Keep in mind that you can catch fish by casting out a
glide bait and simply reeling it back to the boat. Plenty
of giant bass have been caught this way. The magic of
the glide, however, is its “triggering effect” when
twitched and worked properly.
Choosing the Best Color
This part of fishing a glide bait is pretty simple. Visibility
is much more important than a specific color. Focus on
bold colors like yellow, white, bluegill or bone before trying
ghost colors. The action of the lure will trigger the strike.
Getting the bass’ attention in the first place is the trick.
Select the boldness of the color by how far you think you
need to move the fish. If you’re fishing clear open water
and hoping to pull the fish 20 or 30 feet, a bright, bold
color is best. The same is true in murky water, even when
only moving the fish a few feet. Conversely, fishing specific
cover targets in clear water can be done with a ghost pat-
tern, as the fish only need to move a foot or two to strike.
If you were only going to choose one, it should be a
bold color. Focus on action rather than matching a specif-
ic baitfish. As an example, our favorite color in the S-
Waver is “lite trout” (shown below, bottom right). Don’t let
the “trout” fool you. This is a yellow bait, but we’ve seen
success from California to Michigan to Mexico while using
it. It does not seem to matter what the natural forage is;
this bait can be seen from a distance and consistently
triggers giant bites.
Time of Day and Weather
These are key factors when targeting big bass.
Traditionally, low-light and pre-front conditions are the
favorite times for targeting big bass. This is true with
glides as well, but there are two exceptions.
Clear, open-water gliding (fishing over long tapering
points, humps, deep breaks, etc.) is best during the
brightest part of a sunny day when the fish can silhou-
ette the bait to the surface. You’ll tend to have more fol-
lowers than biters, as they can see extremely well under
these conditions, but it’s also when the biggest fish are
willing to hunt.
When the bass are using shallow cover is the sec-
ond exception. If bass are relying on the shadows of
cover to ambush smaller glides in the shallows, you’ll find
your best success in late morning or early afternoon
when the shadows are long but sunlight is still present.
Under both circumstances, bass are present all day
but very clearly have a preferred feeding time. If you fac-
tor these critical times into your day of fishing, you can
be on the best spots at the best times.
The learning curve on a glide bait is much shorter than
many traditional offerings. Dedicate yourself to the bait
for a few days and you’ll be proficient at choosing targets,
drawing out fish, converting followers and catching big
ones. Glide baits are catching small and giant bass alike,
all over the globe. They will work in your local lakes, so
get out there and give one a try.
Baits Got Glide
Deps Slide Swimmer 250
Gan Craft 230
68
Baitsanity Explorer
River2Sea S-Waver 168
River2Sea S-Waver 168
FLWFISHING.COM I SPRING 2019