Charlestonfisherman

In 8th grade I started off with an swaver 168 and fished it until I was able to consistently catch fish on it and I knew I would stick with swim-baiting. Then I went on Ebay and bought a 175 silent killer for 35$ and converted it myself, and learned how to fish it to its best ability. I would wait to buy a nicer bait like the gancraft until you're sure you are gonna stick with this style of fishing, especially if you're younger and don't have a steady source of revenue.

I started off with old bullet weights that I hammered together. I started off heavy and then kept shaving the weights with sandpaper until I got the slowest sink possible with #25 and an egg snap. I like to make the weights myself since its cheaper and you're able to tune the bait yourself. I didn't even have to glue in the weights either if you're worried about damaging the body of the bait.

I just brought two of my slideswimmers out of retirement and realized the skin had gotten pretty loose on one of them. Do any of ya'll know how to tighten the skin back onto the body of the bait? I have thought about using a heat gun like i do with heat shrink tubing, but I don't want to ruin the skin on the bait. If anyone has tried this before and has a good way of doing it, it'd be a huge help. Thanks

Butch

Signed, I understand how important someone's home waters are to them, Goodluck.

5 pounds 11 ounces from Charleston, South Carolina. Caught on a fish 30 acre glide shad at 5:11 pm Eastern Time on 5/29/16. Caught her throwing the bait out deep then slow rolling it over a ledge.

In

Mail man came today, slowly adding to the collection

The pic didn't attach.

Caught this 5-5 on an I-slide to break my 4 week slump. SC fishing has been tough, but it feels good to be back.

This topic has so many different variables that it is obviously difficult to reach a definite decision, but I do have one thing to point out about this. There is a VERY distinct difference between noticing a bed fish, backing off of the bed, then casting at it and just randomly blind casting in an area where there might be a possibility of fish being on beds. The moving off is still a version of sight fishing. You saw the fish on the bed. Just because you back off of the bed and fish it without being able to see it, you still know the fish is on a bed and you are trying to catch it off of the bad.

I spent two hours at my neighborhood pond with a ziplock bag full of nails weights and got nowhere. I tried about every weight configuration the bait could withstand, and the best thing that happened was the bait swam diagonal.

Just don't rip the skin like I did with my old one. The warm soap and water is a must, especially if its an older bait with a weaker skin.