ctbrahan

Throwing a crawler at night is one of my favorite bites. Sometimes the crawler can catch them on blue bird days. When the song birds start nesting and hangout on the lake side bushes and trees, it is time to throw a crawler.

It’s a knock of version of the deja dodge that a painted up. Catches the crap out of fish this time of year. Had a 15 bass day on it last week throwing the bait under bushes.

Couldn’t connect with the hits from bass, but somehow caught this.

I don't know if that product will work. Spray on clear coats have always seemed to lack durability for me. I would recommend getting some 2 ton 30 minute epoxy. Its durable pretty easy to apply and mix. Just make sure you rotate the bait until the epoxy sets up (you can do this by hand by rotating the bait every 5 minutes while hanging). Don't get any epoxy in the joints. Good way to ruin a bait.

Thats a solid fish! Now I have to catch a casual NH postspawn 7 pounder....

Is this the one I need?

5 pounds 1 ounce NH IMG_7757.MOV IMG_7756.MOV

Got some good ones, non of the caliber needed.

in

I truly think that many influencers "glamify" swimbaiting. Many young kids see swimbaiting as a way to catch an easy giant. Most new guys to the sport will always have a swimbait rigged up, but will stop using it after they don't get a bite for an hour. I know many people like this. There is also a lack of people from what I have seen who show all the days they didn't catch fish on swimbaits or the hard work that lead to big catches. I am not "swimbait shaming" as I was extremely guilty when I was younger of doing these things. I would take 5 cast with a swimbait not get any hits and go back to whatever conventional rods I had rigged up. Throwing a big baits is an easy type of fishing to get into because money is your way in, but is a hard one to stick with for many people because time is the only way you can improve. Just my 2 cents.

While home from college I decided that this was the year I was going to finally finish some wooden baits I had been procrastinating on. The first bait that I made 3 years ago was to sort of imitate a MsSlammer, my dream bait as a kid. The overall design was quite crude and despite being around an ounce and a half, I thought the bait was way too big for NH Bass. It took about two years to get this bait from an idea to an actual bait with hooks. When I completed this bait with a quick paint job in 2021 I kept it in my tackle box almost as a joke until I threw it for the first time in 2022 in the springtime in Maine. That day I landed my only two largemouth of the trip on the bait in 42 degree water. One waking it, the other walking it. I later lost the bait in a tree after missing a hookset and was inspired to build more baits this winter. The first bait to finish was a smaller rat I had started the carving on in 2020 and never finished. I played around with some new paints, got the bait clear coated and ended up with this rat. 1.75 ounces and 4 inches long without the tail. 1 After completing this bait and being happy with the results (has a great controlled wake in the water) for not having any power tools I spent way too much time sawing, sanding, and filing for the next and more ambitious bait, a three piece wake out of poplar. After spending 10 hours on this bait I now that was way too much time to spend on a single bait that lacked detail (3.25 ounces 5 inches). I am quite happy with how the joint turned out though, I used single eye screws and pins for both joints creating more of a "wobble" in the bait. While it does not wake at lower speeds, it has a hard thump and loud knock when reeled at medium speeds and does not burn out at fast speeds. I think a larger lip and weighting the belly would help better next time with the bait moving at lower speeds. A couple questions for other bait makers out there, does anybody laminate two different types of wood (one denser and one more buoyant) together to lower the center of mass in the bait? Also what do other people use to cut the lip slot besides power tools? It is quite difficult to get an even cut with the pull saw I currently use. Also a post will be coming soon on my progression on airbrushing KO swimbait blanks. Thanks to all that have read this far! Tight lines and sharp saws!

The simplicity of that paint scheme is great. Many times with swimbait painting less is more.

That bait is purely beautiful. The skill and precision that goes into building a bait like that must take quite some time to perfect.

Love the color of the raw wood. What type of oak is that. I tried using red oak in the past and found that the topwater baits I made with it sank.

Absolute Stud Largemouth

Congrats on catching that tank!

The one bait I know that I can always catch a smallmouth on is a crawler. Baits that are super loud and obnoxious are smallies favorite.

Those are all studs! Nice Job

Those paint jobs are killer. The perch is for sure my favorite.

Thank you so much Conner and everyone else who donated to this giveaway. I am so exited to try the new baits out once the ice thaws. I truly will appreciate every single bait and will take great care of them, so that I can pass them on to another swimbaiter new to the game. I hope that everyone has a great new year

In

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays. My name is Christopher and I am a relativity new swimbaiter (4 years tossing heavy plastic and about 3 years hiding in the shadows of SU reading all of the posts) in my sophomore year of college. I have been almost exclusively been throwing swimbaits in Maine since last fall, as I found high success rates in the big baits in my local lakes. I currently don't have a car so most of my transportation to my fishing spots involves me biking an hour or two along dirt roads to get to the remote unpressured spots. Just like many others have said I hope that the youngest people newest to the sport should receive the most baits. Regarding my current bait selection, I am in college and my budget has been quite tight lately for fishing equipment so that I can minimize the loans I have to take out. Currently all of my hardbaits, except for a ms slammer and a R2S swaver, are baits that I have purchased KO blanks of and airbrushed myself to save money. This has worked great to help me fill my arsenal of baits on the cheap but I have been limited in what types of baits I can purchase and paint. I already have a swimbait setup, a mojo bass swimbait rod that I was gifted by a local youtuber and a cardiff reel that I purchased myself. The rod can handle baits up to four ounces so I would perfer not to get any baits heavier than that. If there was anyway possible, I would really love the opportunity to receive any type of topwater baits (topwater means less snags while bankfishing). I have also not had the opportunity to try throwing rats yet as I haven't found any large rat knock off lure blanks and would love to try one. I thank everyone for this opportunity and I especially thank those who donated baits to this giveaway. I also would like to thank the SU community for being so open to new swimbaiters. Now if only the ice on our lakes would just melt off...

Thanks for @jakerhill for the inspiration for this post. Here are the best 5 bass I caught this year between NH and Maine. This year was quite eventful for me, as I finally got dialed on swimbaits and started to understand more big bait patterns. I also broke three PBs on swimbaits this year, a pb pike, a pb pickerel, and my pb largemouth bass. The 6-5 was a new PB largemouth for me and made camping at the lake the night prior to fish the early morning bite all worth it. This year was also big for me in that I learned how to fish softbaits, as the 6 inch magdraft was most productive for me throughout the year. I also was able to get my airbrushing skills dialed in and was able to convince some large fish (specifically the NH 5-15) to eat my baits. Next year I have several plans including starting to make wooden baits, throwing bigger baits (biggest so far is a 9 inch 4oz glide), and catching more topwater fish, as it is the best way to catch biggins Imho. Hopefully next year I can get dialed in on my fishing techniques and put a 7 on the bank/boat. A 6-5 on a 6 inch magdraft (ME) A 5-15 on a Self Painted Bull Tank (NH) A 5-5 on the magdraft (ME) A 4-15 on the Savage Gear LT Trout (ME) A 4-12 on a 7 inch glide I painted (ME) And a notable mention to my two esox PB's A 5-15 pickerel on a glidebait that I painted to look like a pickerel (ironic) And finally a 6-15 pike (31 inches) on a glide I painted

Nice ones!

I second this, used it to clear coat a batch of my swimbaits and now the paint is all peeling off. I guess I have some sanding and some repainting to do this winter!