smalliebigs

Of course, some baits come with feathers like the punker. Anybody dress the trebles on other swimbaits to hide the hooks or to get subtle motion when deadsticking?

If you've ever worked in product development, you know all about concurrent ideas/design. I've always loved the way the ABT swims, but the paint jobs are craptacular. Always wished somebody would do a had bluegill bait with that kind of tail/action.

I had hoped to do some serious swimbaiting today, but the voltage regulator on my outboard fried almost as soon as I hit the water. I'm talking melted material and everything. Sucks sucks sucks...

According to Webster -- knock off: a copy that sells for less than the original; broadly : a copy or imitation of someone or something popular Companies also knock-off certain aspects while changing others to fill needs in the marketplace. Maybe the concept is similar, but the style or durability or colors are changed. We tend to be more forgiving of this, but in the market place is cost really any less important an aspect than the others? Do you perceive the same value? Does it catch as many fish? Only one way to know....

Action is like a smell, you can't really claim ownership. Chances are its been done before, maybe even by accident or a different way. Being first can justify a premium price, but any manufacturer who expects that alone to justify the price in perpetuity is fooling themselves. If the product is truly innovative, different, or just pure quality the price can be justified even if somebody knocks it off. If people perceive the value (or even scarcity), they will pay for it. It is like the difference between an original painting, a limited edition print, and a mass printing. They might all look good on the wall, but people know the difference. 3:16 is a good example of a tangible difference in quality/uniqueness justifying a price. A good example of the opposite is a proven fish catcher that was once a hot bait and fairly unique at first. You could hardly find one in stock. Reportedly swam at any speed and was a big catcher. I knew it came with cheap hooks and a paint job that was mediocre at best, but it was highly regarded and I wanted one if it performed to its reputation. They finally became available, I put my $60 down for one and found it would turn on its side at anything above a "medium" speed. This is the kind of product screaming for free market competition, and competition came. There are baits available at half the price that are better quality now, and the baits available at $60 are twice the quality. Do they catch fish as well? There's only one way to find out and I'll give competition a chance.

A swimbait is a game changer. My goal every time out is to feel like I caught the "best" possible that day. That's always "quality" fish, but sometimes I want lots and others I just want bigger. I can't say swimbaiting has ever been about "lots" for me, but it certainly has had some bigger moments. When you have one of those moments, or especially if you "almost" have one of those moment, "best" becomes about "biggest" by default. However you define "best, the thing is you never know if you really achieved it, but even if you know you didn't you still had a blast. That's fishing, and I guess that's swimbaiting too...

To me, it is interesting, but too little data sliced into slices too small to really effect my opinion about specific baits much. Just my opinion, but absent a lot of pros tend to be a little like "sheeple" for the hot baits, not really trying comparable baits, which can further skew the info. I think segmentation definitely skews the list so it tells more about what is happening within a market segment than what kind of lure is more effective. Think of how many jig makers are out there. If you go to the "lure types" tab you can see more than twice as many jigs (93) were selected than jerkbaits (42). The top jig only had 7 votes, while the top jerkbait (pointer) had 16. Even topwaters are more selected (44) than jerkbaits as a whole. So all we really learn is that A) jerkbait is a more narrowly defined market segment and the pointer is the most popular jerkbait. Not really a surprise to me. Actually confirms my usual decision to throw a different jerkbait to give the fish something other than what everybody else is throwing. Swimbaits as a category had a total of 16 selections, equal to the number of selections for the "#1" bait. It beat categories "tube", "lizard", "buzzbait" and "chatterbait". Even though it may mostly be hollow style baits, that's better than I would have expected from the tourney crowd.

I have a pair of Costas with blue mirror that I use for bright days. I have a pair of Native's with yellow lenses for low light days. They also have an interchangeable lens system so they serve as my "back-up" glasses for bright days too. In my opinion you HAVE to have back up glasses in the boat in case of damage/loss/forgetfulness..

Question: "What is this 3:16 bait???" Answer: Suhweeeet

Maybe it is just me, but a hyper herring and baby wake don't seem to respond the same way to a "rip" or "burn" retrieve. If I drill holes in the bill of my baby wake, will it rip more like a hyper herring? Maybe it is more due to weighting, bill angle, etc., but has anybody tried this?

Went to a small pond before work for a planned 15 minutes of baby wakin'. Turned into about 5 minutes when I snapped the bait off on a cast. CRAP CRAP CRAP. It was a good ways out, and I hadn't even brought another bait so I couldn't try to snag it. There was only a small breeze so the bait was barely moving. Went back 2.5 hrs later and there was the bait, about a rod length out from shore. Snagged it and let out a big sigh of relief. No teeth marks, so I don't think any bass played with it while I was gone. Line was broken probably about halfway up the rod, so I need to inspect the guides for any cracks. I did find the floating bait's location w/respect to the shore interesting. Not pushed against shore, but floating about 8 ft from it. I've often noticed under heavier winds a "seam" is often created here where the main wind current balances out with the "bounce back" from the shore. This seam can be the "sweet spot". I had never really noticed it with a wind that was only a couple of MPH, but it was definitely still there. A good reminder for me.

See if this works

I forget what the box number was. You can see it in the eattached. So far looks like it will work as expected, but I threw out almost all those stupid wires already. Just need to get a few more. (shoot, the image upload didn't work. i'll try again)

Had some success at this time fishing them almost vertical in bait suspended at 20-30 ft.

In no particular order: The year I teach my 6 yr old son, who wants to throw "daddy's big baits", to use a baitcaster (AKA "the reel where you use your thumb"). The first year he fishes a big bass tournament with me. The year my 4 yr old daughter will probably catch more fish than my son. The year I find out how similar southern smallies are to the northern smallies I used to love. The year I don't go on a business trip causing me to miss every freestyle shad sale The year I get back into night time fishing, this time w/ swimbaits. The year I go "really" deep

Picked up a tinkerbell toy for my daughter today on an X-mas exchange. Also redeemed a gift card on a new Plano utility box for my slowly expanding swimbait collection. As I was untwisting all those plastic coated wire thingies that kept tinkerbell secure in cardboard, it hit me. I could poke or drill a series of holes in the side of the storage box under the hinge areas. I can then use those twisty thingies to secure some fast snaps hanging down on the inside of the box. Or I can simply put the twisty through the bait eye and give it a quick turn or two. The length of the twisty thing can be adjusted for different line tie locations or hang a bait a little higher/lower. Not worried about being watertight, I might put some holes in the "bottom" to fascillitate draining. Cheap, easy, fast. Haven't modified the box yet, but played around a little with the twisty stuff and some swimbaits and I think it'll work.