My year with swimbaits...so far.

[Garry2Rs]

I'm new to swimbaits in the last 9 months.

 

Since reading Bill Siemantel's book "Big Bass Zone" I have caught a lot of fish on both soft and hard bodied swimbaits. I have not caught anything like the 15 or 20 pounders he catches, but those fish don't live near me!

 

On the other hand, I've been using the 6 inch models, not the 10"+ baits that the San Diego crowd swear by...grin.

 

Making these baits work...Gaining confidence in them...Has been the real challenge. Along the way I have had to make some adjustments and learn some new technique that I'd like to share.

 

The first thing that I found was that I had to slow way down!

 

This was made more difficult because over the last few years the gears ratios on bass reels have become faster and faster...going from an average of 5.3 ten years ago to an average of 6.3 now. At the same time it seems that every new reel that is introduced is a 7.1 or quicker.

 

All this speed is fine, but swimbaits, in my opinion, need to move slowly. I'm sure that the big ones will wear you out the same way musky lures do. Even the "small" six inch models seem to work best when you slow them down to a crawl.

 

The second thing I noticed was that they seem to like a steady retrieve, with just the occasional change of speed or direction.

 

At first I was using a Skeet Reese type Jerkbait retrieve...jerk-jerk-jerk...pause...jerk-jerk-jerk...

 

This turned out to be a No-Go!

 

Winding at a steady rate, then pausing, worked much better. As I recall, most of my strikes came in the middle of the retrieve when I was doing nothing special.

 

The soft plastic models I tried were a big disappointment. They look great in the water and feel lifelike, but one Pike or Musky pretty well destroys them...That wasn't a big surprise, but what was a shocker was that even a couple of mid-size, 3-4 pound Bass, tore them up quickly.

 

I have now switched to hard swimbaits. The longest surviving one I have is a Sebile Magic Swimmer. It has caught Pike, Musky and Bass and is still in good shape.

 

Although they aren't jointed and have a diving lip, the Kooper, Live Target baits, with their super-high detail finish seem to fall into the swimbait category. In my mind they can stand a lot of close scrutiny. I'm sure the new jointed models will be killers when they are available.

 

In the meantime, stuck in Canada with duty and taxes, on anything I order from "Stateside," not to mention those brokerage house bandits, I've been on the lookout for something a little less pricey that the $18.00US. Sebile baits.

 

Last week my friend Curtis told me he has caught over 20 bass on an $8.00 CTC swimbait made by Matzuo. It's called a Triple Play. The bait is triple jointed like the Sebile bait and runs a little deeper at 2' to 4' feet. Unlike the lipless Sebile, this bait has a small diving lip. I bought two of the 6" size and they both seem to work quite well for Bass in my area.

Garry2R's

Edited August 7, 2010 by garry2rs

[Sandbag]

2R's

 

You have taken much time this season to explain several different baits and techniques in detail. I just wanted to say thank you.

 

Many of us that don't get out fishing as much as we would like to certainly appreciate it. I know from personal experience that I tend to stick with the same old things that I have always been doing.

 

Your posts on techniques certainly have given me the knowledge to at least try some of the other techniques available to us.

 

Once again

 

Thanks

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[whynotalen]

WOW your information is incredible..... makes me want to get a couple swimbaits and try it myself .....thank you

[OhioFisherman]

Garry I have had days when I went through 3 or 4 bags of tubes, worms, lizards just bass fishing. If 2 or 3 pound bass are tearing up soft plastics why would you want to spend big bucks on them? especially in waters with a lot more toothy fish swimming around.

 

LOL no 10-15 pound bass here either, I have fished with big live bait here and in Ontario, but prefer to stick with lures only. Live bait is the only time I have seen a correlation between bait size and fish size.

 

Most of the bigger bass I have caught, 20+ inches weren`t due to bait size, location and luck? Me and them were there at the same time? I have 8 and 10 inch soft plastics, results on them have been poor, and can make a day of searching for big fish with them sort of a job.

 

Fished a local pond for almost 8 years, with friends and family members, a lot of them were very good fishermen, 1 20+ inch bass in 8 years on lures, and it wasn`t that we didn`t try, day or night. A 6-8 inch chub or shiner usually meant at least 1 per trip. Quality can be a good thing at times.

[alexcba]

garry since i started reading your posts, and also going back and forth with curtis i gotta say my bass hook up % has increased astronomically. thank you for all the time you put into posting and educating your fellow OFC'ers. one of these days soon to come im gonna drop you a line and get out there with you.

