Anyone Use Giant Swimbaits?

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SumoNinja

Polypterus
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Jun 9, 2007
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Just wondering if monsterfishkeepers throw monster swimbaits. I only fish freshwater and target trophy striper and bass.

I grew up fishing spinning gear all my life and only fished for fun using live, cut baits and small plastics. I got into baitcasting a couple of years ago and started throwing giant swimbaits.

I use gill, trout, shad, baby bass and rat imitations. My baits range from 5" to 13" in length and weighing from 1 oz up to 14 oz.

My 3 baitcasting set ups are 8', 8'6" and a 9' rod paired with reels that are made to grind big trophy fish. My lines are 20 lb, 25 lb and 30 lb test.

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Sorry for the facelessness. These pics are from my facebook and I don't have the originals on my phone anymore.

But fish of this caliber will eat a 12" bait easy if they wanted.

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Dude,those photos look like they were taken at a bait and tackle shop.Impressive looking aresnal.
 
Dude,those photos look like they were taken at a bait and tackle shop.Impressive looking aresnal.

Thanks krich, I had to get organized once I started hoarding too many. You can't exactly store these in a bin or tackle box. People use shelves and walls but I decided to get a rack for my stuff

Eddie says it's organized hoarding lol
 
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Nice fish! The only swimbaits I usually throw are the keitech swing impact fat that are like 5" long. I havent jumped into the big ones yet. Get some nice ones on those paddle tails though
 
I have only thrown small swim baits, and only with limited success. My buddy throws the 8" (?) trout patterns for smallies at Flaming Gorge and does well.
We fished a tourney at Lake Powell a few years ago that was smallie or largemouth, so we didn't target in on the striper. I imagine that if you can get in near a boil the swim bait would be a good choice!
I have been tweaking around with smaller swim baits and the weights and hook eye position to come up with a vertical jig presentation (for ice fishing and vert jigging from a boat). I think a very jigged swim bait in a hundred feet of water would be killer on macs! (Flaming Gorge again)

The thing that kills me though is the chemical smell from those big baits. Blech! Good thing bass more reactionary hunters than scent oriented!
Really nice slobs you showed there!
Josh
 
on the westcoast here we throw swimbaits to catch rockfish/ lingcod, I always carry anywhere from 4 to 8 ounce heads with 6 to 9 inch plastics....keitech also popular here. prefer light tackle but when we deep we go medium heavy rod about 250 ft deep max
 
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Those are some hawgs man. I'll throw some 5-7" swimbaits in the spring, but we don't get them quite that big up here.
 
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