What are the best soft plastic swim baits around?

[Efrain]

On 5/7/2023 at 5:58 AM, dlegg96 said:

Assume you are talking about the Citizen? I have found if you are using the lightest beast hook as recommended by WCZ it usually requires some nail weights to get it to run straight. 

Thanks for the reply. Honestly though I have never come across that problem. I fish it in salt water mostly so maybe the current and waves pushing it counter it running off balance. I burn it to and watch the Calico bass hit it like a topwater.

[Primus]

The good thing about soft baits is most of them are very affordable so it lends itself to experimentation to see what works on your waters. My recommendations are geared toward north country largemouth as I do almost all my fishing in SW Michigan and these are baits that I'm confident in . 

I will add to the recommendation about the Beast Coast swimbaits which would include the Creep & Miyagi swimbaits , my confidence colors are Dope Gill & Dirty Perch. I usuall fish the Creep on an 8/0 beast hook and favor the 1/2 oz in most situations. The Miyagi I either fish on a jighead for slow rolling or a beast for weedless shallow water fishing. The biggest I 've caught so far on the Creep is a 6lb14ozer which is a very big largemouth for Michigan. 

I'm another in the long line of fans for the Magdrafts. My favorite is the 8" on most lakes especially pre spawn. The 6" is the one I usually use during the summer both the freestyle on a jighead for slow rolliing and the prerigged for shallow water. I recommend skipping to the 10 minute mark of this video that I posted below where Zaldain has a couple of great modifications to this bait for both 6" & 8" . On the 10" I will add a mustad fast clip to place the hook a little further back . That said the 6" & 8" are what I use the most . Another cool Megabass bait is the 3" Spark Shad on a small ball head jig for a finesse option. 

One old classic bait that I have not seen mentioed is the weedless Hudd 68 . I stick with the ROF 12 as the over sized tail still makes it a shallow runner and the ROF 5 rises too fast for my liking. The beauty of this bait is it skips like a dream and the weedless bait offers a little extra realsm with no exposed hooks or belly weigths for the fish to look at. Another  cool Hudd bait that is killer in some situations is the weedless shad , it's a great option  when the conditions are tough and you are looking for a nice finesse bait. 

I love the Little Creeper trash fish and Bluegill baits. There are a little pricey and are not the most durable , I beast hook these baits. Mend it is your friend . There is something special about these baits that will draw bites even when my other swimbaits get ignored. It has earned a spot as a staple in my line -up. As the name suggest I like to Creep these baits along , very slow seems to be the sweet spot where I fish. 

Speaking of old school the 3:16 Rising Son is a cool bait , swims kind of wonky but the fish sure do bite it . The theory is it looks like it's struggling trout or Carp , what ever it is the Bass sure do go for it . Also in the 3:16 line-up is a bait that he calls the minnow. Fish it on a heavy wire EWG and fish it like a Zoom Horney Toad. Lunker Hunt makes a bait called the Fetch that is very similar to the minnow with a slightly smaller profile. 

I agree that the Real Prey baits are a great combination of durability & performance . I've thrown the Bluegill around this spring and it's has caught me some solid fish so far this season. The  Alewife & Pond Shiner are baits I need to throw more as it has produced well for me in the past , not sure why I have ignored it the last couple of years but it might be a good time to get reaquainted with these baits. . With Real Prey I treat their medium sink as a slow sink as his slow sink sink models rise too fast for my liking. 

My last two are in the recently purchased and look promising category. So I will be up front and state I don't have a lot of expierience with these baits but I love the way they swim and expect them to be very productive baits if my instincts are right . The first one is made by Cast baits and is called the prodigy. I've already caught a few on the 3" size and love the way it swims, sems pretty durable if my initial impressions are accurate . So naturally I had to try the 8" as I like to go extreme in my fishing so why not fish their biggest and smallest bait. The 8" has a relatively thin body and a huge tail, great head rock and a lot of thump to appeal to their lateral line, You will need a 12/0 Beast to pair up with the 8" .  I have a great feeling abut this bait . Time will tell . The next one I actually purchased a couple of years ago, forgot about it and finally started playing with it . It's made by Skinny Bear and is called the Big Cull . It's a 7" line through and it looks great when swimming with it. After I fish it more I will be happy to follow up . I would love for anyone that has put time in with this bait what their impressions are. Anyways , I apologize for the post being a little long , tight lines . 

 

Edited May 9, 2023 by Primus

[Primus]

link to the Cast baits prodigy https://castfishing.co/collections/freshwater-tackle/products/prodigy-8-swimbait

[dheath2]

Real prey, hudd, burrito, JSJ, 3:16, nates, baitsmith...list goes on.