Swimbaits

[mozy]

Do you any of you guys use swimbaits much in MN? I had one of my best days last year throwing a Yum Money Minnow, but I want to try out some hard baits this year. I already bought a Storm Kickin' Stick(I have my doubts about this one) and a Spro BBZ-1 4" Shad. I've been thinking about trying out the Sebile Magic Swimmers and possibly the 6" Spro BBZ-1. Looking for some suggestions based on what's worked for you.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I have about a 1/2 doz of the Sebile Magic swimmers.. Yummy.. very easy to work.. and you can twitch them and they will almost spin allthe way back on themselves, then will sawy back and forth as they fall.. very cool.. I caught some very nice fish on them as well.

[olski]

I think the Storm bait might be a pleasant surprise to you, I just got back from Florida and I brought a couple down with me and I tell you what they look great. I did catch a couple nice fish on them even though the weather wasn't too far off what it was here. I think that bait is as easy to fish as any swimbait and it looks the part. The other one I would take a look at is the reaction innovations Skinny Dipper another good one for spring time.

[Superduty]

I'm all ears on this one. I'd like to know when you guys are throwing swimbaits. Are you using swimbaits in spinnerbait and crankbait situations. Let me have it.

[goblueM]

i use them everywhere - soft plastic ones in and over weeds, and hard-bodies ones in open water.

they're my favorite bait when i'm musky fishing but also want to catch some nice sized bass

[delmuts]

I found with my limited experience, you can use them in all kinds of situations. I've used them like a crankbait,spinnerbait, or swam them just under the surface.( kind of like burnning a spinnerbait, but slower)Try a steady retrieve, twitch and jerk, flutter. One tip i do have, and i don't know if i read it here or saw it on TV, but have checked it out myself. You get different actions whether it fished on a jig head or a belly weighted hook.Just remember that those toothy critters like them too!

[RK]

Hiya -

I started experimenting with hard swimbaits last year - specifically Magic Swimmers, King Shads and Tru Tungsten 4" shads.

Still trying to figure out when and where they're at their best. Last summer there were situations where I though swimbaits would be ideal and I kind of fried with them.

A couple observations, but I wouldn't count on them being 100% accurate - your mileage may vary...

- Erratic stop-go and twitching retrieves or fast retrieves worked far better for me than slow steady swimming. Slow swim got lots of follows from fish that wouldn't commit. This was particularly true under clear conditions.

- Fish seem to be willing to chase them down from a long ways away. I caught lots of smallies with baits that ran 5' down fished over 15 feet of water.

- Long casts over mixed mid-depth flats - rock/rubble or weeds - and a quick erratic retrieve seem to work for me better than spot casting, although I did have a couple good days fishing them around docks where there were lots of bluegills hanging around.

- I started out throwing them on a spinnerbait rod but missed a lot of fish. Switched to a softer crankbait rod and did much better. Sweep set and reel to set the hook. If you hammer them hard on a strike you'll miss fish. I think a glass rod or a composite like the Fenwick Crank Stick or the new KVD rods would be ideal.

- Pike love the things. After losing a couple to bite-offs I started putting a 3 or 4" Cortland Toothy Critter wire leader in front of them, with the wire tied to the main line with back to back uni-knots. Doesn't seem to change the action or spooj fish, and no more bite-offs. A $.30 jighead is one thing, but a $15 swimbait getting bitten off by an 18" pike stings a little

My $02. Probably a rip-off

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[goblueM]

RK - i've noticed the same with the retrieve on the storm kick'n minnows in particular. I fished them with a steady retrieve and only got one over-achieving 12" bass in 3 outings

I switched to a jerk-pause-flutter kind of retrieve and presto! a couple follows from smaller muskies and several bass and a couple pike all in one outing

They really seemed to hit it when it was slowly sinking or doing the death spiral

[bucketmouth64]

I tried the mimic minnow up north last year and did really well on smallies. I used the longest minnow (3.5) with a 1/2 oz. jig head. I went thru a whole pack of extra bodies. Smallies were tearing them up. I used a steady retrieve over rocky area. Couple years ago I used a white 4-5" one from Cablelas with hook/weight already in it and caught a few nice walleyes when others fishiermen in the area were using jig/minnow. This was also up north and used a steady retrieve over sand/sparse weeds.

[Irish]

What is your guys favorite bluegill imitating swimbaits. I like the looks of both the Castaics and the Tru-Tungstens. I don't have the money to buy both but I would really like to try this kind of bait out this year. Any preferences?

[st.crioxfishin]

From my experience I've had the best luck with swimbaits in the spring, specifically on opening weekend if you can find fish that have moved up on large shallow flats. Usually the weed growth is minimal at this time and you can burn the swimbait over the top, much like you would a trap, spinnerbait, or swim jig.

My favorite bluegill imitator (mind you I haven't tried many diiferent ones) is the 3:16 bluegill swimbait. It's a big chunk of plastic and a little on the heavy side, but there have been days where I've worn them out on that bait, definitely worth a look.

