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Had a great day walking some local lakes throwing a 9” Draw in Real Shiner. Bass are starting to eat up for the spawn here in North Florida. 4.3 pounds 5.5 pounds 7.1 pounds

Phenomenal day at Lake Okeechobee after a bad cold front earlier this week. Plenty of 2-6 pound largemouth bass all caught on 3:16 Lure Company Baby Wakes (Shad color) and Freestyle Gills (OG Bluegill color) I will be at the BigO on March 2024 for Round #2. Cheers!

Happy Holidays SU, A couple weeks ago I hooked into a fish that I later realized I had already caught a few months prior. Im sure this is something we all have done either knowingly or unknowingly at some point in time if anyone is fishing a particular body of water consistently. I thought it was interesting and thought id share the photos and story. So to make a long story short this is the same body of water that I caught my PB out of in October (If anyone wants to see that fish/story its in the PB thread). I originally hooked into this fish for the first time in August on a Gizzard Wizard about 300 yards down the bank. At the time it weighed 5.2lbs x 21" and was a class of fish I was never able to catch during summer months relative to the waters I had been previously fishing. This catch ultimately gave me the confidence to return to this body of water consistently in hopes of catching a larger fish, which would end up resulting in me catching my PB. Fast forward to December I'm back in the same spot where I caught my PB and I make the same exact cast, to my right up tight to the bank paralleling the shoreline. I believe this spot holds relevance because it has quick access to "deep" water, has large boulder/chunk rock and is near a shallow zone. I think all these components come into play where the bass can either go up into the shallows and feed in 2ft of water and quickly be back into 10ft + or feed along this quick drop off shore line in about 6ft water. This day I was using an 86 Baits Tempest that I had purchased off of another member on Black Market. I was presenting the bait in a very slow consistent retrieve with the occasional reel pop every couple handle turns. Mid way through the retrieve BOOM it gets thumped and I grind the fish in. After catching a 6 pounder off of this spot my anxiety is through the roof with the thought of potentially reeling in a larger fish. I lip the fish and get it on the scale, measuring board and take my photos and quickly release her back into the water. At this point she weighed 5.8 x 21" it wasn't till I got home and reviewed the photos that I realized the tail on the fish looked similar to one I had caught prior. After matching the photos up next to one another I have a pretty good reason to believe its the same fish I caught in August. Im sure the fish wasn't happy to see me again and probably will think twice about feeding in that area now. Hopefully he doesn't tell his underwater friends to not feed in that area anymore and be on the lookout for me lol. Although it was a cool experience to catch this fish 2 times as stated by Mike Gilbert in one of his videos touching on the same subject, it just goes to show that there's only a certain number of these larger fish in a body of water at a given time. Im sure there are plenty more in there however they're either in unaccessible areas or unwilling to eat artificial lures and with each catch were wisening more and more fish to potentially become uncatchable. Original Catch In August In December

ONLY TWO MORE NIGHTS LEFT TO REGISTER! MERRY CHRISTMAS SU !!!

Caught a bunch of mediums but nothing competitive

Amazing morning of fishing I caught a 6.4 and this a 7.4 ( I have more videos and pictures if needed) ( state in bio )

I do like 10-20 yards of backing on my conquest and the rest braid, cause then I reverse the braid to another reel, so cost me more upfront but then I get two uses out of it. I fish braid to mono leader on ALL my set ups, then a short mono leader 20-30lb depending on bait size

C2C on a 23” 5-3 string bean. Wish I caught this fish during prespawn. A few others to go with it.

Hey SU Happy Holidays, In October I caught my PB and now that our season is coming to a close (at least for me) I thought id share the story for anyone who cares to read. In August I started exploring a new body of water about 40 minutes from my house. I had a good feeling about this particular body of water after I caught a 5.2 on a gizzard wizard mid summer (a class of fish I have never been able to catch in the summer time relative to the waters I had been fishing). This catch gave me the confidence to make the drive more often and take the roughly 1.5 mile long hike to get to this spot. Besides the fish the water seemed promising structure wise with quick drop offs into "deep" water pretty much directly off of the bank, large chunk rock/boulders and what seemed to be a plethora of small baitfish roaming in the shallows. Fast forward to October I was there one morning before work fishing the shoreline exposed to the sun first. I was using a Doomrider I had painted by DS Customs painted in a bluegill pattern, fishing the bait with a very slow consistent retrieve with the occasional reel twitch every couple handle turns. Previously I was fishing this bait with # 2 ST-36 hooks but for whatever reason that morning before heading out I switched them out for the Mustad KVD Short Shank Triple Grip #1. This weighted the bait down just enough to get slightly deeper on the retrieve. I fished my usual 4 spots with no luck and on my way back I figured id stop and fish one last spot but only do a cast to my left and to my right paralleling the shoreline because I was running out of time. My cast to the left produced nothing so I made my "last cast" to the right up tight to the shoreline. Mid way through the retrieve BOOM the bait gets thumped so I swing and start grinding the fish in. Once I got the fish directly in front of me that's when I started to panic seeing that the fish's head and mouth was larger then any I have caught before. I got the fish on the scale and on the measuring board and she went 6.3 pounds by 22.25". She was safely released back into the water quickly after I had taken my photos. I know this isn't the largest fish compared to a lot of other members on here but regardless it was a fun and rewarding catch for me. Definitely one of those situations that make you feel like the time, effort and money spent was well worth it. Im not in a rush but I'm looking forward to meeting with my next PB whenever that time may come.

Got a nice one this morning

Had a friend toss me this yesterday. Hoping to get a few minutes later this afternoon to test it. Love the top hook concept when creepin / bottom crawling, and I've never had a magdraft that didn't lean. Hoping this might be a good one. Merry Christmas!

Congrats to @Crimsiin for winning the December 2023 SUB tournament. Please contact @swimbaitunderground for your prize pack

Hey guys. I'm just getting into fishing big swimbaits and glide baits. Up until recently the biggest swimbaits I fished were 4-5"ers. I've been custom painting baits for a few years now and lately I've had several people wanting glide baits painted. To say it's peaked my interest is a huge understatement. I'm looking forward to going down the rabbit hole and learning as much as possible here.

Definitely comes through rocks and docks better than a bottom hook. Swims very nice at anything from crawl to slow retrieves. It's got head shake, body roll and tail flash. So far, I'm liking it. Big plus too, the eyes haven't fallen out like some higher priced softies. Here's a couple of quick one hand drags with phone video. 20231223_150131.mp4

In and Merry Christmas to you and your family and thanks for giving us this opportunity to win this bait amazing.

Congrats brother heck of a fish!!!

Always good to match them by diameter for their given rating. I also use both and I feel like Sniper is a tad stiffer but still manageable and more abrasion resistant.

The first picture is a black dog baits wood shellcracker

The second and last pictures are both bullshad baits. First one looks to be an 8 or 9” glide painted in the mirror carp pattern. Pretty sure Bill Barton did those paint jobs. The last picture is a bullshad trickgill glide. Not sure about any of the other baits.

Bless you and you beautiful family, JC. I'm not in because I had been chosen before in the past and my son was so happy to see the bait when it arrived. Good luck to the winner and have a Merry Christmas and Happy holidays SU family!

My state is in my bio (MS)!

anyone have a guess on weight? didnt have a scale but its definately my personal best.

The hot streak continues on the @swimbaitunderground x Kurouto monster crawler!! Landed another new PB Friday night around midnight, coming in at 8lb5oz, I think the cheezy smile says it all....

I haven't tried the battle shads but I feel the same way about the citizens. I catch the same fish on a Big EZ. Decent baits but bad hookup ratio and overpriced.