SEGMENTED SWIMBAIT
SEGMENTED HARD-BAITS
These baits have increased in popularity over the past couple of years with the rise of certain manufacturers’ designs and their success on the pro trails in the USA, the SPRO BBZ and popular Sebile swimbait come to mind. Again, essentially a baitfish or panfish shaped bait made of balsa or moulded plastic and segmented with joints in order to give it a natural swimming action. Available in many shapes sizes and colours ranging from 3 inches in size to the larger 12 inch baits. I have seen some baits on the net which weigh close to a kilo!
Rigging
Again, rigging is basic with the line being tied directly to the line tie on the bait.
Tackle
As with the wake-baits, if you’re throwing swimbaits larger than 6 inches and heavier than 1.5 ounces, you will need to beef up your rod and reel to a swimbait specific setup. Again, I throw these baits with mono filament as though you often want to bully these fish you still need to exercise care not to tear the trebles from their mouths.
Smaller baits can be fished with regular tackle and the rod you usually use to throw deep cranks will work nicely for the smaller baits. Small swimbaits are fun to fish since you get much more strikes so don’t be afraid to substitute your favourite crank for a smaller swimbait.
Application
The key to fishing these segmented swimbaits is matching the forage. I have read articles where some anglers say that they have caught bass in lakes fishing trout type swimbaits where the lake had no trout at all however the bulk of swimbaiters are of the opinion that your best chances of hooking a trophy on a large swimbait are when you accurately match forage. Don’t just fling the bait out to a good looking area but study the spot to try and understand where on a particular area a big fish will hide out. Large bass are ambush predators so this is what to look for when making a cast. If I’m fishing a point I’d cast the bait well over the point and wait for it to hit bottom then slowly work it up the point. When I get to the shallowest spot on the point just before it gets deeper again I give the rod a few sharp snaps to make the bait dart and change direction which will coax a big fish sitting on that point to hit the bait. Similarly, if you’re fishing any area and have identified the most likely position of a big bass on that spot, give the bait a few sharp snaps as you come past that tree of bush or rock for that matter.
Big swimbaits are not the easiest baits to fish, they are heavy and it takes a lot of energy to persist throwing them especially when the guys around you are caning fish and you yet to have a bite. Persist and you will overcome with larger than average fish.
CONCLUSION
That pretty much sums up my understanding and experience of the various baits out there and the ways to fish them. The most important rule when fishing swimbaits is…”Just throw them!!!”, it’s the only way you will eventually hook a hog bass and get your confidence up… and if that fails for you at least you’ll have a box full of the most awesome looking lures on the planet!!
Go get them….
Bass Digest/February, 2014