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Nadinesmom?

Went to the same lake that I pulled my 11.0 from 2 yrs ago and pulled up on a point and made a cast. Felt the tick tick boom, winded down, and slammed that hook. Felt the weight and I knew it was gonna be a good one. Pulled her in and she was shorter than I expected so I didn’t think she’d push the weight she did. Looked down her throat and there was a huge bluegill tail still stickin out. Took some pics, threw her on the scale and she went 11-4 and measured 24x21. She swam away nice and strong.

There are probably more economical swimbaits out there to skip through heavy cover, but the battles shads seem to pull the bigger ones out.

Went out Saturday with my boss chasing some stripes in N. Ga. He's a live bait guy so I threw some swimbaits while we drug some herring around. Saw a good boil and threw past it and a couple reel turns later got hammered on a Lite Trout S-waver 200. Put up a good fight but was no match for the Conquest 400, Dobyns 806, and 20 lb P-line combo. Second ever swimbait fish so I was pumped big time!!! Didn't weigh him but definitely a fun catch. My boss later caught a 20lber on live bait so hopefully one day I'll hook into one of that size on a swimmer! Nothing too impressive but just wanted to share and say thanks to everyone here that contributes and encourages. The amount of info on this site is amazing and I'll hopefully be able to contribute and give some tips one day. Again thanks to all and here she is.

he's so scummy, want your problem solved? Do what I did and file a claim against his business through the better business bureau. That got his attention really quickly after he blocked me on facebook and wouldn't respond to emails.

So I bought 2 Aplha Shads on the website when they were loaded up earlier this week. First day fishing one, missed the hook set on the very first strike at it. 3 casts later, I got super bad backlash and it casted off. Ok that’s fine I bought 2. Today, went to the “lagoon” by my house for 10 min before picking my son up from 1st grade. This place is tough to catch fish. 2 ft vis, only catch 1-2lbers regularly with my son on shiners. Never anything artificial. 3rd cast the Alpha Shad gets smoked. Weighed in right at 4lbs. Re tied the knot, next cast I see a fish the same size smash it right at my feet. I set the hook, bait comes off. I rushed the knot.️ At least I know these get bit and I have 3 more coming. Good/bad luck a thing? I’m just most excited I can actually get bit 2 min from my house at a lake I don’t have to pay to fish at which is rare in SD. And I live 2 miles from the beach so it’s cool to freshwater fish right at home at the beach...

Hi All, First of all, sorry for whoring this fish out if you have already seen it. Since I'm new here, I feel that this is the perfect opportunity to introduce myself and share a bit of back story. I also have not done a write-up about my catch so this is my first stab at it. Background: I moved to AZ from the east coast back in 2015. I picked up my first swimbait at the end of 2015 (lucky craft real ayu), and started chucking it at urban ponds to try and learn the lure. On my first trip out with it, I caught a decent urban bass and was immediately hooked. I started picking up more and more swimbaits (duel hardcore and swaver) and started catching random fish here and there. These random fish on the "entry baits" gave me the confidence to try more serious ones out there. For many months, I would throw the deps 250 at the salt chain lakes and come home with lots of followers but no fish to show for. As soon as I started seeking advice from an AZ swimbait/tourney guy, Joey, I was catching deps and HPH fish more consistently. 2017 was a year I would never forget as I was able to turn many of the theories that I had learned into real world experience with countless fish over 5-6 pounds and a handful of fish in the 7-8 pound range. I was also doing a lot of kayak tourneys so I would attribute time on the water to my newfound success as well. Fishing in 2017: My two fishing goals for 2017 were to qualify for the Kayak Bass Fishing (KBF) National Championship, which through a miracle I managed to do, and to catch a DD. I came pretty close in achieving my second goal in May when I caught a 25 inch post-spawned fish and in October when I caught a 27 inch battles shad fish (weighing in at 8 pounds). I went out one last time in late December of 2017 to try and accomplish my second goal. Within 15 minutes of launching my kayak, I hooked into a 6 pounder on the deps 250 and felt confident about my chances that day. Seeing how they were aggressively feeding on freshly stocked trouts and swiping at the deps, I switched to a slightly bigger bait (hiro trout). At approximately 10 am, I hooked into a fish that was potentially a DD on the hiro trout. The fish smashed the bait almost at full cast and was racing towards the kayak. I blew my chances 3 times trying to net the fish before it finally shook free. I felt sick to my stomach, went straight home in defeat, and reflected on my mistakes. PB during a tourney: 2018 rolled around and I still had to catch my DD. I started the year with pre-fishing Saguaro for a kayak tourney. I ran into Manny Chee for the first time on the water in January while pre-fishing and started bugging him too about swimbait related questions. I appreciated that he was always happy to answer my questions ...super cool guy. I was throwing all kinds of swimbaits during pre-fishing but noticed that the only swimbait that they were really keying on was the hiro shad. So when tournament day arrived, I brought 2 baits: a half-shell for drop shotting and a hiro shad. I had one backup rod too just in case (3 rods total). Within 30 minutes of launch, I came across a few arches hugging the bottom at around 30-40 ft. I made a U-turn and after 5 casts with the half-shell, I had my limit with the biggest bass at 20.25". I tried to cull a my 14.25" and 14.5" by sticking around the same spot for about an hour but to no avail. At around 8:45am, I put away my fairy wand and started to beat the bank with the hiro shad. I made about 10 casts before hooking into my PB (teetering between 11-11.5 pounds on the boga grip, 26.75") at 9:00 am along a cliff wall. I knew that a 61.5" bag for a 3 fish limit tourney was going to be difficult to beat; so with 4/5 hours left in the tourney, I parked my kayak at the bank and relaxed because of my paranoia of flipping my kayak or dropping my phone into the water (I have a record of dropping nice things into the water like my net and my sunglasses). I won the tourney out of 48 kayaks because I was the only person with a limit that day (I guess it was a tough day for most, and I got really lucky). Takeaway from my experience: Throughout the short time that I had been swimbaiting, I noticed several DDs that were interested but were never going to commit because of poor cast/boat positioning/retrieve/setup (bad angle, no structure to pin, no pinch point, etc.), and with some luck, I had always thought that my DD was going to come from that perfect setup. This DD was caught exactly like how I imagined it. My kayak was just at the right position so that I was able to run the Hiro shad as close to the wall as possible throughout most of the retrieve as my kayak was drifting towards the wall. I also made the right cast when I had the angle. I am in no position to give others swimbait advice at this point since I still have a lot to learn, but one takeaway from my experience of throwing swimbaits for the past 2.5 years would be to make every cast count - as if a DD was hiding behind every ambush point. Swimbaiting has not only reignited my passion for fishing but it has been responsible for some of my biggest catches of all time. I am excited about my progress thus far and hope to catch many more DDs (whenever the salt chain lakes decide to recover)!

