Beginning anglers, baits, and hype

[SwingAway]

To preface, I know I am still a new member so take my opinions for what you will. Since I've joined the underground I've spent many hours reading old threads and learned a ton from the community that has helped me grow as a big bait angler after going at it on my own for a couple years transitioning from traditional baits and tactics. I've also dabbled in the black market as I've moved on from many of the baits that got me started.

Through those experiences, I can't help but notice how much hype and a seemingly premature sense of what it means to fish and what it takes chase trophy fish is exhibited by new and young anglers here.

It's alarming to me that so many folks that are just beginning their fishing journey are seemingly more interested in attempting to their few conventional baits for high-end hype baits, think that owning a UFO or Lanciotti will make them a better fisherman, or that baits/collecting baits in general is the priority over learning how fish behave and react to different baits under different conditions and in different styles of fisheries. I guess I'm just bummed at times that those beginning the journey are trying to skip so many steps and (in my opinion) have their priorities backward.

Throw those jigs, spinnerbaits, cranks, and frogs. Pick up some s-wavers, arashis, etc. and throw 'em whenever you want, but just fish. If you don't develop the fundamentals, collecting baits only makes you a collector, not a better fisherman. When I was 15, a pack of roboworms and a fresh spool of trilene was gold as a Christmas gift. I certainly didn't need whatever the big bait posse was fishing at the time to help me learn the fundamentals. Fishing is a journey and in my opinion the greatest joy in life aside from family, but a process is inherent in getting the most out of it- and that process shouldn't need to involve UFO's and hinkles in your first few years. 

Just my grumpy old fart opinion though. Rant over. Tight lines y'all. 

[Swimbait freak]

I totally agree. I never leave the house without a broke back shad rap and I’ve seen a lot of people throw just Big Baits now personal I would never put down a drop shot or a crank bait. And yes, I do have some hype baits that’s because I feel confident in throwing big bait but still, I can grab a Brokeback shad rap and catch 20 all day every day

Edited January 30, 2023 by Swimbait freak

[SwingAway]

25 minutes ago, Swimbait freak said:

I totally agree. I never leave the house without a broke back shad rap and I’ve seen a lot of people throw just Big Baits now personal I would never put down a drop shot or a crank bait. And yes, I do have some hype baits that’s because I feel confident in throwing big bait but still, I can grab a Brokeback shad rap and catch 20 all day every day

Right on man. Yea, I wasn't directing my opinion at just young anglers, but the big bait culture and new anglers in general. Those of us thst have been fishing for decades have a lot to learn in how to best help new anglers develop also! Sounds like you've got it figured out and have many great fishing days in your future. 

[Swimbait freak]

6 minutes ago, SwingAway said:

Right on man. Yea, I wasn't directing my opinion at just young anglers, but the big bait culture and new anglers in general. Those of us thst have been fishing for decades have a lot to learn in how to best help new anglers develop also! Sounds like you've got it figured out and have many great fishing days in your future. 

I also want to put this out there if I can only have one Swimbait the rest of my life it would be an S-waiver 168 that’s the only swim that you need. I wish I had the one from four years ago that had all the rash on it. But here’s a more recent one.

[Good Year 71]

I respect where you’re going with this, and I mean no offense here, but collecting happens naturally when learning how fish behave and react to different baits under different conditions. Without the bait it's guesswork, can't have one without the other.

[SwingAway]

13 minutes ago, Good Year 71 said:

I respect where you’re going with this, and I mean no offense here, but collecting happens naturally when learning how fish behave and react to different baits under different conditions. Without the bait it's guesswork, can't have one without the other.

Absolutely. But do you think that those baits need to be $100+ baits? Or is thinking you need those sorts of baits just fueled by something other than wanting to learn how to catch fish?

