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Oopes I forgot the pics! LOL.

Hey guys, I just had to come on and share my story. I restarted bass fishing last year after a long hiatus and got intrigued by the big swimbait phenomenon. I actually remember seeing the Castaic Trout Co lure as a child get inhaled in front of me at the Fred Hall Tackle Show bass tank many years ago but never thought I would toss a giant swimbait like that. Fast forward to last year where I started bass fishing again and decided to try tossing big swimbaits. It has definitely been a grind and very disheartening. My first two swimbait fish were caught at Lake Baccarac in Mexico and they were just some 3lbers. I ended up catching my PB of 9.81 off a jig while fishing Lake Baccarac on my last day. But I really wanted to catch a double digit and catch it stateside so I started fishing big swimbaits locally and only got one bite off my 8" hudd and one follower on my Swaver 200 for the past 6 months or so. So today I went out to my local lake, which is only 35 mins from my house, because they had a recent trout plant a few days ago and started tossing a 7.8" Keitech. I was slow rolling the 7.8" Keitech on a 10/0 Owner beast hook over a rock pile. She hit it right about 10 to 15 yards away from my boat rental. I sensed slight tick and paused for a sec and then felt a bigger tug and set the hook. At first I thought I snagged a rock, then the rock moved lolol. Sorry for the long post. Just wanted to share my story of my new personal best double digit bass caught on a giant swimbait!! Keitech FTW. Official weight from the boat dock, 12.2lbs

Got my first swimbait fish today on an S-Waver 168. The bite had died down on my chatterbait so I figured what the heck, I'll throw the S-Waver. First cast, and I pulled in a 3 pounder. Dobyns Fury 806 and Tranx 300 performed flawlessly. I know this isn't a big deal to most of you, but when that bait got hit I dont think I've ever been so excited while fishing. Gonna start throwing it a lot more now that I have a little more confidence in it.

Jaut got my first TT and like it, hopefully a bigger fish soon. Also there is a fish with that HPH and weeds.

I was able to get a bite but will see if she holds.. Been fishing my new OD XL Rat... So far it’s been producing... here is a 9.1lbs

Must be a Shellcracker week. So happy to finally stick one during the SUB and not come home to find someone had posted a bigger fish. Just tied on a a G2 that I bought from BigSlant about three years ago and on the first cast got slurped. Went 7.12 on one scale and 7.09 on another, settled for 7.09. Hope it holds up!! Here's a cast to catch vid, I was a little excited!

Topwaterslaughter has contacted me and I am sending him the bait. I apologize that there was a delay in getting the bait out to him. Drum were biting and I took an unexpected fishing trip.

Mike posted this picture a while ago

First cast Saturday morning, felt the thump and set the hook. She was about 5-6 feet long, but not short and fat and teethless. Once she came up she opened her mouth and the bait came out unharmed.

I really need some SU gear lol

Nice fish Will

Need to finish this bait I started a couple of years ago. Swims really good, fast or slow. Alaskan Cedar. Probably won't use it. I'm thinking trade if that's ok to do on this site. needs topcoat and double check action when complete. I've made several of these in a 10" version. may do a bone with foil scales or foil the whole thing. Have not decided.

alright so after 13 months of searching for a new PB i finally found it. my old pb was 8.55 and man ive caught 5 8.5's since then, just cant crack that number. well after 6 hours yesterday morning of getting bored of catching 4's and 5's it happened. ASAP after launching i backlash my wakebait rod and the braid dug in, so i just set it down for about 5 hours. its around noon and ive thrown most of my arsenal and decide to kill about 10 minutes and try to get that backlash out. dont ask me why because i dont know but i have my bait sitting in the water RIGHT BESIDE THE BOAT while im fixing the spool, and i cut the line since the spool was a lost cause (i have about 20-30 feet of line between the bait and where i cut it). so im sitting in about 20 foot of water off a point and out of absolutely no where it sounds like someone dropped a cinder block in the water beside the boat and when i look the bait is gone. so i panic, i stick the line end that i just cut through 2 of the loops in the backlash and start reeling hoping it would hold and when i catch back up on the slack shes still on there, she shoots under the boat pulling drag 2 or 3 times and finally a bucket mouth pops up and my dad grabs her, from the size of the mouth i just knew she was a DD but i was soon to be let down. she weighed in at 8.7, 4 times out of 6 times resetting the scale so thats the number ima stick with. she was 25" long and 16 around. she had alot of filling out to do looking by the 3rd pic. theyre in post spawn so i think if i wouldve got her a couple weeks ago she wouldve went DD on the scale but im not really complaining. i tried to upload the release video but it just wasnt working

