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The Basic’s of Fishing a
Swimbait
In this first segment on
Swimbaits, I’ll take you through the basics of fishing a soft
plastic paddle tail minnows.
The craze of fishing
swimbaits started in California more than a few years ago. It’s
nothing new for anglers in the south western US to fish all day with
one huge 10” $100.00 swimbait in search of a magically double digit
monster bass. Most areas they fish are clear water lakes and
reservoirs where using a natural looking bait is key to getting bit
as fish are wary and pressured. Eventually, swimbaits came down in
size and price and the technique began to spread north east. These
days anglers have a multitude of lure choices, what’s left is to
unlock their potential.
The 1st law of fishing a Swimbait : Fish it very slow.
Like most fisherman, we
are all looking for that magic bait. In all honestly, there are no
short cuts to catching big fish. Fishing a Swimbait takes
perseverance and confidence, but you can lessen the learning curve
by doing some homework. Learning how your bait swims with different
weights is one way to understand where to fish it. The Eye Catcher
Shad swimbait should be fished with a weighted screw lock hook. If
you are fishing shallow, you can go as light as 1/8 oz as long as
your retrieve is very slow. Going deeper requires 1/4oz, but you can
also swim it faster in shallow water without the swimbait rolling on
its side. Generally this style of bait performs best when fished as
slow as possible with short pauses to mimic a baitfish.
Putting the odds in your favour: Location
The easiest way to catch
fish is to find a concentration of them; you’ll almost always find
one or two in the school that’s willing to bite. Swimbaits work well
in areas where fish have the opportunity to ambush baitfish. Docks
and trees are prime examples of multiple fish holding cover as are
rocky points, undercut banks and pencil reeds. Once you have located
them, it’s time to experiment and learn what techniques/colours work
best to get them to bite.
One last point
One thing we noticed
last year is fish will follow a swimbait like no other bait. When
fish are in neutral or negative feeding moods, they won’t even look
at a spinnerbait or crankbait. We have had bass follow the Eye
Catcher Shad right to the boat and while you may not catch them, you
now know where they live. A follow up bait, like a 4” Quiver Stick,
dead sticked on the bottom for a minute or so will often catch those
bass.
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