SVT THUNDER

Very accurate assessment and well done man!

I did. I won’t get into the first cast big bass debacle lol. Those who follow me on IG know how my rookie mistake cost me a big one. But on the 3rd cast I managed to stick a little fat 3 lb chunk. Weather and water levels were my enemy. But I caught plenty of keepers (15”+) which was unusual for me with a bait this size. It’s usually quality over quantity when I’m throwing 8” baits with such a large profile. I had the quality on…but didn’t land it. I was genuinely impressed with this bait.

Never owned anything but low floats. But upon digging into it, the hi float has a single knocker in it. I’ve had two low floats that I fished the crap out of that got a light knocking after a year or so. But none ever had that sound new.

Never heard of a rattle in K9. Jokers come rattle in and silent. But I’ve had some DRT’s that had a loose weight that made a light knocking sound.

Traveling Gill Glide has landed. Weather isn’t in my favor. High winds have the lake looking like mud and we’re under a cold front. But I’ve caught bass in much worse conditions. I’ll give it my best shot.

My favorite swimbait memory is the first day I actually threw them. Most have heard this story on here a few times. But for those who haven’t, I was in the Nashville Bass Pro which I frequented a lot during my tournament years. One day I decided to look on the saltwater isles. I saw what to me were huge baits at that time. All soft swimbaits. The OG 8” Optimum jig hook swimbaits caught my eye. They had a color that would easily pass as Shad. So on a whim, I bought two of them. Got home and tossed them in the boat storage and forgot about them. Fast forward to 2001 and I had a tournament coming up. Big chunk of money in this one. I normally fished alone when not fishing trail tournaments. But my best friend who knew absolutely nothing about fishing wanted to “fish it” with me. He offered to split gas, oil and entry. So sure…why not. I’d been pre fishing the week before and I’d found them on a deep cut that was along a ridge in 14’ of water. It dropped to 18-20’ on the cut and they were stacked on one side. They were eating a DD 22 and I left them alone once I found them. Day of the tournament I was boat #13. My friend was saying we were unlucky and all that lol. I just laughed it off. So we blast off and I run to that spot and start fishing. Two hours later I’d caught nothing. However I had fixed two dozen birds nests on the reel he was using. So I started throwing everything at them. Jig, worm, different kinds, shapes and sizes of crankbaits, big spinnerbaits, small spinnerbaits…nothing. So I was digging through my tackle and I saw those two Optimums still in the packages. I thought what the heck. I had no equipment for that weight, but I tied one onto my heaviest lure rated rod. It felt like my rod would snap just hanging there. So I started lob casting listening to my buddy laugh at that bait. I honestly didn’t have a clue as to what I was doing. I was simply throwing it out and letting it sink and swimming it at alternate depths with little success. I made another cast and I heard my friend backlash yet again. So I left the reel disengaged and let the bait fall to the bottom. Fixed his reel and walked back to the front deck. Picked up my rod and for some reason, I decided to pop it really hard off the bottom like a jig but with firmer. I felt the bait falling back down after the pop and the rod about got yanked out of my hands. I can’t recall if the first bass was the biggest or not, but they were all prespawn bass and good ones. He did a solid job with the net and found his calling in my boat. Within an hour I had just shy of 26 lbs. They destroyed the first swimbait and I went on to the second which also got torn in half on my last bass. All were hooked in the roof of the mouth and I had one that was around 3 1/2 lbs I needed to cull. But as the day went on without anymore swimbaits, I left and fished all my other spots and caught nothing. By the time I had to weigh in, the 3 something had died so I knew that would be minus 1lb. We weighed in and took the lead. We waited for everyone else to weigh in which took almost 2 hours. My nerves were a wreck. But even with the dead fish penalty, we won with a few hundredths shy of 25 lbs. A pic is in my profile of us holding the bass after we weighed them. That was the day that I got the swimbait bug. I started buying more and more swimbaits and glides from that day on. That was the first time I’d cashed a check for thousands of dollars. I split it with my closest friend. Payment for his netting services as he’d say for years lol. This is my favorite swimbait memory for another reason however. A few short years later, my lifelong friend and the closest thing I’ve ever had to a brother passed away. In the years following this tournament, he fished as many local events with me as possible when I wasn’t traveling to fish. His last tournament with me, he caught the biggest bass of his life that went 6.9 lbs and had one eye. I let him carry the bag on stage that day and although we didn’t place in that one, his smile holding that bass will forever be etched into my mind.

Caught a bass somewhere around 8-10 years ago. Noticed something odd sticking out of its anus. I slowly began pulling and what emerged was a very rusty 4/0 worm hook. One of those things I wouldn’t have believed if it hadn’t happened to me. I’ve also heard numerous pros talk about gut hooked bass on crankbaits. Some cut the split ring off while others left the crank in their throat only to find the bait floating in the livewell when they went to get the bass for the weigh in or found the cut off hook in the bottom of the livewell afterwards. Some I took with a grain of salt. But I’ve heard the same 3 stories about 3 bass that did this in one way or another from Larry Nixon numerous times since 2001. He’s always been one of the most honest anglers I had the pleasure of knowing for many years when I fished tournaments full time. But there’s generally significantly larger hooks on swimbaits as well as much more weight compared to conventional baits. So I honestly don’t know if a bass could survive with a swimbait hooked inside the mouth. I’m guessing no. But I also would have never thought a bass could swallow a 4/0 worm hook and live. Certainly never even considered it could pass it over time. Bass defy logic sometimes.

