porkmeatballs

Very nice!

In!

Cool looking bait!

Cool looking build so far!

I love the iguana! Fantastic detailing!

Eh they're just slightly bent haha . But yes, stronger hooks would be wise when these fish are lurking around!

For sure! That's an 8.5 inch bait, but it looks small in that picture!

These are Mustad Triple Grips which I thought were fairly strong, but I guess they're not ideal for fish that size haha. That being said, they can handle largies no problem! It was quite the adventure! Although I wish I had had someone else there to take better pictures

I've been tinkering with a new prototype glide that I made for quite some time now and am slowly getting it dialed to perform the way that I need it to. I got a few big largies to follow it and one to T-bone the bait, but I wasn't able to hook up. Swimbait fishing has always been pretty slow this time of year, so I wasn't too worried about not getting bit regularly and continued to chuck the glide out just for the fun of it. On one particular outing I was on the water testing the glide yet again when I saw something sizable bust on the surface. I immediately chucked the glide to it, gave it a few pops, and instantly got hammered! It was only a 6.5 lb striper, but boy did I think I had a giant on the end of my line! I was stoked to have finally landed a decent fish on my new glide. I took a few pictures, revived her, and let her swim away strong. After that I had a major boost of confidence and continued to fish like the next cast could get me an even bigger fish. About 15 minutes later I was standing up in my little kayak trying to keep a close eye on my glide swim through the water when something giant slammed the bait so hard that it almost knocked me out of my yak! Seeing that it was a big striper, I immediately sat down, loosened my drag, and hung on for the ride! The striper then proceeded to make wild runs up and down the river and seemed to ignore the fact that it was towing a kayak behind it. After a large amount of adrenaline and screaming I finally worked the beast to the boat and managed to fit my tiny lip gripper onto its mouth. I then slowly paddled to shore to get some pictures and measurements. The beast came in at 29.66 lbs which beat my previous PB by 9.6 lbs! It was a struggle to get good pictures as I was by myself, getting swarmed by mosquitos, and didn't want to keep the fish out of the water too long. As with the first striper, I revived her and let her go strong. After that I saw one more giant surface, but didn't get another bite. My goal now is to get a 35+, but I sure wouldn't mind catching a few more 30's along the way

In!

Looking good! I love the paint scheme!

This is the coolest thing ever! Well done to both of you!

I had always wanted to make my own rat bait that was relatively small and would be effective in the areas that I fished. I had been mostly focused on glide baits for quite a while, but decided that I really needed some type of topwater swimmer in my arsenal. I finally got around to carving this rat, and boy am I glad that I did! This quickly became one of my my most effective baits and was able to fool a number of bass in the 1-5# range. I was amazed to find that even 7" dinks would take a swipe at it! I found that the best retrieve was to walk the rat in place using small, quick pumps of the rod. This makes the rat slosh around in one spot and seemed to drive the bass crazy. The rat bite has slowed down because of the cold weather and rain that we're having, but I have high expectations for this rat once the weather warms up again!

I made my account when I was hungry

In

Hello everyone! Although I have been lurking around this site for quite some time now, I would still consider myself to be relatively new to swimbaiting compared to quite a few of the people on this forum. I have definitely learned a lot about throwing big baits since I joined Swimbait Underground and have enjoyed reading about and applying different techniques on my own bodies of water. I started off throwing smaller paddle tail swimmers at a private lake a couple years back, but began taking an interest in the larger swimbaits after joining SU and seeing Bassmaster articles about Triple Trout, PB rat, and Roman Made. At the time I was amazed at the fact that a bass would try to eat baits of that size. However, after spending more time on SU and seeing all the giant fish that people were catching on swimbaits, I realized how effective this mode of fishing could be. I slowly started upsizing the swimbaits that I threw and transitioned from exclusively throwing tiny paddle tails to also throwing hard-body swimmers, glides, and topwaters. All along the way I would either throw swimbaits that I found on the ground or try to make my own as I didn't have the means to buy them. Thankfully, I was eventually blessed with the opportunity to obtain better materials to craft my own swimbaits. I would spend many hours on SU learning about different baits and their actions in order to attempt to create a swimbait that would suit my own needs at the locations that I fished. Swimbait building has been a wild ride for me, but has also grown my love for this special area of fishing. I caught my biggest fish on a swimbait and I'm sure that I will continue to catch even bigger ones in the future if I continue to chuck the big baits. I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone on this forum for creating an awesome community that shares such an amazing passion for this sport! I am currently a college student, but will be graduating pretty soon! Since I have the resources to create my own swimbaits, I wouldn't necessarily need any baits being donated for the giveaway. That being said, my rod and reel setup is a different story. I currently use an Irod Jr. Swim Gen 2 paired with an old Quantum Exo that has served me extremely well. I have used this setup to catch an extremely wide variety of fish from tiny bluegill to big largies to giant stripers. Both rod and reel were actually generously gifted to me years ago and opened the doors for me to throw swimbaits that were quite substantially larger than the average Storm paddle tails. Since they are the only suitable rod and reel that I have had for the swimbaits that I throw consistently, I use them on every single fishing outing. Unfortunately my reel seems to finally be going on the blink and has recently been locking up badly and making grinding noises. I have tried my best to open, clean, and fix it, but the problems continue. In short, I would like to know if I would be eligible to be a candidate for just the reel that @dislexic1 is so graciously donating since I am not sure how long my Quantum will last. The rod could be sent to someone else, as my Jr. Swim still functions well enough. Thank you so much for your time and consideration!

In!

Nice job!

in

I wanted to post one after paint, but I haven't gotten around to it because I haven't had the time. It's still been working for me without paint, so I'm not complaining

I've been testing one of my new models for a while and have been having quite a bit of success! I've landed a couple of 3's, a 4.5, and loads of dinks. Got out on the water recently and the bite was tough with the water temp dropping. I got one nice follower on a glide, but couldn't get any to commit. Switched to the prototype and stuck this 5.82. Got a number of dinks to bump it and caught a 2.5lb spot as well.

Although I get snagged more frequently, I have had quite a bit of luck fishing glides around submerged timber. Even if you don't get the perfect cast right next to structure, glides often have enough drawing power to pull fish up out of the timber and trigger a bite.

In

Can't wait for this run to move upriver! Looking forward to it!

Well it's been a while since I posted here. A few months ago I got onto quite a few fish using my glide. On one particular day I got up to thirty-five followers ranging anywhere between 1-6 pounds for the largies and up to 4 pounds for the spots. I was absolutely mind blown because I had never seen so many fish follow a swimbait in a single day! I got a number of bites, and while I did catch a few of the smaller ones, the majority (which were spotted bass) would simply slap my bait without fully committing. Most of the largies seemed to only commit when they were in wolf packs and had to compete for my glide. Although many of the fish that I actually landed were quite small, I had a blast getting this much swimbait action over a few days! I also managed to fool this striper as a bonus fish