Winter southern Swimbait tips

[southcarolina]

I need help. I mainly fish two ponds, one is on our property(6acre) and the other is a 4ish acre pond on a country club next to my house. They stock this pond with trout every-year and I know that someone caught a 12 in there a couple of years ago. I have also caught an 8.5 in there on a small swimbait. the trout have not been stocked yet but will be stocked soon. I have been throwing an 8-inch savage gear trout for probably over 30 hours the past months in search of my first swimbait fish, but have had no luck. some followers, but only in the spring/spawn time. I have tried slow rolling/ bumping bottom, waking, and just in the middle of the water column. Can anyone point me in the right direction of what I am doing wrong here? 

[VolunteerSwimbaits]

Have you tried a hudd?

[southcarolina]

trying to get my hands on one - how much better are hudds?

[swimbaiter1111]

In my opinion a lot better! You need to go buy a hudd 68 in rainbow you can get them on huddbaits.com swimbaits city and tackle wharehouse good luck!

[southcarolina]

so 68 rather than 8?? and what sink rate do yall think?

[swimbaiter1111]

Just now, southcarolina said:

so 68 rather than 8?? and what sink rate do yall think?

Either or depends on the size of trout the stock definitely rof 5! Rof 12 is for like 40 feet of water 

[southcarolina]

Ok, thanks for the tips!!

[Loganodum38]

Where in SC are you? I’m in Myrtle/conway. The SG trouts are the bomb, work em sorta like a glide 3 reels pause 2 reels pause 3 reels pause etc. No one can deny a hudd so enough said there. A lot of times with “small” ponds or shallow areas in general, season isn’t as big of a deal as it is in big lakes. Wake baits will most definitely work in winter, just slow down, if you haven’t tried glides I would recommend that. Crankdowns in ponds are great too, get a G2 shellcracker and play around with it. All it is is a big squarebill, people catch squarebill fish in winter all the time, same concept. we don’t get the “super cold” water that a lot of places get so the fish tend to not be in that true hibernation stage of the year.  They will still roam and often times and still will react to baits 

[SKVMS]

If you hit an 8# on a down sized bait I would start from there and work forward. From my experience when the savage gear and hudd bite is on in a pond you will know it, especially if you are spending 10-20-30 hours grinding on said body of water at the least you would get some ticks swipes or followers as an indicator that they are keyed into your bait. In this situation I figured out a little trick ( which is by no means my original idea, I figured it out through frustration and trail & error ) and was brought about by the same exact situation you are in at the moment. Think of your down sized swim bait as a 6” or 8” or even a 10” boot tail softie and fish it as such, BUT with all that in mind think finesse, slow it down, bottom bounce it like a jig, or imagine your fishing a drop shot rig. My best success with this method has been with bladed jigs and large to over sized boot tail trailers.

Cast that sucker out and let it hit bottom then let it sit for about 10-15 seconds and give it a good vertical jig and again wait 10-15 seconds. Repeat until desires are met or you get bored. Change up the time you wait in between jigs change up your jigging style, add some nail weights for a different rate of fall. I’ve found that they tend to grab it after it’s been sitting and your on the up jig right when the blade starts to thump the bite is very very soft. The set ups I have pictured are a 3/8oz zman with a 5” jerky-j and a 1/4oz zman with a 5.25 3:16 minnow as an example but this can be repeated with almost any bladed jig and boot tail combo you desire and is relatively inexpensive. The 316 minnow IS pretty versatile with this method because of the air pocket, load that sucker up with rattles and weights or leave it alone for a super slow sink. 

[southcarolina]

hmmm - I have never thought about doing that. That's combining the three things I like most about fishing swimbaits, blade baits, and big fish. is there any way to make that weedless? Maybe just a large swim jig with a 6-inch swimbait? (the pond that I fish in has a lot of algae and wood in it). Thanks for the long response, picture, tips, and chatterbait setup btw. I will defiantly be trying that soon. 

[SKVMS]

Oh for sure! Dirty jigs,Siebert whatever’s there’s dozens of weedless swimjig options. Beasts and other screw locks for different Weedless presentations etc. Long shank stand up shakey head jigs work as well. 

[southcarolina]

Ok, thanks for the advice! 

[SKVMS]

Jah Bless @southcarolina Burn Babylon 

[southcarolina]

@Loganodum38 I am up in Spartanburg and often we go to the beach in North Myrtle. huh, its cool to know other people in sc actually swimbait. The pond next to ours I don't know the exact depth but I think it is probably max 12 or 15.  What are some of your go-to swimbaits for winter? All year round? 

[vrandall]

I recommend you try the Hudd 68 also. I’m in NC about an hour from sc border. Just a little story that may give you some confidence, I have a 2 acre pond behind my house I got permission to fish early this past spring. I fished it with all the normal pond baits probably 6 to 8 times since then. Drop shot plastics, jigs , chatterbaits ....all of it, I never had a bite or even saw a bass near the edges, heck hardly even saw bluegill there in the summer. 2 weeks ago I decided I’m gonna throw a 8” rof12 Huddleston out there just to see. Second cast I stuck a really nice bass. Unfortunately she did come undone right at the bank. A few days later I tried a Hudd 68 perch color and caught a 6 lb, and yesterday evening throwing trout color 68 caught another around 5 lbs. Just kinda funny because I would have swore there were no bass in this pond. I know for sure there are no trout anywhere around here. the moral of my long story is if there is bass in your ponds of any decent size they will eat an 8” Hudd and easily inhale the 68. To me the 68 just seems to have drawing power with that big thumping tail. I’ve fished some of the first gen savage trouts. To me they are no comparison to a Hudd. Just my 2 cents.