One of my favorite fishing lures is swimbait. Swimbait is a soft plastic fishing lure with swim paddle tail. It became my choice of mid-water bait mainly because it is cheaper than hard plastic crankbait. One pack of swimbait is $3 or $4. One pack has usually 4 to 10 baits. Also, swimbait presents very realistic tail action which looks like one of bait fish. Main diet of game fish is bait fish. So, there can be any doubt that fish imitation lure is the best.
There are two kinds of swimbait. One is realistic bait, and the other is long-tail bait. Realistic bait is a detailed fish imitation with paddle tail. Its color and shape looks like bait fish. Storm's WildEye Swim Shad is famous. Here is a picture of 4" Swim Shad.
There are two kinds of swimbait. One is realistic bait, and the other is long-tail bait. Realistic bait is a detailed fish imitation with paddle tail. Its color and shape looks like bait fish. Storm's WildEye Swim Shad is famous. Here is a picture of 4" Swim Shad.
Long-tail bait does not exactly look like bait fish. But it's long and soft paddle tail exaggerates its tail action, which attracts fish bite. Long-tail bait is designed with main focus on swimbait's merit, paddle action while giving up reality. Here is a picture of Cabela's Hoochie Koochie Swim Shad.
Both are successful baits. From my experience, realistic bait works well when water is clear, and fish are active. It seems because of its realistic appearance which fools game fish. Long-tail bait works well when fish are not so active. Its paddle action seems irresistable to game fish; if there are fish, they bite it. What you need to do with this bait is to cast it and slowly retrieve it. When you retrieve slower, swimbait swims lower. Vice versa.
One thing to note about swimbait is that one needs to be patient in hook-set. Because swimbait usually uses single hook, and fish do not aggressively attact it, one must set hook one temp later after he noticed biting. I do not know whey they do not attact swimbait as vicisouly as they do on hard plastic bait. Does it just our feeling? Because of softness of the bait? I don't know the answer. Anyway, if you are careful about hook-set, swimbait will give you continuous success as it did for me.
One thing to note about swimbait is that one needs to be patient in hook-set. Because swimbait usually uses single hook, and fish do not aggressively attact it, one must set hook one temp later after he noticed biting. I do not know whey they do not attact swimbait as vicisouly as they do on hard plastic bait. Does it just our feeling? Because of softness of the bait? I don't know the answer. Anyway, if you are careful about hook-set, swimbait will give you continuous success as it did for me.
