How did you guys get into Swimbait fishing.?

[bassing305]

About a year ago I decided to drive up North to try a spot that I read about and always wanted to fish. When I got there I saw a man catch several bass in front of me with swimbaits. Before this I have not used Swimbaits much and asked him if he would let me watch him so I can learn from him.He said yes and gave me a couple swimbaits and let me fish next to him.Since then I have been hooked into fishing with Swimbaits and is one of my favorite forms of fishing.How did you guys get into Swimbait fishing?

[Top Ramen]

I was the king of wacky-rigged Senkos for a while. I could put dozens of fish in the boat almost any time I went out and thought it was pretty cool. Every now and then, I'd accidentally catch a big one. After it happened a few times, I realized I enjoyed those fish more than all the other fish combined. So, I did some research on catching big bass and swimbaits kept coming up. I went up the highway to the only independent tackle store in the area and bought a 7" Mission Fish. Thought it was absurdly big but since I had seen pictures of good fish caught on it, I decided to try it.

I was didn't want to be seen using such a ridiculously large bait so that evening, right after sun set, I went to a quarry up the road and tried it out using a flipping combo (beefiest rig I had). Caught a 7lber in about twenty minutes. Thought that was pretty neat, so I went back the next evening and caught a 7.25. Done deal at that point.

[mjh1986]

I was into the tournament game for quite a while. I was gone almost every weekend pre-fishing and doing tourneys for long time. In April of last year my wife and I had a baby girl. Easily the best thing that's ever happened to me, it's so much fun being a dad. My priorities changed and I wanted to stay home...most of the time. Trying to fish tournaments with no pre fishing wasn't working for me, so I quit. I decided I was only gonna chase big fish from then on. The only swimbaits I had at the time were a 6" BBZ and an 8" Hudd. Caught lots of stripers on the BBZ but never anything on the hudd. I was at home one night and YouTube'd Huddleston swimbaits...my perception of fishing that bait completely changed after watching all of Butch's videos haha. Everything was a downward spiral from there. From a ridiculous collection to making my own soft and hard baits, swimbait fishing consumes my life. I guess I have my daughter to thank for that...and to blame if my wife sees how much I spend on swimbaits haha.

[Get_Biggens]

I like to gamble and rather than have a shot at making any money i realized it would be more fun to just spend it all

[bigpoppabass]

Using big musky baits made for easy transition to using bigs baits for bass.

[MarkH024]

Using big musky baits made for easy transition to using bigs baits for bass.

Same here.

[flaswimbaiter]

Saw a two pound fish spit up a 6-8" shad.

[northeast_trev]

Was real into Texas rigged senkos for a few years. Threw them almost exclusively and caught solid numbers every trip. Had a few big fish but nothing over 4-5lbs. They just work great in small ponds and thick grass. then one night I saw a video of Brandon Palaniuk throwing a swimbait and was curious so i went on TW and picked up a savage gear line through and thought it was the coolest thing. I was throwing it on a MH Duckett at the time. Lobbing it short distances and laughing as it came swimming back to the boat. Then as i began to read about baits and gear I found SU and from there it was game over...

[fishaholic211]

I was fishing with my friend Aaron and I caught a 3lb spot of a hollow belly.  Then I fished with Joey Beck and we started hammering huge spots.  Done deal after that. 

[evilcatfish]

I'd had some success with small, paddle tail type swimbaits for years and though somewhat familiar with the bigger stuff, always considered it a California thing.  One day a frog Mini Slammer caught my eye on TW and I figured since it was a "mini" it would work well for me.  When it arrived it seemed huge compared to my other topwaters but undeterred I took it to a local pond and proceeded to catch some fish.  After that I found SU and the rest is history. 

 

Oh, and I'll freely admit I still fish a lot of conventional gear

[jdhudsonoutdoors]

I was getting tired of catching numbers and wanted to start catching fish that had more size to them. I purchased the River 2 Sea Kong and the size of the bass I was catching substantially increased. The second trip out with a good buddy of mine affirmed the power of swimbaits. We had heard of a local San Diego lake gettin stocked with trout so we got his boat ready and headed down to the lake. He had a Hinkle trout tied on and on his second cast he caught a 10lber. I have never looked back.

[aikenyounggun]

Had a friend move from Idaho who had some big baits and thought they were cool. At the same time I was throwing 10+ inch worms at night trying to catch a giant. Was super focused on trying to catch a double digit on my off time from tournaments.

 

Moved off to college and was fishing a ton more tournaments and eventually got a little burned out. A guy I fished with a few times was from California and we talked about swimbaits, which was something I had thought about for years. Then one day he asked me if I wanted to buy all the ones he had brought to SC. Jumped on it and never looked back.

