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Saltwater Swimbaits for Freshwater Bass
by Rob Belloni (2000)

Introduction:

Until Byron Velvick set the new BASS two day record this year at Clear Lake on a swimbait, most bass fisherman on lakes without trout probably weren't very interested in swimbaits. Since then there has been a lot of interest, but one thing that has gone largely overlooked is the effectiveness of smaller "saltwater style" swimbaits. Swimbaits that are deadly on calico bass, California halibut, white sea bass, and a host of other ocean critters, and as I found out last year, can be deadly on largemouth bass! I made this discovery on a whim one day during the doldrums of August. I knew the fish were holding in 15 to 20 feet of water but they weren’t biting my cranks like earlier in the year. The banks had been pretty well pounded by the summer crowds and I needed something to get down there, stay down there, and show them something they hadn’t seen before. So I brought my saltwater boxes to my home lake one cooking August day in 1999 and when a 3 pound bass nailed my 5 inch Big Hammer I realized I might be on to something. The next day seven more nice largemouth confirmed my suspicions on an afternoon when the locals reported having to wait until right at dark for some top water fish.

Since then I’ve refined my technique to the point where I have as much confidence in my swimbaits as I do my traditional bass baits like cranks and topwater. I’ve drawn much from my experiences fishing saltwater but I’ve found that there are some techniques that are definitely unique to freshwater bass fishing. It’s also been necessary to scale down my tackle, as 9-foot swimbait rods are a bit unwieldy in a bass boat! So lets talk about throwing the rubber for largemouth bass.

The Gear:

I’ve tried three or four rods and a couple of reels with my swimbait technique and have reached the following conclusions:

A stiff rod is not a good rod for fishing swimbaits. A true swimbait rod needs to have some give in the tip. The reason for this is twofold. One is allowing the swimbait to swim. A stiff rod like a flipping stick doesn't let the bait swim correctly in my opinion. The other reason is the most important. You don't want to jerk the bait away from the fish. For whatever reason, largemouth bass don't always eat the swimbait in one shot. A soft rod helps to avoid setting to early and also keeps the fish from spitting the bait. I watched my team partner John Lake stick a 6lb 6oz fish in a tournament on a 5" big hammer where the fish came up, hit the bait once, and then a second later ate it. John was fishing a rod with a soft tip and did the right thing, waiting that extra second to set the hook. That's a fish that would have gotten away on a stiff rod, I have no doubt.

I have a somewhat hard to find rod that I really like for my small swimbaits. It's a Rainshadow SW967. It's an 8' blank with a composite action. I can't say enough good things about this rod. For many years I used a Loomis MBR 941C. It's a great rod but lacks the backbone for bigger fish and heavier jig heads. In general you want a rod that is AT LEAST 7'6", preferable 7'10" or 8'. There are so many reason why the long rod is the right rod for this type of fishing. It's hard to quantify but just believe me on this one. Other good rods to consider would be rods like the Shimano Calcutta 812XFA or any of the 8' one piece loomis rods that have enough backbone.

After experimenting with a high speed 6.3:1 geared reel and a 5.3:1 speed reel I like the slower gearing for the swimbait. I rarely if ever have a need to retrieve the bait very fast, and the feel of the slower reel is just a better match for the cadence of the bait.

I fish 16 pound line for my 4 to 6½ inch swimbaits. They fish ok on 20 pound but it’s less cast-able. 12 pound doesn’t do too well when you’re throwing a 1 oz. jig head but I would consider it if I was fishing clear water with relatively little structure. I would avoid any kind of super line or low stretch lines. You don’t need the added feel and it will most likely cause you to set the hook too early or pull the bait away from the fish.

The Baits:

I am sponsored by Big Hammer™ and fish their baits exclusively. I have a lot of confidence in the Big Hammer™ bait and it has produced a lot of nice fish for me. While the fish have shown a definite preference for the 5 and 6” baits over 4" and smaller baits, the color has seemed to not matter not at all. I’ve caught fish on the rainbow trout, sardine, brown bait, and smelt colors with no discernable preference demonstrated by the fish even on the same day, same spot, etc. If I had to pick one bait though, I would probably throw the #13 Baitfish colored Big Hammer™. It's a great all around baitfish imitator.

There are only a few good jig heads on the market, and you are kidding yourself if you aren't fishing the Hammer Heads™. They use premium hooks and come painted or unpainted with the “googly eyes”. I use either 3/4 oz or 1 oz depending on the depth that I’m fishing. I’ve caught a few fish dragging a 1.5 oz head across the bottom but this technique was only productive for a short period of time. I haven't done much on the 1/2 heads for freshwater bass although I am always experimenting depending on the conditions.

Rigging the bait straight is VERY important and comes only with practice. The most important thing is to thread the hook through the bait in one continuous movement. If you stop half way and then keep going, you’ll probably wind up going a slightly different direction and the bait will run lopsided. As you thread the bait the hook will come out the back of the bait in the right position naturally. If you find yourself stretching the swimbait or bunching it up while you rig the bait, you are doing something wrong. A good idea when you are first rigging baits is to hold the bait next to the jighead and mark where the hook should come out. Aim for that spot and you should do ok. I will sometimes add a little "super" type glue to the head of the bait to keep it from sliding down the hook. This isn’t critical but is a good solution if your bait is chewed up and you don’t want to rig another one.

