Anglers choosing swim baits more and more when chasing after trophy bass
Swim baits have been in the news a lot lately. That's because they catch big bass. Lots of 'em.
Out West where the swim bait craze was born, anglers have been taking the lures to little lakes and reeling in giant fish for years. Some of the heaviest bass of all-time and countless other "teen" fish (13 pounds-plus) have been caught in the Golden State, many of them on soft and hard swim baits designed to imitate unlucky members of the freshwater food chain.
Interestingly, an Alabama angler with a southern drawl and limited swim bait experience went West last spring and strummed the California boys at their own game in a very big way.
Pro angler Steve Kennedy relied heavily on assorted swim baits to help him rack up the heaviest four-day total ever recorded in the history of competitive bass fishing. Together, Kennedy's 20 Clear Lake lunkers weighed a whopping 122 pounds, 14 ounces.
Popular as they are with western fishing crowds, swim baits have been slow to catch on in other parts of the country. But that is gradually beginning to change.
Countless anglers have found success with swim baits as far south as Lake Amistad in Texas and as far north as the Great Lakes region. Closer to home, they are catching big bass on lakes Fork, Sam Rayburn, Toledo Bend, Pinkston and just about any other clear water impoundment where an angler can muster up the guts to chunk one. The general consensus among most swim bait advocates is it shines the brightest in reservoirs with good water clarity.
Not surprisingly, bait manufacturers around the globe have embraced bass fishing's newest trend and are nurturing its growth by providing anglers with an arsenal of hard and soft swim baits to choose from.
I will never forget the first time I saw a swim bait. It was about seven-inches long with a thick chunk of lead embedded in its head. The soft plastic lure weighed just 2 ounces but felt like a slab of beef sagging from the tip of a Tommy Bartholomew's heavy-action flippin' stick.
The second time I saw the bait is even more memorable. The hook was lodged securely into the jaw of an 8-pound largemouth. The big bass had inhaled the swim bait, too enticed by it as my friend reeled the lure slowly across the bottom of Lake El Salto in Sinaloa, Mexico.
Our Mexican fishing guide, Juan, grinned and offered my partner a convincing thumbs up after he removed the hook and released the fish to fight another day.
"Swim bait -- bueno!" he said. "Mucho big bass."
Nearly a decade has passed since my initial encounter with swim baits. In looking back, there is little doubt that Juan knew exactly what he was talking about. Big bass love swim baits, plain and simple.
Why the swim bait/big bass connection?
Most experts agree that a big bass would rather satisfy a healthy appetite by eating one or two large meals than expending the energy to chase down a bunch of little snacks. A jumbo swim bait is tailor-made to fill that bill. You won't get as many bites on swim bait as you will a smaller profile lure, but the quality of the fish usually will be substantially better.
Like other families of lures, swim baits come in a variety of models, colors and sizes. Some are factory-made or hand-poured from soft plastic. Others are fashioned from hard plastic or hand carved from wood.
Many soft plastic swim baits typically have a boot-shaped tail that thumps or wiggles as the lure moves through water, while hard baits are jointed to create the action of a fish swimming. Alas, the name swim bait.
Not surprisingly, there are swim bait models out there to suit just about any condition imaginable. Some swim baits float. Others are equipped with buoyancy chambers to help them suspend or weights to make them sink.
There are swim baits designed to resemble trout, baby bass, bluegill, crappie, tilapia, shad and other preferred forage. They come in assorted sizes ranging from 1/2 ounce to nearly 1/2 pound.
In California, some lure makers have gone to great lengths to bring "true life" to swim baits through detailed molding processes and paint schemes that make the lures appear as realistic as possible, in or out of the water.
"The water out here is so clear, and the big bass see so many lures that you need a lure to look as real as possible to have the best chance to fool them," one bait manufacturer said.
Not surprisingly, the amount of effort and detail that goes into building a swim bait is often reflected in the retail price passed onto consumers. Some hard bait manufacturers are commanding price tags upwards of $250 apiece for custom made lures -- and they're getting it.
Hand-poured soft swim baits aren't nearly as expensive, but many are pricey in comparison to mass production models like Berkley's new Hollow Belly, which sells for $9.95 in a 3-pack that includes a pre-weighted 5/0 hook and other goodies.
An 8-inch Huddleston Deluxe rainbow trout (one of the swim baits Kennedy used to set the BASS record) costs around $40. Mattlures' Bluegill Series swimmers retail for about $19.95 each; Castaic's Platinum Series sunfish is $17; the Optimum Titan is $13.99; and California Swimbabes "Baby E" is $9.95.
I don't think I would ever fork over $20 for one bass lure. But then I said for years that I would never invest $40,000 in a bass boat, either.
Guess it might boil down to what is hot and what is not. No doubt, the swim bait is on fire these days.
• Matt Williams is a freelance writer based in Nacogdoches. He can be reached by e-mail at mattwilliams@netdot.com.
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