Swimbaits part 2: When to Fish

While you may be the exception to the rule, most anglers don’t get a single bite on their first outing with big baits. After surviving a day of drudgery (let’s face it, those first days are tough) a plethora of new questions have probably arisen. Most of those question revolve around doubt and fear that you’re doing it wrong.
Chief among the questions of doubt is whether you’re even fishing when the bass are biting. Let’s get this one out of the way as quickly as possible. First off, there is never a wrong time to throw a swimbait. That said, there are certain times when the odds of you being successful are much higher than other times.

My suggestion to you is to pay attention to the little details as you continue on your journey. Each fish you catch can be a memory soon forgotten or provide you with tidbits and clues that will lead to future success. The difference is simply whether or not you choose to pay attention.
I recommend you begin logging your significant catches. Don’t spend hours journaling but jotting a few lines about a successful (or brutally tough) day can provide insights down the road. You will begin to see patterns develop and soon you will see when the best times to fish your local fisheries really are.

Swimbaits Part 1: Getting Started

For some anglers swimbaits are nothing new but for many, its still a mystery. Sure, if you live near a trout-infested Southern California fishery you have been seeing swimbaits fly for 20+ years. What about the guy in Arkansas or Tennessee, in some of these places the bass have yet to see a single swimbait. For years anglers have believed that swimbaits simply wouldn’t work in their local lakes.
Using such a big bait was surely reserved for Texas, California, or Mexico. Time (and tournament results) are quickly proving that this simply isn’t true.
For those of you who still have yet to see great success with a swimbait these next few videos are for you. We’re going to take it from the ground up. This first video discusses the mindset you will need and the equipment you should take out on your first day. For step 1 (getting the bait in the water and gaining some confidence) I really don’t recommend buying new equipment. Use what you currently have available to you for the time being.

As this week rolls on check the website regularly for the next few videos in the series. I’ll be discussing where to fish, when to fish, and how to take care of the fish once you get them in your hands.
There are still a handful of videos to be filmed in this series so if you have questions that you would like addressed please offer your suggestions. Afterall, the purpose of this site is to answer YOUR questions and to help YOU catch more and bigger bass on your next trip to the lake.

Winter Swimbait Retrieves

So you’ve decided its finally time to throw a swimbait. You head to your local lake and begin casting the bait around your favorite haunts. You visit a point or two, that break you caught those jig fish on last week, but its been 2 hours, 14 minutes, and 3… make that 4 seconds and you STILL haven’t had a bite!
In the back of your mind you start wondering if you’re doing it right. Maybe you have the wrong bait, Maybe the fish moved, maybe the fish in this lake don’t eat swimbaits, WRONG!
Odds are you simply aren’t fishing the bait slow enough. Welcome to December! If you want to throw a swimbait in December (and you should) there are two kinds of retrieves. The first retrieve is slow, the second is so slow it hurts.

Big bass are inherently lazy. (Thus the belly that helps them get above the 10 lb mark) In most cases they aren’t out roaming around hunting food, least of all in the Winter months. If you want to play the odds go back through the places you just fished and start slowing down. You may be surprised by what happens next!

My 17 lber... the untold story

Every successful angler sets goals to help stay on track but somewhere out there in the distance, even farther than the tangible is the intangible. The intangible consists of things too far fetched to even be called goals, they are left in the realm of dreams. One of my dreams was to someday log on to bassmaster and see a picture of me holding a giant bass. Thanks to Dan O'Sullivan I got to see one of my dreams come to fruition. Thank you DanO for doing a great write up and telling the untold story of my biggest bass. A lot of people know that I caught her but even some of my close friends didn't know the details of the catch. I'd like to think I've come a long way from then but then again, maybe not. Afterall, I've hooked a lot of big bass with a rod and reel but none as big as her. DanO wrote it best when he titled the article "Help From Above." There is no doubt in my mind I was meant to catch that fish. I did everything wrong! From the single size 1 treble to the light line, to the light action rod, I couldn't have made poorer decisions but it just goes to show you that when its your time, there is no stopping the inevitable. All I can say is while I did everything wrong, I still managed to be in the right place at the right time, during the right feeding window. Bassmaster.com Article Check it out, I'd love to hear your thoughts! And yes, I assure you the story is true.