Two kinds of people

I have a H action LDC rod that I've used for Deps 250s (6.5 oz) but its far from ideal. You are lobbing the bait more than casting it. I never felt like the rod would break - it works in a pinch for baits that size. I now use Dobyns 867 rods for baits of that size which are much better suited. Like everyone else, it took longer to get the LDC rods than I was originally told. They are fine rods, but I wish Ben would be more realistic on his timing. I have switched over to Dobyns rods now for the most part, and since they now are built with Fuji guides, I have zero complaints.

Good Day guys. First of all, My name is Werner, Im new on this Forum, I am from South Africa, and attached is my PB Largemouth that I caught on a 6inch BigBiteBaits Paddle tail swim minnow with a Mustad weighted belly hook. It weighed 9.03lb to be exact.

Had no idea S. Africa had LM. That is a great catch!!

Sweet! Thanks for the motivation to get the shad wet!

It took them over a year to build my production model, Got the run around the whole time

niceeee one!

I'm not even participating but this isn't cool. It's prime topwater time in a lot of parts of the country. Bait should be fished 1 week tops per person then passed on, if somebody can't handle that then they should give up their spot. Barring medical or emergency issues this is unacceptable, especially having zero contact with anyone

Great fish!!!

Bought a sweet bait from Fallof74 at a great price. Good communication and very easy transaction. Two thumbs up Thanks man

It's been a while since I've posted in the Flipside and with all of the fishing I've done over the last few years, I thought it was time to contribute to SU. I feel like I've evolved a lot as an angler, so I wanted to briefly share some of my fish, both big and small I've caught on the swimbait. Big bait doesn't always mean big fish, but sometimes, it does. I'm still aiming for my double digit calico and in time I think I'll get there. If you guys have caught any saltwater species on your swimbaits, post them in the thread below or feel free to give any tips or stories on how you got them. Here are some photos of fish, big and small, I've caught on some of my swimbaits. I look forward to seeing what you guys are catching out there too.

Hell yea man Nice Fish-Thanks for posting bro! I have since revised the mold of the smaller bait with scales and a wider kick- Looking for testers!!! Also- I Fixed the "Eyes falling off after a few fish" and the "Nose Skin peeling" - Eyes are molded internally and 15 Fish is the record so far!

Awesome man congrats! Great story

People haven't fished em..good thing for those that like em.. lots will be for sale once dudes are unhappy with the glide and paint chips

I also have some baits I will send your way. Send me your address Dylan

On the way to you today bud... keep ya’ head up!

Yes. All these too and more. Habit forming.

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.

Walk away now before it's too late

Good buyer as well. Didnt low ball and payed on point. Sold him a high end bait and said I'd ship it the next day. Ended up being crazy at work and was unable to follow through the shipping process for a couple days later. Explained what happened and he was very understanding. Would deal with again anytime.

I use these for bigger baits Ryoga Shrapnel 301 Toro beast 61 Calcutta 401 TE