Your story behind fishing swimbaits

[Streamer]

What was the bait that got you into throwing swimbaits and what was a specific memory you have that really got you hooked? For me it was a Savage year shine glide and the first fish I ever caught on it was a spot chasing little Shad around and ate it within three glides. Loved that little bait!

[RyanBurz]

Wade hoggs, first day I threw it I caught my new pb at the time, still have the same one rashed to hell, still catches fish like new 

[chefchris]

2014 is the first year I got into em.
First baits I got were a 9” perch slammer, trout s waver 200 and 8” hudds. First trip my buddy stuck a high 4 on the 5th cast of the day on his 9” bass slammer. I got 3 giant pickerel. We were hooked after that trip. 

my first bass was on the s waver 200, shore banging the week of trout opening, a guy fishing for trout saw my bait and made the usual comments, “nothing big enough in here to eat that” 

thru it past this downed tree and right as it was going by it got hammered. Fish went 5.8 and was a curse! I didn’t catch a fish over 5 on a swimbait til a few months back (long story)  

[Fried Lemons]

Hudd 68 special. I had zero faith that the fish in my home water would eat it. Super high pressured stretch of bank. It gets pounded multiple times a day every day by jigs, worms, crankbaits and every other conventional lure out there. My first time out with the hudd I caught the second biggest bass I’d ever seen out of there.  I fish swimbaits 99% of the time now.

Edited July 26, 2020 by Fried Lemons

[azsouth]

Quite a few years back when Castaic came out with the first soft trout baits, 3 hours into it my buddy dropped a teener and 2 hours after that I had 2 6+ lbers on the same bait, that was my first day throwing swimbaits.

[CaliBassin]

After several outings to a highly pressured pond I had been seeing several 7-12 lbers swimming in wolf packs. For some odd reason they wouldn’t eat a yum dinger. lol I immediately called my dad and he told me the only way to catch them is a swimbait. First thing i did is go to Walmart and ask the worker what the biggest bait they have is. It was a 8” savage gear paddle tail trout. (The 7$ trash ones) after a few weeks I went back to the pond and started lobbing around my swimbait on the spinning rod and 8 lb test... Obviously didnt catch anything but after a few years of gaining knowledge I caught these two. Not on a savage gear paddle tail. Loll

[Kyle1387]

Was a couple years ago I got a savage glide swimmer, the tiny one. Threw it for a week in a reservoir by my house and samsshed smallies and drew some huge followers. 

 

What really cemented it though was last fall. I'd been throwing them for 2 years on and off as a tactic along with conventional. I spent an entire day at my home lake which to that point I hadn't been bit. Was reeling a magdragt on bottom and got massacred but unfortunately snapped off. Three casts later I hooked up with this 4 pounder. Not huge but now instead of 80% conventional 20% big bait, this year I've gone 90% big bait if not more.

 

Since starting swimbait fishing I have broke my pb 4 times in 3 years. Thats the biggest reason of all

[WaterWolf44]

My first swimbait was the storm kickin minnow. I loved these baits. I actually sold one to a kid while I was fishing because he was getting so pissed off that I was catching fish and he wasnt. But my swimbait moment was when I witnessed a very large pike smash the ever living crap out of a sixteen in rainbow trout. That's what inspired me to start throwing bigger baits. I now have 5 pike 39 inches or bigger to my credit. All of them except one was on a swimbait.

[rogers954]

Might be super lame but what motivated me to start buying and throwing big baits was watching tactical bassin videos. I’ve been subbed to those guys for years and i leaned a lot watching there vids (got into bass fishing somewhat latter in life then most) honestly it hasn’t been a easy road to travel i stated throwing the big baits when conventional gear fishing was slow and couldn’t ever seem to figure anything out. That was until my buddy caught his first pb on a 68 hudd I was throwing a 8” 3:16 and he was throwing the 68, he smoked a nice 4lb. Fast forward a year i still had zero SB fish but i believed and me and that buddy where fishing down south in a lake that was known for probably the largest fish in Utah, me and him both loaded up 8” hudds and went to work, off a large bluff wall i was dragging that hudd as slow as i could stand to turn the handle went i felt a tick like a jig bite, my mind said nope, but my body went into the hardest hook set i think I’ve ever laid down and a 6lb bass was in the boat, the hudd completely swallowed (faith restored) not even 20 min latter maybe 20 yards down that bluff wall my buddy smokes a 7.16 his and mine current pbs. After seeing those bass completely swallow those big ass hudds i was sold. Admittedly i need to spend more time throwing my big baits i really really want to stick a fish on a 250 as they are the most expensive baits that i currently own. Just keep throwing 

Edited July 26, 2020 by rogers954

[Zase33]

A buddy of mine use to always give me a bunch of crap for always using bigger baits than him. Bigger jigs, crankbaits, and worms. Finally fished a spot where we caught multiple fish over 5 on Gambler Big EZ paddle tails. That day changed his mind and so he went and bought a big swimbait rod and a few S Wavers. I followed suit and started catching fish on them.  After that came the Hud 68s. He quit fishing them after a trip or two of no bites and I have stuck with it. Everything we go out now thats all I bring is a few swimbaits while he drags along a huge backpack. He may catch more in numbers, but usually when they hit the swimbait its a much more quality fish. Haven't looked back since. 

[jdjtexas]

 I was stationed in SD from 2005-2013 and lived right next to Santee lakes and fished El Cap quite a bit. I think the first big bait I saw was on display at ECBT when I was popping in to get Senkos (not sure if that was the name when I first started going there?) Anyways, I was super interested so I did some research and I actually started with a 316 Wake Jr. Didn't catch a fish on a swimbait till I moved to TX though. I wish I woulda dug deeper into the local scene while I was living in SD... feel like I missed out a bit.

[Mkel83]

Wanted to change things up with my fishing. Slowly started to upsize my topwater lures for night fishing then that carried into curiosity under the surface. Picked up a couple 68 special Huds (the gateway drug to big baits) and threw it on my heaviest rod. Stuck a slob in my second trip with them and she had it inhaled. Always throwing big baits from the bank now. Only really fish conventional tackle when on my buddy’s boat. Here’s the fish...

[Kyearsley]

I bought a s-waver 168 after watching tactical bassin. I got one strike on it, but never caught anything. Then I saved up some christmas money and bought a bigger rod and deps 175 (what seemed like a really expensive bait at the time).  I ffished it until summer without really knowing what i was doing. Then i caught my pb smallmouth on it and spent the better part of that month researching big baits. Now i throw swimbaits abiut 90% of the time

 

[tybo jones]

Started in 09 mostly throwing slammers out of a kayak. Back in the day came across New England Fishing and they had a Swimbait forum (Swimbait Anonymous). Guys in New England catching 9’s on swimbaits and sharing a ton of info. Learned a lot over there. 

then made the stop by Bills Bait and Tackle which was in seekonk at the time. Bill Q had a great little tackle shop but he also sold Swimbait stuff., which on the east coast was a pretty big deal. He had a big glass case full of his stuff, the good stuff. Very knowledgeable guy. He would let you check out stuff and talk shop for days. Got my first combo there. St. Croix mojo and a Cardiff 301 and 9” perch slammer. 

some those first blowups on that slammer changed my mindset about fishing. The mindset of quality fish over numbers. Just looking for that one bite with big baits was intriguing and got me hooked. 
 

[Bass24hr]

2018 was the year I got into swimbaits. My   first swimbait was the Toxic wade hogg. Took me a couple months to get bit, but got plenty more as I put more time into it. One of my confidence bait still  to this day.