THE BASS COLLEGE

LET ME COACH YOU!

IF YOU NEED HELP FISHING SWIMBAITS AND CATCHING TROPHY SIZED BASS, FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME BY PHONE, OR E-MAIL WITH YOUR QUESTIONS.

Here is some of the equipment and techniques that I regularly use. They have helped me fish Swimbaits with great success. The rod, reel, and line that I use are the G-Loomis SWR10820-C rod, Shimano Calcutta 400-B reel, with Maxima 25 lb ultra green mono, 60 lb power pro braid or lead core line. Many people use scents on their baits. I use only one and that's "Pro Cure Trout Butter". It is made entirely of trout, ground up into a paste and sold only by phone. It's expensive, but worth the money. It doesn't come off and works for a long time.

DEADSTICKING TECHNIQUE, USED FROM A BOAT OR SHORE

I use this technique when I have seen large bass in a particular area. I will throw a Huddleston, ROF 0, with the hook tied to the top to hide it from the fish" or any floating swimbait, far past the target or ambush point and slowly swim it over the spot. When I say slowly, is just that. Make a mental note on the current or wind. Then t wait. This is a patience game. It is tough even for me but I have success with this method. Let the bait float over the spot and just twitch the bait every minute or two ever so slightly. I use braid with a 5 foot fluorocarbon leader. The braid floats and will not pull the bait down, as mono would, after being in the water for a few minutes. When you get a bite, you will know it from the splash. After the bite you have to wait, as if you were working a top water bait. Wait for the rod to load up, then swing. If you get a solid hook up reel the fish in as fast as you can and try not to let it jump. Remember, the more it jumps, the more of a chance for it to become unbuttoned.

LONG LINE TECHNIQUE, USED FROM A BOAT.

I usually use this technique in the summer at deep water ambush points. When I say "long line" that means lots of line. I use the 9 inch MS Slammer or Huddleston ROF 5 with the hooks rigged on the bottom.

First I get to the spot, cast out the bait, open the bail, letting out another 50 yards or so of line. Then, using my trolling motor I slowly do figure eight's around the ambush point. So the middle of your troll sends the bait towards the spot. My theory for long lining is that some fish know when they see a boat, a bait is soon to follow. Using the "long line" technique it takes longer for the bait to pass after the boat goes by. Causing fish let their guard down because its not what they are used to. I use mono because I want the bait to get down, but not drag the bottom to much as to be unnatural.

DEEP TROLL TECHNIQUE.

I use this technique in deep water with lead core line, with any floating swimbait, or the ROF- 0, with the hooks rigged on the top and bottom. I let out enough line to take the bait to the bottom 6 feet of the lake and troll very slowly, holding my rod in a horizontal position to keep the bait down in the strike zone. I use a 5-6 foot fluorocarbon leader with this technique.

BUMP AND RUN TECHNIQUE, USED FROM BOAT OR SHORE.

I love to use this technique from the shore line, bringing the bait from the shallow water towards the deep water. I throw the bait out ROF-12 or 16 and let it sink to the bottom and wait a minute. Then slowly work it like you would a jig and move it up in 6 inch to 1 foot increments, in sets of 3 reps, waiting 2 minutes between movement.

Remember a trophy bass knows everything that goes on in its domain and knows your bait is there. Curiosity will make them come and investigate your bait. The Huddleston is designed to sit on the bottom, perfectly balanced, to imitate a resting trout. After three sessions of moving your bait it will look like its trying to escape by reeling in and swinging half of your setting motion. Chances are that's when your bait will be attacked just for trespassing.

THE SLOW ROLL TECHNIQUE, USED FROM BOAT OR SHORE.

Probably the best and most used method for sinking Swimbaits ever. Cast and wait for your bait to hit the bottom and then slow roll it along the bottom, working the rocks, edges of docks and brush piles while frequently stalling the bait. You will loose baits frequently with this technique so I recommend 60 lb Power Pro braided line to minimize losses.

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CAST AND REEL TECHNIQUE, USED FROM BOAT OR SHORE.

I use this method on waters that I am not familiar with. This is the give away technique. I use it to find trophy bass hideouts. I bring them out and make them follow the bait to see fish size. Larger fish will usually not feed using this technique, but they will give themselves, and there ambush spots away. If you find a trophy worthy fishing for, mark your spot, and come back an hour later using another technique to target that fish. Do not cast after the give away. Be as quiet as you can and don't upset the fish. This will help you later when you come back and use the slow roll or the bump and run methods.