 

thank you garry.

[mercman]

guess im still a newbie but what is a swimbait.

[Garry2Rs]

According to Wikipedia:

"Swimbaits are a loosely defined class of fishing lures that imitate fish and tend to be distinct in design from a typical crankbait."

 

"Swimbaits are usually different from crankbaits by the way they generate lure action. Some are rubber "paddle tail" lures that appear to swim when the tail flutters during retrieve. Some are jointed baits that wave like a flag in the water when retrieved, without any obvious mechanism to generate motion. Some are large jointed crankbaits or crankbait/plastic lure hybrids."

 

Swimbaits generally come in three models, floaters, slow sinkers and fast sinkers.

I have found the floaters and slow sinkers very useful over submerged weeds...as an alternative to poppers, spooks or plastic.

 

The baits are generally large...To draw a big fish up 30 feet the "meal" has to be worth the trip. Secondly, looking up from a depth, the fish might only see a silhouette of the belly of the bait.

 

 

Until recently Swimbaits were mainly expensive handmade works of art. They were in the $40.00 to $100.00 dollar range with some examples running well above that. The mainstream fishing industry seems to have noticed them at last. Many new smaller hard body swimbaits were shown at the ICast fishing show last month including a new Kooper jointed Live Target Sunfish swimbait...I can't wait to try!

 

In the North American fishing industry almost all the technology is focused on Bass. When I looked at the fine detail and beautiful swimming action of these big "Bass" baits, I couldn't help but think they could be killer baits for many species it Ontario.

 

This picture shows the original late '80s style AC Plug. It's generally recognized as the first California Swimbait. It had a two piece wooden body with a soft plastic paddle tail. They sure look like musky lures to me!

 

This is a modern soft plastic model made by Castaic. I had two. Both only lasted for about five fish...but they were all good ones!

 

These are the Spro hard body baits, design by Bill Siemantel, that I want to try. They come in either a six inch model or an eight inch length. The fins and the tail on these baits are soft, and for $5.00 you can buy a kit with a complete set of replacement parts.

 

This is a new class of baits for most of us and the challenge with anything new is to get on board and use them enough to gain confidence.

Garry2R's

[singingdog]

You should give the Koppers Blueback herring a shot. It's about the same price as an Xrap and very similar in action to the Sebile. $18 is not much for a lure that catches fish and doesn't get fished in heavy cover.

[mercman]

thanks so much. i have alot to learn, but thats not gonna stop me

[solopaddler]

Agreed on the slower presentation.

 

IMO hard and soft "swimbaits" are so obviously different in every way you can't really classify them in the same category though.

 

I've been having limited success so far this season using hollow bodied paddle tail baits from Basstrix.

 

They're a great bait and they'll have a time and place especially for walleye.

 

Only thing is....they're not that much different from the 6" sassy shads I've been throwing for over 25 years.

 

I routinely cut a chunk out of the bottom of the bait down to the tail to make the action more pronounced.

 

Rigged with a resin jighead for shallower water, they've been a mainstay for me for years.

 

The action of the Basstrix baits is eerily similar. The one huge advntage they have is colours though. Man do they look nice.

[EC1]

Garry, you should try the 2.5" and 4" Spro swimbait. It's a hard swimbait with 4 joints. I think they should be a hit on clearer lakes.

[splashhopper]

Thank you Garry.... keep the reports coming... this newbie appreciates them

[jace]

cabelas has all of the hard body swimbaits on sale now. spro, sebile, strike king, tru tungsten, lucky craft. ...received 7 parcel slips in the mailbox at the AK postoffice recently and had to drive around back to get the boxes. I built up my wishlist to 250 items while at home in ontario, still lots of buying to do.

[mbosh1980]

Good read. The swimbait I have been trying over the past week has produced nothing for me. I have a feeling firetiger is not a great swimbait colour for clear water. Awesome action on it though...

[Fang]

Defintiely a fan as well. Like SP I was always a sassy shad fan and then jumped on the Berkely Power bait kick from Infishermen with the saltwater pogy.

 

After a just few trips using the "new" ones I do agree. It's very eye opening at how slow you really should fish these baits. I'm still a plastic first fan and like to run them with the largest keel weighted worm hook possible. Occasionally I will rig them like a texas rigged worm and run them over shallow grass. The worm weight is at least 1/2 ounce and in these shallow (less than 3 ft) weedy areas it's the only time when I will speed up the retrieve.