 

Caught a 6lber on my first trip out on a slammer and have been sucking ever since. Couple years, lots of money, not a bunch of fish, but it's been a lot of fun. Great get-away from the pressure of tournament fishing/practicing.

 

Still looking for my DD. Whenever I catch it, it will be a very sweet day.

[MA Frog Man]

I used to throw a ton of frogs from ice out up until ice. Was catching some decent fish but nothing over 5 with any consistency. Bought a 6" bbz floater, a 7" and 9" Ms slammer on TW. Went to a small bog pond from shore and my buddy bet me $5 I wouldn't catch a fish on the bbz. Caught 3 fish that day all around 2-3 pounds. Didn't really fish any swimbaits the rest of that year at all. Fast forward to two years ago I had just bought my boat. It was a week after ice out. Me and that same buddy were putting in the boat at a tiny pond near my house. Some random guy in a crawdad told us that the water was almost 50 and jokingly told us to fish Topwater. I owe this guy alot haha. I had just bought a lunker punker and tied it on. 3 fish over 4 pounds and I was a believer. As all the ponds were slowly icing out me and my buddy would go to each one. The next week I caught a 6 something on a cl8 possum during a tournament. The week after that I caught a 7-10 on an Ms slammer and been hooked ever since.

[LUV-2-CATCH'EM]

My grandfather started taking me fishing around age 3...I loved everything about fishing from the Challenge, Fight, release or frying pan. So from an early age if it swam I tried to catch it on whatever I could, always trying something new.

 

By my late teens/early 20's I had grown tired of conventional bass gear...I had graduated to drinking heavily and catfishing a lot. Soon That got old too, so I got back into bass fishing and started catching bigger fish on Jigs and homemade 12in waterdogs, but still I wanted bigger fish. I was a member of a Texas fishing forum and a friend on the forum suggested I check out Swimbait Underground. So I did and started getting very interested on all the concepts and gear.

 

A member from SU (Swimbaitrookie) reach out to me via PM and could tell I needed guidance and offered to drive over an hour to meet near my home, he showed me some of his gear and we discussed techniques. His huge lures and 3 or so LDC's were impressive but most of all I was blown away by his generosity. He was spreading the Swimbait Gospel and I got saved that day. Turned my life over to the Swimbait Gods and I have been broke ever sense!

 

He told me to get a hudd and keep chunking it till I get bit...he said it will take time. It took 2 months in the coldest part of the year and I landed a 5.6 on a Hudd 68...haven't looked back.

[CCMD]

I was lucky enough to work really close to a community pond in Houston that had big bass. I've been fishing as long as I can remember (literally, my first memory is fishing with my dad). This pond in Houston was super clear (filtered water) and though there were tons of big bass, they were really hard to catch. I basically only caught fish on trick worms, Senkos, and Horny Toads (on top of summer grass mats). Drove me nuts that I could only catch 1-4 lb fish (outside of the spawn) but could see 6-9 lbers cruising in the clear water.

 

One fine day, I'm walking the banks like usual, when I see this guy chucking this HUGE bait. I figure he's confused or just testing out tackle for saltwater or something, when he proceeds to whack a 5 lber right in front of me. (Later found out it was a 3:16 wake he was throwing). Dude was from SoCal, recently moved, and a member on the board here. We bumped into each other fishing that pond a lot, got to talking, and he introduced me to swimbait fishing. I started out with a River2Sea S Waver 168 on a standard MH rod. Loved fishing that bait in that pond. Caught a lot of nice 5-7 lb fish on that S-Waver (baby bass). The kicker for me, though, was standing on a bridge spotting for my friend. He was chucking a Deps 250 in flash carp towards some big cruising fish. He was backed way off, and I was up on the bridge looking down into the clear water to spot for him. Seeing a big 6.5lb fish shoot from 20 yards away and slalom with that 250, in perfect lock step, before crushing it was amazing. Easily one of the coolest things I'd ever seen fishing.

 

Been hooked ever since. I still have convention gear and use it, but it rarely makes an appearance now. Moved up to the Northeast and discovered smallmouth love swimbaits too. Took a guided trip shortly after I moved up here, and blew the mind of a guide who'd been fishing that particular lake for over 25 years. I picked up a 7" glide bait in a trout pattern during a pre-spawn smallie trip. Guide looked at me like I had 2 heads and politely suggested that while it was my money/time, I would be wasting both throwing that big bait. I slammed 4 big (3-4 lb) smallies in the first 20 casts, with a couple more follows. Dude's head almost exploded. I tied him on an S-Waver 168 on one of my other rods, and after 15 minutes or so of trying to get the timing right, he watched a 3lb fatty track and slam the bait (water up here is super clear). He's hooked now, too. Best part is that now he takes me fishing for free, thanks in large part to the swimbait revelation that day.