Fishing soft swimbaits

[chefchris]

so I love soft baits, mostly exposed hook real preys, either jig, treble on the belly, or bb rigged, on those baits I'm usually fishing more open water, swimming by docks, or fishing mid column, swimming along edges etc. hook up ratio is close to 100% 

on weedless baits like the citizen in particular I struggled this year to connect, after two really bad outings, where I missed 4-6 fish per trip, a few people told me "fish it like a frog", wait to feel that rod load up/3 count/whatever technique you want to use, then reel down and connect, once I started doing it that way I only missed 1 fish which was the first bite of the day. ever since that I'm super confident in throwing those baits. 

I fish all my baits on braid to leader connection so feeling bites is never an issue. 

the other thing that seems to have made a huge improvement was using Bass dynasty scent, (no affiliation) that's just what I went with after numerous recommendations, seems to make em hold longer and helps the hook pocket from ripping/sliding in on the hookset. I think scent is overlooked as its messy, it stinks, and a million options but after this season I don't plan on fishing soft baits without it 

I think profile has a lot to do with missing hooksets as well. the beast coast creep gets chewed easily and its a weedless bait, I fish that bait everywhere, open water, docks, weeds etc, doesn't seem to make a difference as they hammer it and its small profile makes it easy to swallow. 

[NicePizzaBass]

Reel down slowly until you feel the weight, watching your line tighten and swing for the fences. Nothing better than that swing into dead weight on a soft bait. 

[Bonecrusher]

9 hours ago, chefchris said:

so I love soft baits, mostly exposed hook real preys, either jig, treble on the belly, or bb rigged, on those baits I'm usually fishing more open water, swimming by docks, or fishing mid column, swimming along edges etc. hook up ratio is close to 100% 

on weedless baits like the citizen in particular I struggled this year to connect, after two really bad outings, where I missed 4-6 fish per trip, a few people told me "fish it like a frog", wait to feel that rod load up/3 count/whatever technique you want to use, then reel down and connect, once I started doing it that way I only missed 1 fish which was the first bite of the day. ever since that I'm super confident in throwing those baits. 

I fish all my baits on braid to leader connection so feeling bites is never an issue. 

the other thing that seems to have made a huge improvement was using Bass dynasty scent, (no affiliation) that's just what I went with after numerous recommendations, seems to make em hold longer and helps the hook pocket from ripping/sliding in on the hookset. I think scent is overlooked as its messy, it stinks, and a million options but after this season I don't plan on fishing soft baits without it 

I think profile has a lot to do with missing hooksets as well. the beast coast creep gets chewed easily and its a weedless bait, I fish that bait everywhere, open water, docks, weeds etc, doesn't seem to make a difference as they hammer it and its small profile makes it easy to swallow. 

Waiting on a few of their scents now. Can't wait to try them out.

[Rogervang]

I usually keep my rod about 45 degree of my cast. In a way it counts as some might say count to three before setting the hook. Once I feel the bite, the rod loads and it gives me the perfect (to me) time to reel in and set. I almost never have my rod pointed straight at the bait, because I believe that once the fish bites, he going to swim off and if he swims in the opposite direction theres no slack so the bait would just pop of their mouth.  But yes, soft bait bite is always a good bite.