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Swim
Your Way To More Bass
With
the coming of spring, bass
fishermen all over the
country will hit the water
with vengeance looking for
that hot spring bite.
Just where you live
in this great country will
determine when this will
happen for you. For
me living in the Midwest, I have a few more weeks
to go before I can even
get on open water and a
few more weeks after that
for the bass season to
open.
In
the past when I finally
hit the water that opening
morning of a new bass
season I would use a ½ oz
spinnerbait to get a
snapshot of what the bass
were doing, but that
spinnerbait has now been
replaced with a Big Bite
Swimbait. I will make this
powerful statement early
in this article; anywhere
you can fish a spinnerbait
you can fish a swimbait. I
know for some of you that
is a pretty bold
statement, but in the last
few years I have set out
to truly see what a
swimbait can do. I
can tell you if you are
not fishing a swimbait you
are missing out.
On
certain days you have
certain baits that just
can’t be beat and for me
during the springtime
pre-spawn period through
the post spawn period
swimbaits are now my go to
bait. They
flat out produce. I
feel part of this is
because there are so many
ways you can rig and fish
a swimbait. Let’s
look at the swimbait, see
different rigging styles,
and how to fish this
springtime power house.
To
start let’s look at the
two basic types of
swimbaits: hollow body and
solid body.
I prefer the solid
bodied swimbaits. They
hold up better meaning you
will be able to catch more
bass for your dollar
spent.
Comparing the two,
I have not found any
action advantage from one
swimbait to the other; the
hollow bodied baits do not
have any more action than
the solid bodied swimbaits.
This
was a concern of mine and
I spent many hours on the
water comparing actions
and baits.
At
Big Bite we make two
different styles of
swimbaits, both are solid
bodied baits but in two
different shapes. One
is in a minnow style body
that is called the Paddle
Tail Minnow. The
Paddle Tail comes in 3
different sizes (4”,
5”, and 6”) and in 10
different fish catching
colors. The
other swimbait Big Bite
makes resembles a rattle
bait type body with a
tail.
This bait is called
a Super Shad. The
Super Shad also comes in 3
different sizes (4”,
5”, and 6”) and in 14
different bass catching
colors. Both
baits offer a hook slot to
give you better hooking
power to get solid hook
ups. If
you look at both baits you
will notice a fin on top
of the bait which can be
used as a hook guard. When
rigging make the hook
point come completely
through the bait so you
can skin hook your hook on
top of the bait. With
the hook exposed like this
you’re hooking
percentage will climb and
the added fin on the top
protects the hook.
How
you fish the swimbait is
pretty standard.
Try not to put any
extra action into the
bait; the best method is
to cast the bait out, and
slowly reel the bait back
to the boat. If
I see some key structure
in the baits path I may
stop my retrieve to let
the bait fall by the
object to see if I can
trigger a bite from a bass
that may not chase my
bait, but the majority of
the time I’m just
casting and winding,
covering water.
I
like to fish my swimbait
on a 7 to 7 ½ ft medium
baitcaster rod with
medium-heavy action.
I match this with a
high speed baitcaster reel
6:3 to 1 spooled with 15lb
to 20lb fluorocarbon line
or 20lb to 30lb braided
line. Line
choice will change with
water conditions. If
I am fishing around heavy
cover, or in off colored
water conditions I may opt
to go with braided line,
but if I am fishing in
clear water conditions I
will always choose
fluorocarbon line.
There
are many different ways to
rig and fish the swimbait,
but the most popular ways
are texas rigged and as a
trailer.
Texas Rigged
Texas
rigging your swimbait is
the most popular way to
fish a swimbait because it
allows you to fish the
bait in either open or
heavy cover conditions.
When it comes to
texas rigging a swimbait
you have a few different
options; but, the depth
that you want to work the
bait will determine which
texas rig option you use. If
you want to fish the
swimbait on the surface;
or just below the surface
match your worm hook to
the size of the swimbait
you are fishing. If
you need to get the bait
down deeper in the water
column you can opt to use
a weighted worm hook, or
you can use a couple of
products from Big Bite to
help you get your swimbait
down to the correct depth.
Big
Bite makes insert weights
that you can put inside
the swimbaits body to help
get your swimbait into the
fish zone; all you do is
push the insert weights
into the swimbait for
weight. Then you can rig
the bait with a regular
worm hook.
If
you need to get your
swimbait deeper you can
use the Big Bite clip on
hook weights.
These attach to
your worm hook after the
swimbait is rigged on the
hook. To use these weights
simply take your worm
hook, rig the swimbait
onto the hook weedless,
now on the bottom part of
the hook that is outside
of the bait take a hook
weight, position the
weight on the hook where
you want it, and crimp the
tabs down with pliers. You
now have a weighted hook
and swimbait that is ready
to fish.
These
hook weights come in 5
different sizes (1/8oz,
3/16oz, 1/4oz, 5/16oz, and
3/8oz) and where you
position the weight on the
hook will affect how the
swimbait falls when it is
not moving. If you
position the weight in the
middle of the hook the
swimbait will fall in a
horizontal position. This
is how I rig the weight
the majority of the time. If
I want the swimbait to
swim in a slight nose down
position, I will put the
weight towards the front
of the worm hook. This
rigging will make the bait
fall forward when you stop
the bait and let it fall
next to cover.
Treble Hooks
If
you want more hooking
power, try using a treble
hook when you texas rig
the swimbait.
Just insert the
insert weight from the
nose of the swimbait to
the pocket. This
will allow you to run your
line through the weight,
and tie a treble hook to
the end of the line. When
rigged, I take one of the
trebles and hide it in the
swimbait leaving the two
other trebles exposed.
Trailer
Other
than fishing the swimbait
alone I have been
impressed with how the
bait acts as a trailer.
When looking for other
options to tip my
spinnerbaits, and chatter
baits I have turned
towards the swimbait as a
viable option. It
was not long before I
figured out this was a
smart move. The
combination of vibrations
these both put out
together have a powerful
calling power especially
in off colored water
conditions. I
have not had as much
success in clear water,
but in off color water
conditions this bait and
trailer combination
shines.
I
have also fished the
swimbait as a trailer for
my swim jig presentation
giving the swim jig a
whole new look, and
action. When you combine
the swimbait tail with
your swim jig you can slow
your jig retrieve down to
a slow crawl, and when you
see a piece of key cover
you can drop your bait
right on top of the bass.
Jig Heads
One
new tactic I have been
playing with is teaming
the swimbait up with
different jig head styles
for fishing in deeper
water. By
teaming the swimbait with
a ¾ oz to 1oz head, I can
get my swimbait into areas
that bass have never seen
a swimbait before. To
fish this I make my cast
and let the bait settle to
the bottom. Then
with a lift of the rod I
get the bait moving at a
slow pace so that I can
keep ticking the bottom on
the way back to the boat. You
really have to hold on as
some of the strikes I have
gotten have just about
torn the rod out of my
hands. The
key that I have found is
to keep the bait as close
to the bottom as you can. If
the bait gets too high up
off the bottom you will
not get as many bites as
you would if stays close
to the bottom.
If
you are not taking
advantage of the swimbait
craze you are missing out.
As
you can see you do not
have to throw swimbaits
that are 10 inch’s long
to catch bass.
I mainly use
the 4” to 6” sizes and
catch bass from 1lb to
6lbs on average. You
have many options when it
comes to rigging your
swimbait so pick a few and
just start fishing.
Scott
Petersen
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