I have used these techniques on numerous lakes with great success. With 50+ 10lbs Bass under my belt, I guarantee if you try them, and stick with them, they will pay off, time and time again!

Don Osborne

MORE PROOF THAT BIG BAITS CATCH BIG BASS

BIG BAITS= BIG BASS = BIG BUISNESS:cool:

OPTIMUM BAITS BASS You can VIEW or PURCHASE ALL THESE BAITS IN THE TACKLE STORE HERE

SPECIAL DISCOUNTS ON SWIMBAITS AND TACKLE CLICK HERE<<

JUST IN! This is great news for East Coast anglers, expecially in Delaware and Maryland!

The Huddleston Deluxe 6" Weedless Trout is now available in Yellow

Perch.

Fishing Swimbaits Uphill or Down?

Steve Pagliughi

Spend a few minutes around a group of dedicated swimbaiters and eventually the topic of discussion will turn to whether swimbaits should be retrieved uphill or downhill. The question is asked frequently and there are proponents of both sides. The answer is not straight forward because site specific characteristics dictate which way a swimbait should or can be retrieved. The decision process is a combination of assessing efficiency and fish behavior. In other words, which direction allows me to most efficiently work a structure and which direction appears to trigger the most bites? I have spent many days on the water dealing with this issue trying to find the magic answer that would result in more bites. In this article I will try my best to summarize the system of sorts I adhere to and provide the rationale for my thought process.

I fish two general types of sloping structures and each offer different challenges that dictate retrieve direction. The first type is sloping rocky structure and the second is structure having submerged vegetation along the slope. When fishing rocky slopes void of submerged vegetation the first question I ask myself is whether I think the fish are suspended or on the bottom. If I think the fish are suspended I will always position my boat shallow, cast into deep water, and retrieve my bait through mid-water toward shallow water. The reason I do this is twofold. First, I don’t have to worry about getting my bait hung up and ruining the spot. Second, I’m a firm believer in the concept that bass use underwater land formations to trap prey. The number of bites I get when fishing uphill just as my bait enters the point where you can just start to see the bottom of the lake is not random; something is going on there. Therefore, I will always fish uphill if I think I can get away with it (i.e., not get hung up). If I think bass are on the bottom then I need to determine if I can retrieve my bait uphill without constantly getting hung up. It makes no sense to bottom bounce in an uphill fashion if you are going to get hung up. I don’t mind getting hung up, but I am going to go get my expensive bait back every time this happens. That means I have to pull my anchors, drive right over where I think the fish are, and bang around with a bait knocker (a bait knocker is a must have piece of equipment). Retrieving snagged baits takes time, creates noise, and immediately ruins a spots potential. The spot could be ruined for an hour or for the day but either way it’s not something I want to do. It’s also not an efficient use of time which is the major problem. The day is over before you know it and the only thing you did was retrieve snagged baits, ruin spots, and kill

time waiting for your spots to recover. So even if I think I can get more bites by retrieving uphill it makes no sense to do that if I’m getting hung up constantly. In instances like this efficiency is more important than fish behavior and I will fish such spots by retrieving my bait downhill. The argument from many anglers is they have a hard time maintaining bottom contact when fishing downhill. Maintaining bottom contact when fishing downhill can be achieved by adjusting retrieve speed and choosing the proper tool for the job. Depending on the angle of the slope you may have to retrieve so slowly you think your bait is going backwards, you may have to switch from a Huddleston ROF 12 to a 16, or you may have to do both. The benefit of retrieving downhill is it forces you to retrieve very slowly and in my opinion this can result in more and bigger bites.