 

I've picked up a few of the Storm hard and soft swim baits and will be giving them a big work out in temagami next week. Hopefully they haven't gone off these from last year.

 

Another bait that I've turned onto that is similar to the swim bait is the wake shad. Picked up a few fat crankbait style Manns zero's and have been very impressed with the catch ratio. The strikes of course are awesome too - all visual and much more aggressive than most other topwaters. With wake style it's slow and then slow down even more just like the swim baits.

 

Bought 2 $15 spros last week at Fishing world and some like wire leaders just in case the pike take a liking to them.

[mepps]

Thanks for the tips Garry! I've been playing with a 9inch California swimbait - targeting musky mostly, havent had any luck though with the exception of some small bass following it

 

 

[mbosh1980]

Defintiely a fan as well. Like SP I was always a sassy shad fan and then jumped on the Berkely Power bait kick from Infishermen with the saltwater pogy.

 

After a just few trips using the "new" ones I do agree. It's very eye opening at how slow you really should fish these baits. I'm still a plastic first fan and like to run them with the largest keel weighted worm hook possible. Occasionally I will rig them like a texas rigged worm and run them over shallow grass. The worm weight is at least 1/2 ounce and in these shallow (less than 3 ft) weedy areas it's the only time when I will speed up the retrieve.

 

I've picked up a few of the Storm hard and soft swim baits and will be giving them a big work out in temagami next week. Hopefully they haven't gone off these from last year.

 

Another bait that I've turned onto that is similar to the swim bait is the wake shad. Picked up a few fat crankbait style Manns zero's and have been very impressed with the catch ratio. The strikes of course are awesome too - all visual and much more aggressive than most other topwaters. With wake style it's slow and then slow down even more just like the swim baits.

 

Bought 2 $15 spros last week at Fishing world and some like wire leaders just in case the pike take a liking to them.

 

x2 on the wake baits. I have been doing very well on both the rapala dtfat01 and lucky craft wake action. Bang for the buck go with the rap.

[daryl0815]

Definitely want to say thanks, I have only ever tried the soft swim baits with little success, the info you have given us all will definitely give us all a few more fish in the boat!

 

Cheers!

[OhioFisherman]

AC lure? got a couple of them around here somewhere I think, old ones though, couldn`t find any 10# bass here in Ohio to hit them or the Musky jitterbugs. Old is new? Sassy shads = swimbaits? they have been around a long time and I have caught bass and pan fish on them, pike cut them off.

[singingdog]

SSSSHHHH......don't tell anyone about the LC wakebait. They do not catch big bass of both types. Anyone that has purchased one should avoid frustration and send them to me as soon as possible.

[mbosh1980]

SSSSHHHH......don't tell anyone about the LC wakebait. They do not catch big bass of both types. Anyone that has purchased one should avoid frustration and send them to me as soon as possible.

 

I agree "terrible" lure...totally innefective. Must be why bps is clearing out the 3" size.

[BillsTheBassMan]

Another Beauty Report Garry. I've been spending a bit of time with swim-baits this year for my first time as well. I also really noticed the need to slow down as I almost always fish a Stradic (and they have fast fast fast gear ratios).

 

Long casts here are awfully important as well

[FLEX ROD]

Great report Garry,

 

On a recent trip, I tied one of the plastic ones on for the first time, and all that I can say is that we did three drifts and I hooked and landed 3 pike in the 30" + range.

After the 3rd fish my son just looked at me and asked if I had more in our tackle box, he found one that was the same and 2 more drifts = 4 more fish , my only regret was that I did not try one earlier in the week.

 

FLEX

[brw]

2R's

 

You have taken much time this season to explain several different baits and techniques in detail. I just wanted to say thank you.

 

Many of us that don't get out fishing as much as we would like to certainly appreciate it. I know from personal experience that I tend to stick with the same old things that I have always been doing.

 

Your posts on techniques certainly have given me the knowledge to at least try some of the other techniques available to us.

 

Once again

 

Thanks

 

Cheers

 

Craig

[brw]

Gerry:

Great post and thanks for sharing your insight. One of the many reasons why I love this forum. I have had mixed success on soft SB's but after reading your post I think I've been fishing them too fast. Too much ripping them off the bottom. I'll try the slower retrieve and let everyone know if my catch ratio increases.