She swam away healthy and a bit wiser. Found a school of trout pushed back into a cove and a group of big bass taking turns charging in and chasing the trout. I burned the Baitsmith just under the surface and she charged and ate it.

Giveaway: Add the new Swimbait Underground forum/website app to you’re Android and IPhone screen. Post a screen shot of your home screen in this thread by Friday 4/27. One forum winner will receive a Swimbait Underground Gear Pack. Steps: 1) Open Safari 2) Go to www.swimbaitunderground.com 3) Click the bottom middle button square with arrow 4) Scroll left 5) Select add to the home screen 6) Click add in right top corner

Great fish Will, I love the C2C and your reaction! Definitely a catch to be proud of regardless! BEAST! Congrats on taking the lead!

That's better looking than the first thing I made. Now go throw it in the lake! No really, or a pool. If your in SD you probably can't throw it without hitting a pool somewhere. hold your rod tip low to the water when testing to replicate the angle like when you're fishing. See how it swims and see if the swim is what you envisioned. I would suggest after swimming it, move the line tie under the chin of the bait and see how that affects the swim. Or add another line tie now and just switch positions when you're testing. Then try cutting a lip slot and adding a lip. Look at how some of the other rats lips are shaped and try those shapes. Different angles of the lip, 90* from the bait tends to make it wake more, pointing forward and down at more of a 45* angle will get it dive more. This is all part of teaching yourself the principles of swimming action. To me, most of the action of a rat is imparted from the lip, and the tail section then follows. Especially a two piece bait, but these are just my experiences. You have to try for yourself and TAKE NOTES! I have many test baits on the progress wall that didn't do what I thought they would. It's not about how the bait looks initially, but how it swims. I made a whole batch of slammer type baits that looked freaking killer that swam like ish. So back to square one on those. The angle of the center cut will also affect how it swims and knocks. Everybody wants that loud knock for drawing power, mine seem to make more of a tick than a knock but I still catch good fish with them. I see you have a split ring connecting the two halves, not sure if this will accentuate the swim or deaden it. Only testing will tell. Open one of the eye screws, or purchase an open screw and replace the one in the back part of the joint with it and remove the split ring and see what that does. Play with the position of the hook hangers some. I found on the tail section, the further forward you can get them the more action you can get. Further back seems to mute the action. Then comes ballasting or weighting. I found my rats with no weight have a livelier swim, kind of like the way a squarebill hunts, but a weighted one has a more stable, precise, deeper swim. But when you add weight, you then have more bodywork to repair and seal. The type of wood you use will have a dramatic affect on the way it swims also. I settled on western red cedar. Oak kind of plowed through the water, redwood and pine were just to light for me. Hope some of this helps and I didn't sound like a know it all, but bait making is a continual learning process. You taken the first step down a slippery slope, but damn it's a fun ride. Just wait til you catch a toad on a bait you made, there's nothing like it!! Damn you're fast Dan!!

The mobile version comes up automatically on mine but if your using android click the web options button near your browsers search bar ..see the screenshot

Great fish Jun

Congrats on the new PB! Wild way to catch it.

Shouldn't this go under flipside????

