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To me it’s all situational for my waters and what I feel I need to throw based on seasonal factors. Meaning, I have more confidence in cooler water, say from late fall through early spring, going slow and low with a soft bait, such as a Huddleston. That’s where I feel more confident here in the northeast. Conversely, from late spring through early fall, hard baits like wakebaits and crankdowns prove to be consistent catchers. Hard baits or soft baits , they are just tools in your arsenal. I wouldn’t limit yourself to just one or the other. But more so pick one or two from each category and focus on learning how to use them effectively and become proficient using them, based on conditions you face. The bottom line, to sum up and elaborate what @chevro1et posted: don’t worry about what other people are doing. Fish what you enjoy and brings you success. I think no matter what type of bait you use, if you enjoy using it, it’s gives you confidence, you will fish it hard, and ultimately will be rewarded. Good luck on your quest, look forward to seeing a trophy catch on the forum in the future.

Long weekend gave me some time to get out to some spots I don’t normally make it to and had a great time. Haven’t really put in much time with gill/crappie baits in years past but have really made an effort to put in some time with em this year and it’s been fun. Nothing too big but the bites are super aggressive. Whippersnapper, Southpaw, Sly Guy 6.2 and DD gill did the damage. Hope everyone smacked em this past weekend..

Don't concern yourself too much with what other people are doing if you're enjoying yourself and having successful outings. If you want to concentrate on soft baits, do it. It's not like hard baits are going to cease to exist and will never be an available option for you in the future.

Added a few Silvera Andromeda's to the collection. I don't know which one I like better Mud Shad or Silvera, they both look awesome!

Had a fun trip to the local pond a few days ago. I didn’t weigh all the fish since most were 2-3, but got to watch some cool eats and stuck a 4.25lber on a frog which is my biggest frog fish out of a pond so far.

An old thread (and wow I didn’t realize how old this build is), but this new “prototype” looks too juicy to not share before I lose it to a tree or something…again. High vis pattern for those low vis water conditions:

Not sure your definition of trophies but lot of the OGs will say a soft bait catches bigger fish then a hard bait primarily for the fact a Hard bait Is more of a reaction bite and a soft bait is a fish that's looking for a nice meal

Your few is like 33 of them

Anyone using a shimano bantam mgl a? Looking at one for baits just under 3oz such as a ufo 6” wake. Looking at putting it on a MH and H rod. Any cons to the reel?

Cardiff is a great budget reel, but with $130 you can get a lot higher end of a reel used and in great shape. There have been some really good deals on used gear lately.

Don't you hate that feeling of helplessness when you can't get bit on your big trout glide because the fish are keyed in on tiny shad? I sure do haha. The Rapala Shad Rap has been my top conventional bait when small threadfin or baitfish are on the menu (I've caught some big fish on that little bait), so I've been wanting to make an upscaled and more realistic shad imitator for a good while. I'm planning to have this bait sit at 4.25" long and will experiment with a variety of actions, joint combinations, materials, applications, etc. I'll be molding the master as one piece so that I can have more opportunities to experiment with it. I've been working on this bait for a bit, and thus far it has been very challenging just to carve the master. As much as I love working with bass wood, it does have the tendency to crack and flake when I try to carve scales or fine detail. My eyes keep crossing trying to focus on what I'm doing for long periods of time. Tuning the bait will probably be an even bigger hurdle seeing as I have less material to work with. Hardware selection and placement will be a critical factor with such a small bait. I left the front half of the master fairly wide to try and maximize how much resin I'll have to work with while still maintaining a good body profile. Also, I'd like this bait to move water and stand out from the millions of real shad swimming around. So here she is so far! My brother @porkmeatballs told me I shouldn't post this until I was ready to mold but it's my way of keeping myself accountable and motivated to push forward . She still needs a bit of cleaning up done, but this is more or less the finished look. Wish me the best. I have the tendency to drop the ball on new projects or end up with a dud more often than I'd care to admit haha. Either way, it's still been a fun little piece to pour my efforts into. Enjoy and thanks for following along!

Great job

Very productive Labor Day Weeknd I’d say. Some good fish right there.

Oh, I almost forgot about the huge freshwater clams in the delta!!

Well done, good fish right there.

Might have to start a feet finder

I do too! It’s put a lot of fish “in the boat” for me including my pb bass and pb crappie. It even caught my pb clam Yeah me and my brother build together, so you’ll see both of our work displayed there. For the most part, I run the account though and have really enjoyed following your page and seeing all the cool baits you make.

