I have been loosing a lot of fish on swim baits...Does anyone have a good trick for them...I am using the Berkley hollow body, the Shad-a-licious and bass majic baits with multiple different types of hooks and a heavy action 7' rod...I will hold a fish for a few feet, them they are just gone...Any suggestions...
Are you skin hooking it or burying the hook in the body? I skin hook mine and the fish that I've caught on them just kill it and are usually hooked inside the mouth.
How do you skin hook them...I run the hook thru like a texas rig, but leave the hook point exposed...so I guess it is kinda tex-posed...the fish are killing mine too, but I cannot get them hooked up good...
What size hook and bait? Skin hooking is tex-posing it and just burying the point of the hook so that shouldn't be a problem. On the 6" I use an 8/O and the 4" I use a 5/O. The rod I use has a lot of tip to it too just to give them a second to inhale it good.
I would go with a longer rod like 7'6 and try a 6/0 hook i use both of these and with the few fish i have caught on the i have had no problems. also you can put a stinger hook in the tail by running some braid through the body to the main hook eye with a needle the tie in to the main hook eye and insert the stinger about 3/4 down from the head
most of the fish i've caught on swimbaits will initially swim up behind the bait, inhale it and continue to swim fowards with it. so all i usually feel is a thump, and then steady pressure so i reel down and swing for the fence. with a single hook, you have to set it just like you would on a jig or t-rig especially when using a large 6/0 or bigger hook.
As mentioned above, when the thump happens, TRY to hesitate before you JERK until you feel weight. That 7' heavy should work. FWIW, I am using 20# Fluoro to fish this bait. Since I normally fish these baits in fairly open water, I will open the gap of the hook slightly and not worry about whether it is resting flush with the top of the bait. Have also recently been experimenting with some swimbait jig heads from Kalins. With the 1/2 - 3/4 oz. head, you can keep the bait deep. The bait swims very well and you have a big exposed hook. Good alternative to the big crankbaits and 1 oz. spinnerbaits.
How do you skinhook it and keep it from running sidesaddle???
I seen the stinger hook trick in BM, along with the pipecleaners... but I think these guys are using the hollow belly versions. I use a 5/0 with the weight for the 4" but haven't found any hooks for the bigger baits yet.
I've beeen using 7/0 hooks and Dunns in Paducah had some 9 or 10/0 weighted swim bait hooks earlier this year.
Majek Reaper
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Anderson Services LLC
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