High Power Swimbaits

Bait is more complex in the way it is built than going by sink rate. Problem with sink rates is they only tell you how fast the bait sinks when not moving. I designed the bait to be able to be controlled by rod tip position so when the rod tip is up the bait has a slight lift to it. And when the rod tip is down it dives and has a slight downward pull. Way more to the modified body shape ballast etc than just molding a shad as some people claim. The slow sink rof is around a foot a second but changes with water temp. The super slow or xss is very close to suspending on all the baits built in the past year. At slow speed the suspending baits will dive to 3-4 feet. If you get a good feel for it and play with the weighting to get the bait nose down you can jerk the rod and it will dive a little deeper. Also each different version is slightly different in the way it swims and glides. Some swim more than glide and some glide more than swim etc. If you want to be more specific in application I could probably help more.

There are rubber coated salmon nets made for wading etc. It's what I use when wading or shorefishing. I liked the net so much I took the actual net and put one on a longer handle frame for the boat.

Ospreys top and bottom hooks also dreamsmashers. Action is different and the line tie being on the nose is a huge advantage around grass. Thats my top two soft baits for summer in lakes with grass.

I talk to alot of people fishing different shad glide baits. In the smaller ones I hear what G3 basin just said over and over when I ask what else they catch good fish on. Too many for it to be just by chance. If I go buy something else to throw to have something different that would be my first two choices for smaller baits just from what I see and hear.

Fish feeding on large schools of fry. Tiny fish about an inch long.

I rarely look at fish size to determine bait size. What are the forage options the bass has and what size is the main and secondary forage species. I know that here in Ga if they stock trout it's usually 9 inch trout. If there are gills I look at the size of most of the gills and how many there are. If there are a lot of small bass I look for the size that makes up most of the population and try to match the profile and length. I have seen situations where the swimbait matched in length but was twice as thick in profile as the forage. I might as well been fishing a bait that was twice the length of the forage since it match that profile better of bait fish twice the length of the bait. Big bass can be very selective when they are keyed in on one size/type of forage in pressured lakes. Bass may be opportunistic feeders but the biggest ones are conditioned over time to find the best and most efficient opportunity to feed.

I never saw any reason to paint my bait like a trout. It was made to swim like a shad, herring, golden shiner etc. A trout has a different profile and swim to it as it swims and changes direction so I would get a deps, hinkle etc. before I would paint one of mine in a trout color to fish in trout stocked lakes.

For custom paint you have to be careful that you don't change the weight and thickness of the original paint too much. Instead of making my baits much thicker, as most swimbaits are when compared to actual baitfish size, to make them easier to make with wider margin of tolerance they are kept as close as possible to actual baitfish size. This gives you a bait that is very sensitive to changes in the paint and clearcoat thickness. Too thick or too thin and the original action will be changed. How much really depends on each individual bait since they are all tuned slightly differently before paint and after paint to get the best action from each individual bait.

I have a totally different way of looking at it. I throw whatever baitfish is most available and easiest to feed on or or being fed on by the bigger bass. I know guys who have placed first and second in a tournament with 11lb and 12 lb kickers in the same tournament fthrowing Alabama rigs with three inch swimbaits. When they put six inch baits on no fish bit. I know people who catch 40 lb five fish sacks on 3 inch swimbaits. Fish size or total weight isn't determined by how big your bait is in most cases unless it's a situation where the fish are feeding on big baits. It's determined by figuring out what size baitfish the larger fish are feeding on most of the time. That may be a 12 inch bait and that may be a six inch bait. After seeing guys catch huge fish on the Alabama rig I know sometimes is tiny three inch baits. I fish for big fish and tournament fish the same as far as choosing swimbait size. I try to choose the bait size the fish I am targeting are feeding on most often.

Baits with a bill that will fish slow and crank down to the fish. Bang them off cover etc. After floods rats are almost always my first choice.

Just what I do but haven't tried it on a negotiator. Go to store like home depot or a cabinet supply place and look for small bumpers that go on cabinet doors etc. I drill a hole seal it with epoxy and put the bumper down in it. can do it on both sides of the joint where it hits. Or use the thin vinyl ones and just stick them inside the joint. I have a buddy that uses pencil erasers glued inside a hole.