That thing is wrecked!!!

i use the 6 on a 10o and the 8 on a 12o, i boiled them, kick at super slow speeds now, i had better luck with 2-3 pops but deadstick it longer than you would a worm or a jig.

ive learned that things you dont ever here about either really suck or really work. i jig soft baits occasionally, normally when the fish dont know if they want to hit it and need a little persuasion. in my experience im trying to get a reaction out of them on the hop, open water i love doing it with hudds nail weighted to sink head down but also do it with beast hook baits. i dont use the mission fish personally, im a huge fan of the jenko booty shaker but youll do just fine with the MF.

So rad man! Stoked on the PB, thats a true trophy man!

ive watched the videos on youtube man, i stated that i already searched the forum as well which is why i posted in the first place, all i was asking for people on the forum's opinion. no need to get rowdy.

So rad! I was there saturday and lost my debs 250! Got snagged in the rocks. I'll be back there this week with some rago soft swimsuits. Good job bro!

Pig! Well done, Jason!

Great job

Awesome man and congrats! It’s so addicting once you get started.

Thats crazy!!

Awesome way to catch your pb hahaha! Congrats!

There's not much different... everything runs perfectly!

Baby speckled trout/ wake bait. Made this one for some spring topwater action over the oyster reefs.

Hawgtech 102mm Swept with Winn Knobs.

To start, I think the changes are decent. Nothing is confusing so that’s nice. I see you can react to posts and what not, which can be entertaining. But I definitely think the greatness of this page is that it is not Facebook-like. I think this is where some of us go to get away from the rest of the crowd. I just hope it doesn’t become the new place to hang out and talk about your home life and new swim jigs because it’s more updated and modern. Definitely some nice features so far tho. Looking good.

we fixed the SUB post and you should be able to click the images now

can't send messages. says inbox is full. have deleted all messages in my inbox. I hate it when things change, makes me feel like a grumpy old man when i'm trying to figure things out.

the old look was perfect and not glitchey at all

If you don't have a lot of money it's better to buy a couple s-wavers than buy a Deps 250 and then not be able to buy another bait for a few months and then lose the Deps 250 and be without any swimbait for some months... Also, some people do better with s-wavers than the Deps 250. Matt Allen and Tim Little from the Tactical Bassin YouTube channel say they prefer the S-Waver over the Deps 250 and they catch a ton of giants on the S-Waver. I'd say if you can afford it buy a Deps 250 and buy a S-Waver and fish both to find out which one you prefer. What works for a person may not work for another person. I really don't have much money and will never buy a Deps 250. The price of it is ridiculous! The s-waver works great for me too... Many baits are overpriced and they get that price (and baits are getting more and more expensive) because there are people willing to buy them. If less people bought those expensive baits the companies would lower the prices. People like me are the ones who suffer with this because we simply can't afford those baits. Fortunately there are baits like the S-Waver: baits that work great and are not that expensive.

Banjo Minnow.

I've got about 15 or so. Still in my original 4. No issues that weren't expected. They're softbaits. Have caught dozens of fish on them up to 10#s

If your belief is that swimbaits are only categorized or defined by size, then welcome to the box.....And that being a very tiny box indeed. If this is the case, then I'd have to give up some of my smaller 3:16 weapons, like my Little Booger's, MissionFish, 3:16 Minnows, Curltails, Bluegills, Sunfish, and Shads........Yikes! Nothing like eliminating some of the most productive 3:16 soft swimbaits in my arsenal just because some feel the need to diminish or eliminate the swimbait moniker due to size restrictions. My reply is not pointed at anyone with a different opinion, but is only a response and my perspective to the question presented by the Swimbait Underground Crew. Maybe the real challenge is in the word "swimbait or swimbaiting". I mean we're all just using LURES, some of those lures just happen to be big, really big, or really-really big lures. Can it be defined by separating soft baits and hard baits on polar opposite sides of the spectrum or into different categories all together? Is swimbaiting a reference to motion, technique, bait size, manufacturing material, or maybe a state of mind? God forbid it would just be the inclusion into an elitist group of monster bait chuckers! I could expound further, but I digress. BBI