru the loop you've created. Not coming back thru the loop has caused knot failures on 10# test wire.

By the way, I was concerned about the 10# test so tied several leaders to 17 # test mono and the wire to a hook with a clinch knot--snagged the hook to a tree and backed off 20 feet and with a medium heavy Loomis 783 set the hook as hard as possible multiple times and could not get the leader/line to break.

Good tip.  Thanks.