Simple Swimbait Modifications

You don’t have to spend more than a couple days on Clearlake (or most other lakes) in the Spring to realize that, 1) you should be wearing a hard hat while you fish with as close together as all the boats get. 2) that the fish are beginning to see TONS of swimbaits. And 3) that you need to do something to stand out from the crowd. There are all sorts of modifications you can make to a bait but here are a couple simple ones that can be completed in a matter of minutes to make your bait unique. This video shows how to add gills and front fins to a Huddleston Deluxe 8″ trout but it can be applied to any swimbait to help you get more bites, even under pressured conditions.

Would you like to see other modifications? Let me know via the contact page or comments  and I’ll get the camera rolling. Enjoy!

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.

Rigging the Switchblade Jig

The switchblade jig was received with great enthusiasm this past week. Thank you all for the feedback and stories of fishing similar rigs. However, across the board people had questions about how to attach the blade. Rather than try to explain it, we filmed it. Here is a quick tutorial on rigging your switchblade jig for action.

Another Swim Jig Option: The Switchblade

First off, thank you all for the great feedback on swimming heavy jigs for bass. I’ve already had readers send in photos of bass over 10 lbs from as far away as Florida! I’m so excited to see the technique working nation wide. I’ve had multiple people ask to see the jigs moving in the water so I finally took the time to video the jigs in action. You’ll be able to see what makes the roboworm EZ shad work so well on the back of that jig… its all in the action.

In this video we also decided to share the Switchblade with you. While this is something I’ve tossed around from time to time it was recently brought back to mind by my good friend Adam Hinkle. Adam is a stud from Southern California and puts a real dent in those San Diego bass.

The Switchblade jig is a modification to the swim jig that involves attaching a blade (my preference is a willow leaf) to the hook of the Dirty Jigs Swim Jig via a swivel. We get many of the same perks of the swim jig (realism, lifelike-movement, unique look and feel) but you also get extra vibration and flash which can make all the difference in murky water. Give the video a watch and let me know what you think.

I know I’m  not the only person to ever fish a switchblade but no one else seems to be willing to talk about it. I know one or two of you have been secretly hammering the fish with this technique. Let’s hear the stories!