Swim baits and Football jigs

[alarcher]

These are two techniques that are of interest to me and yet I've heard nothing about how smallmouth are reacting/catching on them.  Anyone use these for smallies or will I be wasting my time throwing them?  I'm confident in what I throw now but want to "broaden my horizons" and see what others are saying about these two baits. Thanks guys and let me know.

[Elken]

People use the football jigs a lot for smallies in Idaho; most add a hula grub to the jighead, but you can use a jig skirt and trailer too.

Swim jigs will work around here, but not a lot of people are throwing them.

[roadwarrior]

Football jig (heads) will reduce lost jigs when fishing rocky structure, but they don't prevent it completely! Swimbaits are the other extreme, they rarely (never) get hung-up. I have fished Mattlures' Shad without success, but I think the Baby Bass might be more productive. I have had good success with the swimbait for largemouth and see no reason why big smallmouth wouldn't find it appealing. We'll see, but nothing yet.

8-)

[alarcher]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the info. sounds like I'll seriously throw the football jig.  Swim baits sound like it's still up in the air and will try little at a time.

Thanks again.

[bpm2000]

Swimbaits are the other extreme, they rarely (never) get hung-up.

u must not be chucking them in all the right places then  

[roadwarrior]

Swimbaits are the other extreme, they rarely (never) get hung-up.

u must not be chucking them in all the right places then

If we were talking about other classes of lures, I would agree wholeheartly, but from what I read and specifically from Matt (Mattlures), swimmbaits are most effective where baitfish would not normally be found. I fish the Mattlures Baby Bass over structure in open water. The smaller swimbaits are, for the most part, fished high in the water column. I don't usually get hung-up in these environments with a single hook bait.

8-)

[bpm2000]

Going over structure and open water is definitely great, but i think if you are limiting swimbaits to just these situations you are missing a lot of potential opportunities.  

I like to run my swimbaits under/over/past a lot of cover as well.  I do agree the single jig hook baits are harder to hang, but I've done it plenty of times  ;D (probably a testament to my skills as an angler as much as the stuff I was fishing)

For the og poster, football heads are a staple here in the NW for smallmouth.

just my .02 of course.

[roadwarrior]

I fish the Tennessee River's "Rocks From Hell."  Football heads help, but that only extends the life of a jig from one minute...to two.

8-)

[Big-O]

Agree with RW on this, footballs are hot for brownies and swimbaits should be a winner as well but I haven't tried them.

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