A lot of guys want the price on my baits to go up because it will lower demand. Others just want to see me get a "fair price" for the bait. They used the words "fair price" not mme. Not all people have the same mentality or way of looking at things in the world. Some are looking to take or keep all they can some are looking to give all they can if they feel like someone earned it needs it or deserves it. I have people that laughed at the first 30 dollar baits I sold and laugh or get mad at 100 dollars.

Oh and my baits still will not be flipper priced. Only thing I can do there is keep trying to cut the filppers off from ordering.

From my standpoint I have learned a lot in dealing with the demand etc. over the past year or two. I want a long term business where I have customers I can help catch bigger fish and make a living at the same time. I am not in this to get rich. I did this before when I would give stuff away and modify baits etc. for friends. But I have also learned that most other bait makers and consumers don't all have the same values and moral principles I have. They aren't in it for the process of creating something and learning just getting the enjoyment from that. Some are in it for money others are in it for ego or mental issues they have. When I made my shad bait I enjoyed the process of trail and error and learning to mold a shad then getting the bait to swim like a shad and catch big fish then getting it out to people to catch fish and watching the success. For example other bait makers are buying taxidermy molds made by other companies anyone can buy online now and modifying it to look like they carved it etc. Or they looked at a deps and made a trout with pretty much the same ballast system and the joint in the same place with no real improvement or innovation. There used to be less of this going on and the market supported it less or it was concealed well and the consumer didn't know. The small group of consumers used to look at a reaction strike with a paddle tail and call it a hudd knock off because reaction strike was trying to tke the demand huddleston created. Now somebody can make a trout like a deps and most swimbait consumers rant and rave over it. Now that I see how the market and a lot of companies are changing I am going to look at it lot differently. I need to make a profit before the companies using the shortcuts lower the demand and want to take the demand I or others create with a new popular bait. Also my prices stayed low because of my mistakes and long wait times. I have customers that are wanting me to increase my price and have almost begged me to do so. I am shipping a bait now that is much improved and takes a much longer time to make than what I actually sold the consumer months ago. This has allowed and tempted a lot of people to flip the baits. My prices will increase with the next orders of baits I take and I am going to try to make better baits and educate the consumer more on the process I am using to design, market and make my baits vs the process other companies are using to show the difference. Hopefully the consumers will continue to support me once that happens among all the cookie cutter companies out there now.

I am back to work now been waiting on supplies that were sent wrong to be replaced. Yes it was a tough year for me over the past year with things that came up in family life. I don't think he was complaining though just asking for info.

It was a comment that shad are all beat up. It's just not true. all I said then you guys had to comment and nothing about my comment other than I commented.

Honestly I m not trying to win anything. People will buy Mikes baits and they will buy mine. I know that. I just called BS on the shad thing and Rizzo and the other guy showed up to comment. I just comment when people comment directed towards me. I am just glad I don't have to BS to sell baits and can say whats on my mind without worrying about the results having an effect on sales since my sales are based very little on promotion.

He is at Rocky Mountain PFA I can go take video in the same places he is sitting in his photos to show it. He has been seen there all spring on the first ten days of the month when the trophy lake is open. Once again I am not impressed by people or baits who go looking for shocked up fish for the DNR to give them or Rocky Mountain average fish that most everybody with a little skill catches. Last person I know who tried to promote himself there caught all his fish on a King Kong swimbait. After someone told him he only looked good because he was at Rocky Mountain where its easy he deleted all his photos and left the GON site. It's that type of place for all the self promoters and narsisistic people to get photos for praise and promotion. Or us normal people just to have fun catching easy fish.

In my past life before fishing I worked in management for a company that "fixed" failing companies. One of the common themes in all failing companies is a culture of low standards while acting like there isn't a problem. Often the people running the show always liked to talk up and sell everyone on how great things are and would over promote the company to customers (advertising budgets and marketing) and employees while maintaining low standards. If you couldn't change that culture it was over for that company. College taught me nothing on that. Rizzo fits the mold of talking it up while not showing real results. I do things the exact opposite. No talking all results. Best marketing ever.

And catching them outside of bed fishing season helps too.

Sure but you have to catch the big fish not the average ones everybody catches and hold them way out to make them look bigger.

Name names. Only one guy. Let's see who is spreading bs. No offers to buy me out but a couple offers to invest in the company to have baits made in china. They came to me with the offers I didn't go looking for them. Let's hear it. I mostly am on here when waiting at the doctors office with my wife eating lunch etc. I am not here that often. Just more bs from Rizzo is all that is.