Fishing!

I should start this section by providing a backgrounder on the lake where I’ve been developing these swimbait techniques. It’s Santa Margarita Lake, a small lake on the Central Coast of California. The fish are northern strain largemouth (no smallmouth or spots) and the forage consists primarily of threadfin shad, crawdads, frogs, rainbow trout, bluegill, and golden shiners. It’s the shiners that I believe the swimbait is representing. The ones I’ve seen have been from 3 to 8 inches in length and look a lot like a sardine. The lake experiences heavy weed growth in the summer time consisting of leafy brown weeds on the bank and grass on the outside. There are some tullies but they don’t dominate the shoreline and while there is some timber at high water, once the lake gets down a little ways there is very little save for the old river channel.

There are four basic scenarios where I’ve found the swimbait to be effective:

1) During mid-summer the grass beds began forming up solidly and had a distinct outer edge. In the middle of the day the fish would hunker down there in 12-18 feet of water. It was tough to reach them with crankbaits because of the amount of grass and worming was equally frustrating, as you would be pulling grass off your bait on every cast. The swimbait presented an excellent solution. I would line up parallel casts along the outer grass lines and swim the bait slowly over the grass. Unlike a crankbait, which would either be stuck in the grass right away or only be in the strike zone for a few feet before it started coming up, I could fish the swimbait across 50 to 100 foot stretches holding it at a nearly constant depth over the weeds. Since the hook is on top of the bait, it actually slides over the grass pretty good if you do drag it too deep. A steady wind from the moment the bait splashes down is most effective in this, and pretty much every other situation. The bites were pretty subtle during this time of year. The fish would either inhale it causing your line to go slack momentarily, hit it and turn to the side, or the most frustrating bite where you’d get a tap tap tap tap and then MAYBE a solid thunk. What you learn to do is just keep reeling on these tap tap bites. The fish will usually keep hitting it until they get it. If you set on the first tap, forget about it, it’s just the fish yanking on the tail. You do want to set hard on any indication that your line has gone slack though. These are usually the better fish that have the authority to inhale a 5 inch bait, and they can spit it just as quick as they can inhale it.

2) Fishing one evening on some vertical walls I discovered another application for the swimbait. My partner was worming with little success when I tied on a 5” Big Hammer™. I flipped the bait up to the walls and let it flutter down with the reel in free spool. A few casts later it was on! The fish suspending on the walls couldn’t resist the flutter of the swimbait tail. By then end of the night (an hour and 7 fish later) my partner was about ready to throw me in the water, but he was sold on the swimbait. One important thing to keep in mind here is that you never ever want to use the rod to impart action to a swimbait. Any action you impart should be done using the reel. When my bait would hit on the wall or at it’s base, I just flipped the reel in to gear and started winding. Lifting your rod tip means at some point you have to lower it, creating slack and causing you to lose touch with the bait. Bad idea because if the fish grabs it, you’re likely to get an awkward hookset and farm him!

3) Another interesting application of the swimbait hit me one day as my friend Matt Peters and I were cranking some submerged stickups in the old river channel. Matt located the old willow trees with his deep diving crank in otherwise open water and we followed the channel for a quarter mile or so. The cranks kept getting hung in the rotting willow trees but the swimbait fluttered right over them and produced three nice fish for us that first day. It was similar to fishing the outside of the grass beds in that you could keep the bait at the right depth for a long period of time without getting caught up in the structure. Something to think about if you ever come across this type of structure on your home waters.

4) As the water cooled in the fall, the fish became more active and moved up onto main lake flats where the weed beds were breaking up into loose clumps of grass and weeds in 6-14 feet of water. I think the fish were feeding on bluegill in these areas and the swimbait tail really seems to mimic this well despite the fact that the bait is not nearly as deep bodied as a bluegill. From the fish’s perspective (underneath) though it probably looks just about right. I used a faster retrieve here partially because the water was shallower but also because the fish were more aggressive. The bites were pretty aggressive compared to the summer time fish and they were really doing the grab it and swim at you thing where the line would just jump or slack up. Time to swing that long rod and rip some lips!

Conclusion:

While it is certainly true that swimbaits are just plain fishy lures, whether or not they will work at other lakes and under other conditions is probably for the most part dependant on whether there is some type of forage in the body of water that is of the approximate size and shape of the swimbait. I think they are effective bluegill imitators, and I know that they represent a golden shiner to a tee, but if you’re throwing a 5 inch bait to a fish that’s keyed in on 2 inch threadfin shad they probably aren’t going to be very interested. But if you’ve got some shiners, small bluegill, or perhaps even some perch in your home lake, it might be time to call out to California, hop on the Internet, or somehow get your hands on some of these unassuming fish catchers!

18 lb. Largemouth Bass caught on a 5 inch Shad colored Big Hammer swimbait.

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