So you bought a swimbait.

[cassidyta]

I figured that I would add to my other swim bait post. This one is meant to discuss gear and line choices as well as casting and hook sets. Once again, I purposely am not mentioning makes or models of baits or gear.

Well, you spent the money and are now the proud owner of a swim bait. You open the packaging and can’t wait to see how it swims. Heck you might have even used a hand line to pull it through the tub. You are picturing your self on the cover of Bass Masters holding your trophy. This is when you look down and realize that there is no way that your current gear will work for this masterpiece. What to buy?
The bait should decide the rod rather than your dream fish. If you are throwing a 4” ¾ oz bait, then your current gear should do just fine. Don’t buy one bait to try out and then spend $500 on a swim bait rig. A lot of frog or jig set ups will work on these smaller to mid size baits.

Now, for the big baits:
For me personally I like a 8’ heavy to extra heavy rod with fast tip and an extra long handle. The reason for the longer rod is because of how I cast. I never do a standard overhand cast on the bigger swim baits. Doing so is a guaranteed backlash. The heavy bait starts moving very fast, but also slows down very quickly. Your spool has a hard time adjusting to the quick changes in velocity.
All of my casts are a sweeping sidearm cast. It is somewhere between a very slow baseball and golf swing. Unlike a normal cast, the tip of my rod actually raises during the cast. This is why I do not like an extra fast rod. I want to allow the length of the rod to do the work rather than needing to load up on the tip. For me, I am just not as accurate casting sidearm with the extra fast tip. The long handle is because of the weight of the rod and reel combo. The long handle allows me to use my forearm and elbow to give my wrist a rest.
(I know that we have had a lot of discussion about wrist relief lately and some feel it is hogwash. My reel is 11.7 oz, my rod is 9 oz, and some of my baits are 10 oz. So my rig can be almost 2 lbs just to cast!)

As far as reels go, I use a large profile reel. It is not that I want the profile, it is simply a fact that it hold all of the line I want. I will often pitch a bait to a location then move much further away. I do this often when bed fishing. I have heard other fishermen discuss placing the bait on the shore and then backing the boat off. Since I was a shore fisherman in past years, I would toss it in one spot and let out line as I walked past the 6-8 beds I wanted to target.

Okay, got the rod, got the reel now what about line?
While you were pulling the bait around your tub, I am sure that you were picturing the 20 lbs bass swallowing it. You started considering things like 50 lbs flouro or spectre. Or, like I used to be, you wanted a tow rope attached to it because you couldn’t imagine snagging this beautiful and pricey bait on the bottom. I was in the exact same boat as late as last spring. I seldom lost a bait, but I also seldom caught fish on these baits. That is when a friend mentioned something to me. “Big line equals big knot. The bigger the knot, the more it impacts the bait.” My point is that you probably do not need 25 lbs line on a 4” bait. I primarily use 12-15 lbs flouro. I know plenty of really good swim bait fishermen who throw 8-12 lbs.
I do have one rod with 25 lbs mono, but it only throws the very large baits.
I know that there are plenty who at this point are shaking their heads and chanting “braid, braid, braid” I will not say it is a bad idea, but it did not work as well for me. I found that I lost more hookups on braid.

Tying one on:
A Palomar is a real pain in the but if you need to make a 2 foot loop in order to tie it. I use 50 lbs speed clips. If you choose to go this route, DO NOT, make this the point where you buy the cheap stuff.
Check your knot often. These heavy baits are hell on your knot. Even if you don’t catch a fish you need to retie often. I was taught that your knot is good for 20 non catching casts minus the weight of the bait. So, for a 1 oz bait, I get 19 casts. For a 13 oz bait I get 7.
FISH ON!
Months of planning and dreaming come down to this moment. Your bait just got hit. What do you do? I know that this will sound very backwards to most, but the bigger the bait, the less of a hook set that you need. Right now most have probably read that line again and are scratching their heads. This come natural to those of you who throw deep crank baits. A 10 inch fish is not a small meal for any bass. They will need to hit that fish a couple of times before they actually get it into their mouth properly to swallow it. Your swim bait is no different. The number one mistake that I see is a guy trying to cross the bass eyes on the first hit. They have a 4 second fight and are then standing there holding a slack line. Once again I stress. Just reel and allow the leverage of the rod to do the hook set. I can get a good hook set with a wrist snap. It is when I put my back into it that I lose fish.