Bass are real suckers for swimbaits
Looking for a sure-fire tip to help put more bass in the boat this season?
If so, make sure that stack of rods lashed to the deck includes one that's locked and loaded with a soft swimbait.
From spring through, fall soft swimmers shine at swindling both smallmouth and largemouth bass.
Seasoned bass angler Bryan Stuyvesant finds soft swimmers are particularly effective when bass are herding baitfish. When the water gets that nervous look, Stuyvesant grabs a rod rigged with a Sebile Soft Magic Swimmer and heaves a cast just beyond the disturbance.
The profile of the 5-inch version accurately duplicates the length and profile of the shad that bass love. The size of the lure allows for the long casts often necessary to keep from spooking fish.
Sebile's Soft Magic Swimmer is a double-jointed bait that's also available in a 4-inch size. The bait come packaged with the ideal wide-gap hook, complete with a tungsten belly-weight system that can be moved to adjust the swimming attitude of the bait.
Though a top summertime deal, Stuyvesant has taken bass in excess of 5 pounds using this tactic in the early spring. During warming trends, the back ends of coves and bays often experience such activity. Keep this in mind as the water cools this fall.
Having spent most of his adult life employed in some aspect of the fishing business, Tom Ference has had the opportunity to fish soft swimbaits in a variety of situations. He's become particularly fond of segmented soft swimbaits like Lake Fork Tackle's Live Magic Shad.
"One of the advantages of the segmented bait is the ability to work it at a variety of speeds," said Ference. "With paddletail-type swimbaits you have to move them at a pretty good clip to maintain action. By making minor rigging adjustments to the segmented bait, you can work it slow or buzz it near the surface."
When rigged for a slow, steady retrieve, Ference connects the bait with a loop knot. The "open" connection gives the bait the freedom to kick at slow speed.
When he plans on using a more aggressive retrieve, one that involves snappy twitches of the rod tip, he uses a knot that handles the wear-and-tear better, like a Palomar or double-improved clinch knot.
Aggressive, faster retrieves are used when fish are likely to be in shallow water and in a feeding mood.
Ference said early and late day periods are good for this approach, as well as cloudy prefrontal days. When odds favor bass holding in deeper water, he'll go with a slower, steadier retrieve.
Throughout the summer, I rely on soft swimbaits to provide my guide clients with bass action on both lakes and rivers. From mid- to late summer, a consistent swimbait pattern on lakes is the targeting of the inside edge of the weedline.
Reservoirs typically have a band of clean water between the shore and the shallow edge of the growth. Natural lakes, too, will have such a border, since wave action often precludes the growth of submergent vegetation in some areas.
I hold the boat a cast's distance from shore, which often means sitting right on top of a weedbed. Launch a paddle tail swimbait like Yum's Money Minnow right up next to the bank, then get it kicking and pull it right toward the inside edge.
Like a cornerback zeroing in on a stray pass, largemouths will shoot out to intercept a soft swimbait that is worked with a steady, easy-to-track, retrieve.
On free-flowing rivers, bronzebacks will use the edges of extremely shallow midriver shoals as ambush points. At times, they'll be in the hard current out in front of a shoal. More commonly, though, they'll hide in the quiet water behind the obstruction.
A slim-bodied, paddletail swimbait like Reaction Innovations' Little Dipper is perfect for running past these fish. Sallies holding on such spots tend to be actively feeding ones, so keep the bait moving quickly.
Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.
