Spring Swimbait Fishing

Swimbait fishing is about how comfortable you are with throwing a big bait. Most people shy away from it because they had one bad day on the water. Other styles of fishing may catch a lot of fish, but they aren’t catching big fish. Big bass simply eat big baits and small bass eat smaller baits. Although big bass eat big baits the size of the larger bass is relative to what fishery you are at. At Lake Martin a big bass could be a three to four pounder while a big bass on Lake Fork could be a eight to thirteen pounder. In this article I will be showing you how to catch big bass on swimbaits and all the techniques and lures needed.

Soft Baits

What soft bait you choose depends on the forage the bass are after. That could be perch, shad, bluegill, trout, and even kokanee salmon. If you are at a clear water fishery with trout and kokanee then fish a natural looking bait. A Huddleston is a great bait for this. Fish it in open water around structure when the sun is at it’s highest. The bass can see the bait and attack it very well. For the rest of the country use a boot tail swimbait. It does a great job imitating shad, bluegill, perch, and other baitfish because they have a very fast tail wiggle. For water that is not totally clear use the Osprey Tournament Talon Top Hook Swimbait. When retrieving just slow roll it like a spinnerbait. If the fish are sluggish it then let it bounce off the bottom a little during the retrieve. Use bold colors such as Chartreuse Shad, White, or anything that stands out. When I fish the southeast my absolute favorite soft swibait is the Little Creeper Fatty Trash Fish Swimbait. It looks just like a shad and can be used in murky and clear water. Color depends on what your bass are after. For example, on Lake Martin I prefer to use Tucked Out Blueback Herring because there is a large population of that baitfish that bass are eating. Just rig it on a jig hook for rock bottom. Rig it on a beast hook if there is a lot of snags where you are fishing. One other swimabait that never fails wherever you go is the Keitech Swing Impact FAT Swimbait. My Favorite colors are Electric Shad, Ghost Rainbow Trout, Pro Blue Red Pearl, and Gizzard Shad. Most colors work and you can change them accordingly. For the biggest of Keitechs rig it on a a big beast hook. For anything smaller use a swimbait head

Glide Baits

Do not over stress glide baits. You do not need a five hundred dollar Roman Made Mother to be successful. While those expensive baits swim amazingly there are other baits that do just fine. My favorite is the River2Sea S-Waver. It has a “S-Action” swimming motion and will wake the surface and call fish in. Allow the bait to slowly sink and fish it slowly with a few twitches throughout the retrieve. The S-Waver also works great as a cover glide bait. If you are going for those extremely big bass then go for the Baitsanity Explorer Gen 2 Glide Bait. It comes in a bigger size and is designed for catching monster bass.

Multi-Jointed Hard Baits

Just looking at a multi-jointed swimbait you may think that it is all about casting and reeling. It is not like that at all. It is about high speed reels and burning baits. My favorite is the Triton Mike Bucca Bull Shad Slow Sinking Swimbait. It is good for cloudy days next to structure such as a stumps, trees, or laydowns. For the retrieve just burn it and pause and continue all the way to the boat. It gets aggressive bites and activates the core response to feed inside a bass. For ponds use the Catch Co. Baby Bull Shad Swimbait. Colors do not matter because the bait is being retrieved so aggressively that bass do not fully see the bait before they strike. If there are trout in your lake use the 22nd Century Triple Trout. As for color go bold with colors such as bone or Blue Lightning Shad. If the water is extremely clear then a more natural color can work very well.

Gear

Rod– Heavy rod with soft tip.

Line– 65 lb braid with 20 lb mono or fluorocarbon leader.

Reel– 7:2:1 or 8:1:1 for multi-jointed baits and 6:2:1 or 7:2:1 for glide baits and soft baits.

Lures

Soft Baits

1. Osprey Tournament Talon (Chartreuse Shad, Light Hitch, Bluegill, White)
2. Little Creeper Trash Fish Fatty (Chartreuse Shad, LC Hitch, Blue Back Herring)
3. Keitech Swing FAT Impact (Bluegill Flash, Electric Shad, Pro Blue Red Pearl, Ghost Rainbow Trout, Gizzard Shad)
4. Huddleston Swimbaits

Glide Baits

1. River2Sea S-Waver (Light Trout, Warden Hitch, Bluegill, Party Crasher )
2. Baitsanity Explorer Gen 2 (Carp, Trout, Kokanee)

Multi-Jointed Hard Baits

1. Triton Mike Bucca Bull Shad (Gizzard Shad, Dirty Bone)
2. Triple Trout (Bone, Blue Lighting Shad)

For an in-depth review on glide bait fishing click the link below:

https://realfishingoutdoors.wordpress.com/2020/02/26/how-to-fish-a-glide-bait/