Which swimbait should you choose?

Has anyone else noticed that there are 10 or 20 times the number of swimbaits on the market today than there were 5 years ago? Some of the biggest “brand name” baits in the industry have only existed for a year or two.  What is an angler to do? You can buy every last one of them in order to see which ones consistently catch fish and which ones don’t but then there is no money left to put in the gas tank. A boat full of baits and no where to go sure won’t help you get bit!  At the request of several anglers I put this video together to shed a little light on which baits work. Forget the hype, forget all the talk about which bait is better. I’m sharing with you a handful of the baits that consistently help me put big fish in the boat, in every season of the year. These aren’t the only baits I use but these are the baits that are widely available and that I firmly believe will get bit coast to coast, day in and day out.

Has this been your experience? Are you one of those guys that lives and dies with a hardbait in your hand? Feel free to leave a comment and let me hear your thoughts. I don’t claim to be the best or to know it all but these are the baits I love to fish. If you take the knowledge in this video and apply it to your time on the water, big things are sure to come.

Glimpse at a 42 lb limit

Some days you launch the boat and the world just feels right. You can sense that something epic is coming. The clouds are just right, there is a ripple on the water, and the water temperature seems perfect for big fish.
On this particular day I had that feeling. That is, until 3 hours had gone by and we didn’t have a fish in the boat! 3 big bites down, no fish! It was starting to look like a disaster until my partner got one to the net.

Isn’t it amazing how one fish can turn a whole day around? It seemed like all was lost until a single fish connected and made it to the net. Then it was game on! I apologize for the dark pictures but we caught fish so consistently we didn’t bother to take their picture until it was dark and the bite had stopped.

Here is a quick video giving a glimpse into a livewell full of largemouth! These fish were caught on a variety of lures. At this point I’m not even sure what fish ate what baits. Fish were caught on a homemade 7″ boot tail swimbait, 6″ injected lunker punker, super spook, Snagproof frog, and Yamamoto Senko.

The fish were actually incredibly simple to catch. They had moved up in very shallow water along a reed and chunk rock bank. We spent most of the day casting parallel to shore and working the baits in 2 to 10 feet of water.

Make Your Swimbaits Last Longer

Soft swimbaits are a great way to catch fish, but they have one major drawback… their durability. They frequently rip and tear around their harness. With the price of these lures often being $20 or more, it’s only reasonable to want to get the most out if them. Matt shows an easy way to extend the life of soft swimbaits in the video below!

Rigging Basstrix Swimbaits for Deep Water Structure

Basstrix swimbaits have become renowned for fishing shallow cover, but are often underutilized for deep water fishing. Learn how to rig them for fishing outside the grass in the video below!