Leaderboard

Too many people worrying about what other people are doing or thinking or succeeding in. It’s true there seems to be a new big shot bait “maker” popping up on Facebook every day, but good for them for stepping forward and taking a stab at it. If consumers determine that their product is worth the price, then they might even last a few years. Otherwise they will soon fade away like many other bandwagon brands that do not put in time for development or investment for sustainable operations. That said all builders have to start somewhere, and it’s quite possible that a few of these new “hype” guys will turn out to be one of the historical greats. If you’ve been around long enough you can pretty easily tell which builders start out with dollar signs in their eyes and which ones start with a passion for fishing, creating, and developing their own path. Neither is really wrong, but typically it’s the latter that lasts. The plethora of bait options these days says a few things about us consumers. For one, we like new things. No matter how many shad glides or gill crankdowns there are, you can guarantee that if a new brand pops up with a great-looking, great-swimming, and/or greatly-priced new offering they are going to sell at least a couple even if no one has ever caught a fish on one before. Next, we like exclusive things. A new brand pops up offering baits that none of our buddies have yet. I’d rather drop $160 on a cool new glide than a bunch of lame but readily available s-wavers. There is no “right reason” for buying baits just like there is no “right reason” for building them. At the end of the day, swimbait fishing and all that it entails is supposed to be enjoyable. Sometimes part of that satisfaction is finally scoring a dream “hype” bait after years of searching and catching on it for the first time. If new bait builders are part of what keeps swimbaiting alive and helps make anglers’ dreams come true, I say keep them coming!

This Korean YouTuber does a mix of conventional and big bait fishing. There's no English subs, but you can get the idea. TK w. 0.9g grenade on front hook hangar, stock lip, transfer tail Mode B (which came as a surprise to me.)

You b!tch a lot…

Just finished up my first two rats. They were carved from bass wood no power tools besides dremel! Unfortunately the water just froze here in Nebraska so I only got a swim vid from the bathtub. I was very pleased with the action and clack of them. Especially because I’m 15 and don’t have the money to drop on other expensive rats. I airbrushed each by hand. Small size illude tail on smaller one and big size on bigger. The smaller one is 10.5” and 2.4 oz The big one is 12.5 and 6.4 oz Hopefully my next post is a giant LMB caught on one of these guys! Thanks SU! IMG_8148.mov IMG_8181.mov

Finally got out to visit my grandparents out in connecticut, a yearly tradition I haven't gotten to do since 2018 thanks to the pandemic and all sorts of other drama. Fish weren't nearly as active as we've seen them in the past, but we found a few groups of feeding fish over a three day period and absolutely POUNDED them on big baits. My grandfather is a fly fishing purist, and usually anchovy and squid pattern flies are the modus operandi on his boat. This time I brought some swimbait gear to see how the salty bass felt about the tackle I throw at little largies. Initially my grandfather was pretty skeptical of the big bait's effectiveness "oh you gotta put that sh*t down an pick up the 8wt, they're eating squid, they won't touch that sh*t" but after we got the fish dialed in he became convinced that any cast that didn't produce a fish was indicative of a lack of fish in the area and we'd move spots. Really need to put a swimbait bag together just for doing stripers, this was one of the best big fish trips I've ever had, usually the bulk of the fish we catch are 20" schoolies but I managed to completely avoid those fish while my grandpa had to sort through schoolie after schoolie on the fly. The big striper, while not measured or weighed, certainly blows my old PB out of the water. In my 12 year old memory the fish in that polaroid was twice as big as the biggest striper of this trip. Sadly I lost an even bigger fish on the punker since I had it rigged with owner ST-36s which all got straightened out while trying to back the fish away from some lobster pots.

SU Name: Chaozu Location: California First Name: Ryan Last Name: Margone Hates: Baitmakers who make pink baits and anglers who fish them; anything pink including two in the pink and one in the stink Hates: Men who fish and/or collect hundreds of expensive baits paid by their hard earned money; people that have an abundance of anything Loves: Living in liberal disaster California, COVID shutdowns, gay bashing, sanctuary cities, voting for Gavin Newsome and NancyPelosi, loves Paul Pelosi

I missed a bite on the bs but threw the citizen over the canopy and it bit like a frog fish.