So this is something that I have been curious to get other swimbait enthusiast feedback from for a while now. To me, since the beginning of my swimbait fishing endeavor, I have always wondered which proved to be the more worth-while time (and financial) investment: hard baits or soft baits. I have thrown and caught good fish on both. That said, there is part of me that wants to narrow down my big-bait-throwing obsession even more by focusing on one or the other. Personally, I have enjoyed throwing soft baits more. While I feel that I have spent an equal amount of time throwing both hard and soft, I tend to caught larger fish on soft baits. Contrarily, when I observe other anglers' catches online, it seems that people are catching more trophies on hard baits. I would love to hear people's thoughts and experiences with the decision on picking up a hard or soft bait.

I would say you should fish both with more emphasis on soft baits. Looking at conventional lures most big fish are caught on a jig or soft plastic which I would say is akin to a soft swimbait. These baits are high percentage in most situations. This pretty closely mirrors my experience with swimbaits. My average citizen 6 fish is bigger than my average 250 fish despite being 1/3 the size. It's fairly easy to fire up small fish into swiping at a big glide but a fish has to fully commit to eat a soft bait. If you want to play percentages lean more on soft baits. However there are some reaction baits that get huge bites in the right situations. The state record here was caught on a blade bait in the dead of winter. My pb was caught on a suspending tk in frigid water where most would think to drag a soft bait. My conventional pb was also on a crankbait smashed into rocks. These baits tend to trigger a lot of smaller fish but can get the biggest bites at the right time and place.

I find myself reaching for hard baits much more frequently, but a lot of that comes down to where and how I fish. I think throwing the baits that work well for you will bring you the most success. I could throw soft baits all day and probably never catch what some of these other guys do with them. I just don't have the confidence in them and I know my strengths and style of fishing is better for hard baits. All of that said, both will excel in different situations. Also, I think what everyone else said here already is pretty spot on.

Nowadays there is a plethora of “smaller” baits under 8 inches…but when the bite is really tough, pressured, or locked on to small baitfish is when baits in that 4-5” range can be deadly. I’ve caught some of my biggest bass on one of the smallest swimbaits I own. Selection for baits in this range (excluding some bigger name brands) is more limited. In no particular order, here’s a few smaller baits that I personally wouldn’t mind trying: - Jackall Gantarel Jr. - Deps Baby Bullshooter - Gracely Finesse Gill - Golden/Highgrade Helion - Yohan Do All Mini Glide - Donkey Bay Pogey You’ll probably notice a common theme with the above baits. It can take a bit of adjustment to fish this style bait in such a small package, but man do they get bit when you get the hang of it.

For whatever reason I have a lot less confidence throwing a big soft bait over a hard bait…maybe it’s because hard baits tend to be more versatile and two treble hooks are more conducive to hookups? Fishing style is also a factor: I like power fishing with reaction baits, so crawling a hudd is a painful experience for me. Also a lot more of the “average” anglers will be throwing stuff like a storm wildeye or keitech, so sticking with a more detailed (and typically more expensive and rare) hard bait automatically sets me apart from what that crowd is offering. Of course there are situations where fishing a hard bait makes no logical sense, but otherwise I will almost always gravitate to hard baits.

So rad dude. You've been on em!

So sick. I've only ever caught them in the harbor but they were never that big

The bass bites been tough after the full moon but found this NJ gator that absolutely choked the Toxic Baits Wade 5’ from the boat - most epic bite of the year for me.

G2 Shellcracker has done a lot of damage for a pretty small swimbait...

I'll second the above. The whippersnapper got it done for a good stretch for me last season. It's a great bait. If you're looking to downsize even more, check out the red top worms wake gill. I think his Instagram is redtop_worms. Great little bait.

Toxic baits whippersnapper is a work horse of a bait. I’ve caught smallies largemouth, big, small, crank wake dive, doesn’t matter. Swiss Army knife of a bait.

Here’s a list of vendors, some bait makers have posted pics on FB and/or IG of what they’ll have, others have not

Don't forget, elephants sometimes eat peanuts and smaller might be the ticket at times. Keep an open mind.

I assume you're talking to me? LOL. I'm not Butch Brown or Josh Jones, but I've caught a few... Here's a little sample sir: - 12lb 8oz - 10lb 12oz - 10lb 4oz - 10lb I plan on putting the Andromeda's to work also...