Mike Long on Swimbait Rods

Thanks to Hooked Up for lending us this video. When it comes to swimbaits and big bass, Mike Long is someone that just can’t be argued with. In this video he shares a few brief insights into his signature series of Dobyns Swimbait Rods. I credit these rods directly for keeping my hookup to land ratio so high. Give the video a watch and learn from the the man that inspired the design.

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.

Wakebaits and Jigs

“Junk Fishing” is a term often used to describe a day spent on the water in which the fish were caught on a wide variety of lures or techniques with little rhyme or reason to seasonal or daily patterns. Junk fishing allows an angler to adapt to the surroundings instead of trying to force the fish to eat a certain lure. While I go into every trip with some sort of game plan the majority of my outings turn into a junk fishing day.

The exception to this rule is the night bite. I have confidence in a few key techniques and tend to use them exclusively to find fish in the dark. This night, however, was much different. We arrived at the lake with the intention of throwing wakebaits from sundown to sunrise. After a few hours and only one wakebait bite we began using other techniques. By the end of the evening our 5 best fish were caught on five completely different baits! It just goes to show you, even at night, the best policy is to adapt until you find the fish. Our five biggest bites came on 1) MS Slammer Wakebait, 2) Homemade Swimbait, 3) Zoom Brush hog w/ 3/8 oz weight , 4) Dirty Jigs 1/2 oz Flippin’ Jig and Uncle Josh pork Chunk, and 5) 6″ Yamamoto Senko.

Don’t be afraid to change it up! You just never know what you might catch.