Confidence in larger baits

[BamaChild]

Having been in the swimbait game for half a year or so my confidence has grown. A 5 inch paddle tail seemed massive to me at the time. Throwing a 6 inch hudd seemed like absolute madness. Now I throw 6 inch bluegill glidebaits, 7 inch glide baits, and recently caught a 4-ish lber on an 8 inch Savage Gear line thru. All of these things have boosted my confidence greatly to the point an 8 inch bait isnt so bad anymore. I did mild digging and I couldnt come across a post asking this question, so I'll ask it now. What is the largest bait you throw and have confidence in getting a bite? Not like an everyday bite, just a large bait you know can/will get bit. At the moment for me I am hovering around 8 inches as the largest. 

 

SIDE NOTE: I bought a $50.00 BPS Musky rod rated 4-10 oz. Should I make a review for it like a budget swimbait rod?

[NEbucketmouth19]

9" Slammer is the longest bait I throw and even 2lbers snack on it so I have plenty of confidence in that. Biggest bait I have is a Real Prey Jumbo Shiner which lands like a cannonball but I've heard plenty of stories of people having their crappies snatched off the line by bass to be comfortable throwing it. 

[Jwp90]

9" Slammer is the longest bait I throw and even 2lbers snack on it so I have plenty of confidence in that. Biggest bait I have is a Real Prey Jumbo Shiner which lands like a cannonball but I've heard plenty of stories of people having their crappies snatched off the line by bass to be comfortable throwing it.

 

Caught my pb on a realprey jumbo shinner they work, right now the new keitech 7.8 is the biggest ive been throwing regularly

[BASS_SWINGER]

Review would be great on the rod I know a few kids in the market for one would love to here some feed back

[BamaChild]

I'll make a review of the rod this weekend

[NORTHERN_GLIDER]

I live up in north east where a 5 pounder is a heavy fish.

 

Most fishermen are throwing 4" swimbaits and jerkbaits. I too found a five inch massive 5 years ago. I now do not throw anything under 9" for pike, which will be looked at as crazyness by most fishermen in my region.

 

No problem going to 7" for top water lure and glide baits for bass. THESE ARE MASS PRODUCERS OF QUALITY FISH. Caught even a 3 pounder at dawn on a 12" AC plug minnow.

 

I always remind myself that all live beings are lazy animals (including humans!). A fish will be looking for the largest energy source available for the least energy deployed to get it.

 

Have not yet had a bass commit to a sinking swimbait over 6 inches however.

[MaineBassin]

Im just getting into the big swimbaits this year. In the past i have fished a few different 5" brands and 5.8 keitechs. I also bought a couple 7" multi jointed hard baits. So far i have purchased an XH rod paired with a tatula 200hd. So far i have one big glide bait, the baitsanity trout explorer glide (9.5" and 5 oz) and two Jenko 8" booty shakers. Saving up for a real prey shiner (reg or jumbo) and an ms slammer (9"). 

I would have to say that there is no replacement for confidence one gains from their own success. There is just something about seeing things work how you suspect them to. Since i have yet to throw these baits, my confidence comes from success of others implementing the practices i would implement. When you see over and over success on a bait, something is working. While skill affects success greatly, there are some amazing baits out there that assist greatly in success. For example, i have never fished a deps 250, but i know for a FACT that i could take one an succeed with it. If not, i am doing something wrong. The big thing is to not give up. Take advice from those have proven success and apply it over and over again. 

[waynem]

I'm in Massachusetts and one of my go to baits is the 10" Deps 250.  I also toss things like the 11" Triple Trout.  Those are about as big as I go but I wouldn't hesitate to use bigger.  I'd like to say I only catch monsters on the 250 but in reality I catch more sub-five pounders than I do fish over five pounds.  Most of the fisheries biology reports I've read state that the upper end of largemouth prey is 25 to 30% of the largemouth's weight.  So a six pounder will prey on live fish up to a maximum of 1.5 to 1.8 pounds.  That is considerably bigger than a Deps 250.

It does take some time to get over the "nothing will hit a bait this big" mindset.  When you're used to fishing 1/2 oz conventional baits a 10" swimbait looks enormous and only some success on the water is going to change your mindset.  One mistake I see noobs make is that on a tough day they think the way to successes by downsizing.  That works some days but I find that more often upsizing is the way to go.  Tough days are days when bass are not interested in feeding.  A small bait just gets ignored but put a really big bait in front of that same fish and you may get a "get the f**k out of my territory" strike.  That's my 2 cents.