[BensBaits]

Oh gosh this post is about me. Hype happens, no doubt about it, but sometimes from my experience I needed hype to justify me throwing what the previous years me would scoff at. I’ve been fishing my whole life and have always wanted to get into trophy bass fishing with swimbaits. But I could never justify it because everytime I went out I couldn’t help myself from throwing a Garry or a jig. So this past year I decided to fully go for it. I bought a hinkle off of here about a year into my swimbait only season. This bait made it so I had to throw a big bait at least it mentally made me want to throw it. I paid that much I sure as hell NEEED to use it. The hinkle had a lot of hype and made me feel better about throwing something as big. This year I caught my most big fish in my 18+ years of fishing both on the hinkle and the Battleshad, two baits with a lot of hype and hefty price tags. It was slow, tiring but damn was it fun to target trophy bass overall. I guess in a way the hype from these baits kept me throwing them, kept me in the state of mind to break my pb. My biggest of the year was 6 pounds 14 ounces, I’m from mass so that was awesome for me. That being said… my biggest fish ever came from a pack of Garry’s that was about 6 bucks. 
this is just my experience, we’re the baits worth it. Honestly yeah, it changed my way of looking at fishing. Changed the way I went about fishing but that’s just me. Love the post and hope this brings an interesting perspective.

[Mossypumpkin]

I agree 100000%! People who have ZERO background with fishing are jumping into swimbaits. Nothing wrong with that except like you said, it’s not about learning the fundamentals of catching fish, it’s for some Instagram followers and showing off your $300 reel handle that matches your shoelaces. And imo, this is why most guys go out for hours, days, and weeks, just catching and not catching. If you know where fish were and how to catch them with conventional gear, it’s not gonna take long to figure it out with swimbaits. 
 

I’ve always said, the person who takes the time to learn an Swaver will always outfish the guy with a Hinkle who doesn’t understand his bait, as well as the fish. And here’s the dumbest thing I get asked all the time, “where should I fish this bait”? Come onnnn, man! Fish it where the fish are!

Personally, I fish as well as collect. But I’ve also had $500 baits that I unloaded cuz I had no desire to collect and didn’t really catch any better than others. Still have plenty of Hinkle’s and 3:16s but will always have an Swaver or g2 shellcracker ready to go. I fully agree….you’ll never be good with a certain lure until you’re good at fishing in general. 

[Good Year 71]

3 hours ago, SwingAway said:

Absolutely. But do you think that those baits need to be $100+ baits? Or is thinking you need those sorts of baits just fueled by something other than wanting to learn how to catch fish?

Certainly not, and I don’t know. But learning does not have a price tag. A man does not need a collection of $100 shoes learning to pick up women either. But if those shoes help bag the ultimate prize, then so be it... 

[Dink whisperer]

Just now, Good Year 71 said:

Certainly not, and I don’t know. But learning does not have a price tag. A man does not need a collection of $100 shoes learning to pick up women either. But if those shoes help bag the ultimate prize, then so be it... 

I don't know what this means.... But it's provocative! 

[Jscarbr]

Just fish and have fun. Other than etiquette, screw the rules that people arbitrarily make up. Fishing is supposed to be fun.

[Jim137a]

30 minutes ago, Jscarbr said:

Just fish and have fun. Other than etiquette, screw the rules that people arbitrarily make up. Fishing is supposed to be fun.

Exactly.

 

[justintrask]

10 hours ago, Jscarbr said:

Just fish and have fun. Other than etiquette, screw the rules that people arbitrarily make up. Fishing is supposed to be fun.

bolded it because I've never read a more true statement.

[danthefisherman]

I started this thread a few years back asking members why they fish swimbaits. It’s an interesting read and you will find that reasoning and purpose varies quite a bit across the board:

https://swimbaitunderground.com/forums/index.php?/topic/56645-what-kind-of-swimbaiter-are-you/

While I do like to catch big fish and always aim to break my current pb, I never considered myself a true “trophy hunter”. I think I would fall under the category of “swimbaiter” for my love of fishing swimbaits. A true trophy hunter would not hesitate to throw any “big bait” in pursuit of big fish, but you would probably have to pay me to throw a magnum worm and be serious about it.

Sometimes fishing isn’t just about catching fish…especially if you’re someone like me who isn’t very good at it 

[manansalsa]

When I first started looking into throwing swimbaits, it seemed to me like all the advice to was to keep all the conventional gear at home and only bring an SB setup… from tacticalbassin, guys on the forum, etc. The notion was that you had to dedicate a lot of time to swimbaits to learn them and get better, and that wouldnt happen as quickly if conventional gear was in the boat. I can understand the frustration with hype around baits, and simple baits becoming unobtanium because of that, but other than that it’s really not that serious lol