Dobyns 867

I honestly gave up trying to understand this OP. Your other dumpster fire of a post was awesome too about the pink baits

Yep. It's an expensive game. But the good thing is with Biden solidly in the lead for 2024 it's only a matter of time before we become entrenched in socialism and nobody's going to be able to get any more baits other than the ones issued by the government. Think positive, buddy!

Suspending Tk…..don’t need anything else

42 degrees. Got a few between 4 and 6 lbs.

Does anybody have experience with the new shimano Curado 200M? I love the 200k. I throw between 2-4 ounces with it and it’s been solid. Curious if the new Curado M holds up like the K does.

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.

Nice work! I love making rats (and overcoming high price tags!)

Thats an awesome trip..

Thanks, the smaller one definitely will be better for more bites. Midway through the build I thought it was too small so I made a bigger one, the bigger one seems a bit louder, so I thought it could be better for at night.

Great video. Thanks for sharing.

Love it!!

I'm located in RI and throw some big wakes. I have no experience with any of the above dobyns I've used the F5 908, ldc xxh customs and the nameless 808 and 867 (867 is what I'm currently throwing all my big stuff on) the 808 is just an 8' version of the 867 (8'6" rated 4-14oz) will throw a wade hoggs/cl8 baby possum just fine (lower end of the range) up to a hinkle trout/illude xl zombie rat/mothership/bubba/rm mother/drt ghost all day. those are the biggest baits I've thrown on it regularly, mainly throw the illude xl zombie and ghost on it the last two seasons. lots of backbone and nice tip section for treble baits. I have paired up with a conquest 400, 65lb braid/mono leader for all the listed baits. unless you fully plan to throw baits over 6.5oz regularly the dobyns 867 will probably suit you better overall with more use. I do pack the 867 almost every trip and throw some big stuff every trip, depending on where I'm fishing. if you want to try out the nameless 808 and 867 let me know as I'm probably close and travel to CT all the time. and like Jesse said the small fish still eat the big baits.

This guy is totally, like, right yo. Capitalism sucks yo. We just have waaay too many, like, options ya know? The government needs to, like, crack down on this yo.

The bait makers have the right to charge whatever they want for the baits. Do I wish some of them were cheaper? Of course I do, id have a a lot more money if they were. But I will continue to support a lot of these garage baits businesses as a ton of the guys making them are super cool, and i like to support smaller businesses. They’re putting in the hard work and labor to produce these baits, That the consumers continue to buy for the price they’re putting out there. It’s completely up to them what they want to charge for these baits. As long as there’s a market for them they will continue to make the baits and people will continue to buy them whether the price is 20$ or 200$. As a consumer you can buy either or. complaining about it is not going to change a thing. Just my 2 cents on the matter.

There's differences. Subtle ones. I'd like to see both companies succeed. Seems like Johnny Rat has pulled back from the bait making business yet once again though. You know.... there's tons of $20-50 baits that work great. Like you'll see Deebo Samuel and Snoop and all of those other famous people carrying Versace and Vuitton purses While a peon like me will be wearing a Jansport backpack. Both get the job done.

I tell you, there are so many options out there, but the one that served me well is the Keitech 8” Easy Shiner rigged on a weighted 7/0 Owner Beast hook. (They recommend 8/0-10/0). The bait itself unrigged comes in at 2oz and can be slowed crawled along the bottom or through the water column. 5lb-5oz NJ Largemouth who fell prey to the Keitech 8” Easy Shiner, Bluegill Flash color, while “bank” fishing off a dam. Was slow crawling it on the bottom and up the rip rap when this one bit.

Slow sink soft baits, and slow sink glide baits. Better yet a rig a floating glide to suspend or a floating soft baits like a hudd. I fish shallow ponds with swimbaits in winter. I don’t fish deep with swimbaits

It works when you really want to control the lure weight regardless of hook size. On the viking head swinging jig head

Got one on the eight inch slow sink freestyle last night. I was burning it real slow and deadsticking it real fast.

Woke up at 1:45am for work at 2:15, went straight to the lake after work. 1.5hrs each way. Broke off my last OG Mag. Did 13 miles today, and broke my personal best. Weight: 8.86. Length: 22 3/4” Bait: Bacca Burrito Rod: SuperBait Korea Golblin Bat 711XH Reel: Shimano Tranx 300 7.1 Line: CXX 20#