[loge55]

As a new Swimbait angler, I’ve questioned the confidence thing, just for the fact I’ve caught big bass on live shad, big ol 10 and 12 inchers, but have only had one hit on my 6 inch bullshad, I’m so confident that bullshad will catch fish in this no trout lake, one day the water was a little murky so I decided to switch to a trout glide, just cause I thought the pink would stand out and bam, I get my first Swimbait fish, my confidence is up they will hit a big Swimbait for the record I was livebait fishing for Striper

[evans_usmc69]

I firmly believe in the 2/3rds rule which is a largemouth can eat a meal 2/3rds the length of his body. So if you're throwing a 12" bait, minimum length that will eat it is 18", aka 3lbers on a Mother.....yep got video of that happening lol Stick to that and you'll be fine. Most important thing I feel is to match the bait size to your forage size.

[BamaChild]

Based off light research a 10lb bass has a rough length of 26+ inches. If the 2/3 rule applies that means the bass would eat a 17 inch lure. I feel like the 2/3 rule may hit a cut off at a certain point. Either way, Thank you all for your input I truly appreciate this!

[Ceaser]

I firmly believe in the 2/3rds rule which is a largemouth can eat a meal 2/3rds the length of his body. So if you're throwing a 12" bait, minimum length that will eat it is 18", aka 3lbers on a Mother.....yep got video of that happening lol Stick to that and you'll be fine. Most important thing I feel is to match the bait size to your forage size.

this, but 10" is a good cut off point. Think about profile also. The Balam 300 is about 12" but its skinny belly to back vs. a 12" Mother style bait. I think there is a max size length but profile has to be incorporated.

[Loganodum38]

I believe there are two ways to go about getting into swimbaits.  you can use the staircase method that most people use, especially in places with smaller fish, which is where you start with a 6" bait get confidence, then go to an 8" and fish it til you have confidence in a larger bait, then you want to move up to a 10" bait and here is where i think things change.  once most people have confidence in an 8" and want to move to a 10, they are no longer skeptical of "will i catch a fish on this size bait" its more like when where and how big is this fish going to be, because they have already bought into the process.  and then theres the stubborn method that alot of O.Gs on here did and i did as well is buy a 250 and a baitsmith and throw it for 6 months without a bite until you finally learn how to use them efficiently and begin producing.  Personally i have confidence in the whole size spectrum,from a 6" paddletail all the way up to a mother, 13" hiro, and hinkle.  the key is to be confident even when you arent, when you are scared to throw a big bait or scared to fish a bait in heavy cover because you dont wanna lose a $300 bill or whatever it may be, you begin to not fish the bait to its full potential and you will do nothing but lower your confidence in it.  if i had to get someone started in big baits, my advice would just jump in balls deep and start chunking baits, you will find that often times you suprise yourself

[KyleAvilla]

I believe there are two ways to go about getting into swimbaits.  you can use the staircase method that most people use, especially in places with smaller fish, which is where you start with a 6" bait get confidence, then go to an 8" and fish it til you have confidence in a larger bait, then you want to move up to a 10" bait and here is where i think things change.  once most people have confidence in an 8" and want to move to a 10, they are no longer skeptical of "will i catch a fish on this size bait" its more like when where and how big is this fish going to be, because they have already bought into the process.  and then theres the stubborn method that alot of O.Gs on here did and i did as well is buy a 250 and a baitsmith and throw it for 6 months without a bite until you finally learn how to use them efficiently and begin producing.  Personally i have confidence in the whole size spectrum,from a 6" paddletail all the way up to a mother, 13" hiro, and hinkle.  the key is to be confident even when you arent, when you are scared to throw a big bait or scared to fish a bait in heavy cover because you dont wanna lose a $300 bill or whatever it may be, you begin to not fish the bait to its full potential and you will do nothing but lower your confidence in it.  if i had to get someone started in big baits, my advice would just jump in balls deep and start chunking baits, you will find that often times you suprise yourself

Well said, I agree with the dive right in method. Having that "next cast mentality" is the most important when tossing swimbaits for me.

[Onthefly_25]

Based off light research a 10lb bass has a rough length of 26+ inches. If the 2/3 rule applies that means the bass would eat a 17 inch lure. I feel like the 2/3 rule may hit a cut off at a certain point. Either way, Thank you all for your input I truly appreciate this!

I believe the 2/3's rule was established using data based on Northern Pike. Then it trickled down to bass fishing. I find it truly applies to growing bass in the up until around 4 pounds. Once they hit 5 and up it turns to the opportunity of a big meal vs. abundance of the forge. Here in NH, 4-6 inch perch and bluegill are in abundance. Those bigger bait fish are hard to come-by. I like to throw baits that are 2 inches larger than the abundant size of the forge. I max out at 10 inch baits now but wouldn't be opposed to throwing larger.