The decision making process is the same when I fish sloping structure with submerged vegetation. If I think fish are suspended I will position the boat shallow and retrieve the bait through open water. However, my experience has shown that bass tend to position themselves inside of submerged vegetation and ambush prey as it swims by. Why wouldn’t they since they are ambush predators by nature? Therefore I feel it’s vital that my swimbait is retrieved as close to the top of the vegetation as possible without getting “weeded”. Fishing uphill and maintaining close contact with weed tops is extremely difficult because a high percentage of casts are wasted due to getting weeded. The task becomes almost impossible when trying to maintain a slow retrieve. So once again the debate about which direction to retrieve becomes an efficiency issue. Why would I fish in a manner where 90 percent of my casts are wasted due to fouling and I can’t retrieve my swimbait as slowly as I know I need to? Doing this is an inefficient use of precious time. Additionally, I don’t think it’s a good idea for any bass present to repeatedly see a bait getting ripped and jerked through a spot with weeds hanging off of it. I try to make the most of my first five casts to each spot and that means I have to come through the vegetation cleanly. I can accomplish this by retrieving downhill and trying my best to follow the contour of the weed tops as closely as possible. When I do make contact with the weeds, which I do frequently and on purpose, a quick sharp pop of the rod usually clears my bait of weeds. I quickly get my rod back into a hookset position after I do this, and continue a very slow retrieve until I make contact with weed tops again. I repeat the process back to the boat. I can’t put enough emphasis on getting the rod back into position after popping through a clump of weeds because a very high percentage of my bites occur shortly after I do this. Through the years I have missed many good bites because my rod was positioned at 12 o’clock for too long after popping out of a weed clump. You will occasionally get hung up on weeds when fishing downhill and there is nothing you can do about that. Cleanly working your swimbait through vegetation is a technique developed through time; work on it hard enough and you will become very good at doing it. Certain weed types are easier to fish cleanly than others. For example, elodea is a very hard weed, and typically is easy to fish cleanly. On the other hand, filamentous “slimy” type weeds can be frustrating and no matter how good you are a good percentage of your casts will get fouled. You either just deal with it or you don’t fish that spot. The other thing about fishing weedy structure is through time you will learn exactly how the weeds grow on your spot, you will figure out where the sweet spots are, and you will figure out exactly where you need to cast and how to retrieve your bait to catch fish. In other words, you become more efficient through time. Fishing weeds can be extremely productive and exciting, figure out a spot and catching big fish can become automatic. The best spot I ever had was a weedy sloping structure that had two isolated weeds clumps in about 22 feet of water. The two clumps were separated by about 10 feet of clean bottom. I found the spot by accident, and through time I developed a mental image of how the weeds were positioned on the lake bottom. I never drove over the spot, my swimbait was my electronics, and I had a waypoint where I needed to anchor. Swimming my bait downhill allowed me to fish the spot cleanly and make the most of each cast. Every time I made the right cast I tangled with a big fish and every one of those fish bit immediately after my bait cleared one of the two isolated weeds clumps. The spot was exciting to say the least and many times I would have to just sit down for a few minutes after anchoring because I was shaking so badly with anticipation. It was a magic spot, and it hasn’t produced a bite in 3 years because the two clumps of elodea disappeared after that year. The point of the story is a spots true potential can be exploited through hard work and figuring out the best retrieve direction. The best retrieve direction is always the one that keeps your swimbait fishing correctly for the most amount of time.

If a spot can be fished efficiently going in either direction, I will usually start by fishing uphill. If that doesn’t work then I fish downhill. Swimbaiting takes time and time management is a big part of success. Time management is all about efficiency. Staying hung up or fouled with weeds all day is inefficient and to me this is the number one consideration on each spot when I determine whether to retrieve my swimbait uphill or downhill. Standard logic tells me I will catch more fish on each day if a higher percentage of my casts aren’t wasted due to snagging and fouling.

You can view all the HUDDLESTON SWIMBAITS HERE < click

Steve have you actually see this DVD or anyone here seen it I love to read anything Bill wrote and ordering his book in the next week to hold me over and really like to see it  but the tackle warehouse review is not good at all for it.

i plan on beinig able to put up a report using swimbaits to ensure my victory at smith mountain if the water is warming and the fish are mmoving to the flats im throwing a swimbait!

No I have seen all his videos and I know Bill Personally, but I have not seen this DVD. 

What's the swimbait in the last pic under the OPTIMUM pics?   It doesn't appear to have the same body style as the rest of Optimum's SB's.

Thanks

I belive that was a bait they don't make anymore. It was from some time ago from a friend. I will have to look into it to remember.

Great information here, I've been casting large Bettencourt baits for 8-9 years now, and every piece of information and advice you've provided is spot on. Thanks!

Thanks and welcome.

I really need to spend some time leaning how to throw and work a swim bait next summer. Ok, now that I said it I'll have to do it.

Here is a better way and habit to get your body into casting swimbaits

http://youtu.be/zEYUM7ednNs

if you havent had a chance Matt Allen @ tacticalbassin is a great guy and has great videos as well.