Absolutely love throwing 9” - 10” glides. A few that won’t completely break the bank and have produced really well for me over the years…BGC 9” Shad glide, the 9.5” Baldy Baits glide and the cheaper option…Dockrat 10” Shad. The BGC is more versatile in my opinion. But it’s also almost double the price of the Dockrat for the blank. I’ve stuck a lot of good bass on the Dockrat also. I’ve only caught a single bass that was under 5lbs on those baits and that was a big headed, long and skinny spawned out female on the Dockrat that was just shy of 5lbs. I don’t get numbers on baits 9” and up but the quality has always been there. I can’t say that statement holds true for every body of water. That’s just the way it’s worked here to date.

I’ve been in this situation. I managed to somehow kick my 867 in the lake with a glide still hooked onto the reel. Hadn’t even fished it yet. Water was 11-12’ deep. It was around this time of the year. Maybe earlier because I dreaded swimming in the cold water. Anyway, I had my other rods with me and my 908 was the longest. I knew the exact spot that my rod went in. But I also saw the tip upright drifting around before going out of sight since the weight was all on the reel. So I had zero clue of the rods orientation. Took a Fast Sink Magnum Hardgill and tied it on the 908. Gave it about 4’ of line and just pointed the 908 down with the Gill and drug slowly until I could feel it hitting the rod. I then started dragging that area in X patterns until I could feel the weight of the rod and carefully pulled up. One hook had simply slid up the rod and caught under a line guide but wasn’t hooked. I was gentle dragging it to me but I got it back. Honestly don’t know how long it took. But it was long enough that I was psyching myself up to jump in that sub 50* water. Which I’ve done before but almost lost an eye diving in instinctively. Murky water and my swimbait was in a brush pile that had been sunk along with rebar in concrete and I took a hit right above my eye. Good luck on the retrieval.

Michael Mello at The Reel Deal. The guy is a magician. https://www.facebook.com/TheReelDeal84 EDIT* He keeps a solid wait time. Missed that part. But the great ones all do.

Don’t know him. He’s been inactive since April 1st.

100%. Appreciate the clarification. Thank you.

I’m in. Been keeping an eye on your baits for awhile on IG. My only suggestion would be in order to allow everyone to fish the bait, just let it run the rotation and whoever catches the biggest bass by the time it’s headed back to you wins the bait and you could just ship it to them. I may be misunderstanding, but how would we know who catches the biggest bass if someone catches a 4lb bass a couple of weeks into it and nothing bigger has been caught so they decide to keep it? Just spitballing here. Any way you do it, I’m in.

I have several custom suspending glides that will stay at depth according to how low or high your rod tip is when casting. Obviously a bomb cast will put them deeper in the 3’-4’ range. But they kill in the spring in very skinny water. The paint is gone and bare resin on the bottom of most from bank fishing over rocks, grass and stumps. They’re 9” Shad glides but unfortunately, the maker quit making baits about 6 years ago. They will sit at the exact same level in the water column as long as you like. They weigh in at 7.9oz if I remember correctly. But as water warms and becomes more buoyant, I do have to go up to 3X 3/0 hooks to keep them suspending. Otherwise they slowly rise or with 2/0 ST-36 hooks they are great floaters. But any true suspending bait will have to be tweaked with more or less weight depending on water temps. If for some reason I ever decide to let one go, I’ll hit you up.

Now that’s a chunk. Awesome catch man!

I have never owned anything FE and never will. This has been going on as long as I can remember. I cannot understand for the life of me why people still even want them. Everything FE is cursed. No matter who’s selling them, it’s always bad juju.

Hard NO

As everyone has said…that’s nothing compared to what it will look like after a few casts. From my experience, any of the shiny or foiled colors will come off very easily. The older versions that were solid colors hold up great. Most of those have the plastic colored for the body of the lure and some paint on the back or a bit in the side. But either way, bass don’t care I assure you. Throw that thing and stick some fish.

I don’t know about the Kokanee, but I asked someone who owns and fishes plenty of both …the workhorse and gizzard. His description I understood simply because I have glides that match both descriptions. I was told the workhorse has a smoother more fluid feel when fishing it where the gizzard has a bit of a catch you feel when the bait switches directions. Again, he fishes both but that’s pretty much his description. I know that catch feeling. My 10” Dockrats and 9” BGCs feel that way when I fish them moderate to fast. I kinda like that because it helps me keep in rhythm with what my baits doing when it’s deeper. I feel that “catch” and know a reel chop will shoot it one way and farther out on the pause in the opposite direction. Hope that makes sense.