[gritsnham]

I have not used the hard baits alot but plan on trying them more this year. I had some decent luck on the soft ones this year with the weighted belly hook(cutting the belly of th ebait first helps alot with rigging these up). My favorite way to use them so far though is weightless in heavy cover. They fall so slow and you can really get them twitch some fun action to watch

[HellaBass]

I have had some good luck with the Tru-Life bluegil baits

[hhguide]

I dont know if you can see the images or not but I had really good luck with the microdawg from muskie innovations. Brother even won a 40 team tournament with them. I also had good luck with the Strike Pro Baby busters more of a jerkbait that swimbait but it was deadly in later summer and into the fall.

[sicheneder]

Strike Pro Baby buster is a cool looking bait. it must be like the rapala subwalk. was the tourney win in the spring or fall.

[mainbutter]

I've been doing lots of research on swimbaits over the past year. I have some top notch jointed hard swimbaits and paddletail soft swimbaits, and have some homemade versions as well. Also I'm in the process of making my mini-sized soft plastic curly tail swimbait mold.

Here's the real skinny on swimbaits in freshwater:

Swimbaits provide a fairly lifelike representation of a chunky fish.

Many gamefish, and bass in particular, are almost exclusively piscivorous in their diet (but are opportunistic feeders and happily eat just about anything that moves). In fact on a TV show today, they claimed that half of a LMB's diet is bluegill, a SINGLE species of fish. I'm a bit skeptical of this claim, but I think that we can all agree that fish are a huge part of bass diet.

Fish don't necessarily do math, but they sure seem to do the "math" calculating energy output versus energy gained through hunting. Swimbaits give an angler the opportunity to present a lure that looks like a meal that a bass calculates is a great risk to expend energy trying to eat, rather than relying on an "aggressive attack" response or instantaneous "opportunistic strike at something close that spashed".

Because bass eat primarily fish, swimbaits will work all year round in open water. Go big and slow in fall when fish are packing on late year weight but don't want to expend a ton of energy. In spring and summer, you can be more lively with your presentation as bass pick up in energy and try to recoup some of the lost weight during the cold winter months where they eat relatively little. Sizing down also helps match easy-to-hunt youthful fish that are on the bass menu.

The best way to work them is to cast them out there and make them come back to the boat somehow. Really, there's nothing to it. Straight real, twitch and reel, slight pauses, it can all be worked into your retrieve and will all catch fish. I personally like to straight retrieve, with a short pull of the rod followed by giving the lure lots of slack instantly. On many swimbaits, this causes them to do a sharp 90-degree right or left turn and dead stop. Quick change of direction and a slowdown can be a bite-trigger to any fish eyeing the lure. Most of the time however I'm just doing a straight retrieve.

Don't forget to use leader material in case a toothier critter comes by, they sure are plentiful in MN, and plenty of swimbaits are pretty pricey. My absolute favorite swimbaits are made by a guy in the netherlands, but I can't justify buying them, as the cheaper models go for ~$50 and the more expensive models go for ~$130. Until then, I'm fishing mostly ones I make myself and a couple custom carved ones I picked up online.

Swimbaits are going to be big in MN this year, and they are going to catch big bass. I'm serious when I'm predicting a new LMB state record happening soon, if not this year then within the next half of a decade.

If I was the kind of guy who wanted to keep the good fishing for myself, I would shut up about swimbaits, but it looks like the hot stuff from california has finally made it to the midwest and there's no stopping it

[hhguide]

The strike pro bait is awesome... way better than the subwalk if you ask me, if I cast it out and let it sit. It will only sick about 1 or alittle more and sit there it wont move. Twitch it once or twice and bam. We used it alot when there is alot of bait fish present. As for the tournament win, one came the second weekend of teh season on a huge body of water with cold water that was on the microdawg and the second was in the fall after turnover that was on the strike pro bait!

[mozy]

Well I found a little open water to test out the two baits. The Storm, as I figured, needed to be pulled at a faster retrieve in order to move correctly. It looks pretty good, but I don't think I'll be buying any more. The Spro looks amazing, I can't wait to use this thing. It has great action at all speeds, very realistic. I'll definitely be buying this bait in different colors and will also try out the 6" version.

[pushbutton]

i found exact same thing, storm works great when the fish are extremely aggressive but you have to pull the things so dang fast, too bad i have bought about 100 bucks worth. just started using strike pro last fall and was even able to retrieve in shallow water very effectively.

[goblueM]

those storm kick'n minnows don't have to be pulled super fast

you can work them like a jerkbait, twitching and pausing. looks just like the fish that do a death spiral when they are on their way out

super effective

[mozy]

Just to clear things up, the bait I was using was the Kickin' Stick. It's a 3 piece hard bait similar to a Sebile Magic Swimmer.

[olski]

Give the kickin minnow, the segmented soft bait without the bill a shot. That is a very good bait at a great price.

[ratherBfishnJP]

when fishing the soft baits like the money minnow, i found that i would miss alot of fish or they would get off. what size hook would u recommend for a better hookset??

[ratherBfishnJP]

another question guys.... I wanna try a good hard swimbait and i have been reading good reviews on the spro bbz1 4" shad... what are your thoughts on it? what colors should i stink with for minnesota waters??

[Cecil]

I think they make a perch version that would be great. I would go perch or sunfish colors