McKinneyLonghorn

I have thrown both of them, but only ever caught fish on the sunfish. That being said, I find you have to reel it in really slow or else the action doesn't look natural. These are the only swimbaits I have ever fished so I have nothing to compare them to, but I do like them and find them a great value. I would consider switching the hooks out. I have had issues with the hooks on most of the H2O baits. They are OK out of the box most times but I find they dull quickly and are prone to straightening out. Luckily, with the lures being so inexpensive and almost always on sale even cheaper, you can put on premium hooks and still not have much money into the lure.

I am a huge fan of their wakebaits and squarebills. I have also caught fish on the sunfish swimbait, but it is the only swimbait I have ever used so I don't have anything to compare it to. I will say that it sinks fairly quickly, even though the website says it is slow sinking. Although it says they come with premium VMC hooks, I have found the hooks on the wakebaits to be low quality so I swap them out with either Triple Grips or Owner 36s. With the premium hooks they are fish-catching machines. I am going to Florida next week and will be fishing off the beach in Navarre for ladyfish, trout and whatever else will bite. I plan on throwing a wide variety of chrome black back H2O baits while I am there.

Agreed 100 percent.

I have caught one fish on it, coming off a bed last year. I agree that it sinks really fast. I don't fish it much because the ponds I fish have a ton of vegetation and it always get stuck in the grass (I have found it only swims well if you reel it in slowly). And although it says it comes with VMC hooks (and I have no reason to doubt this), I think the hooks suck. Actually, all of the H2O baits come with VMC hooks and the first thing I do is switch out the hooks on all of them. I wonder if companies like VMC make a mass market hook that is lower quality to sell to companies to put on their baits? That way the companies can say it comes with VMC hooks but keep the price low. I only say this because I really like the VMC hooks I buy at the store, but the ones on the Academy baits are dull and bend easily, at least in my experience.

Lots of great answers already on this thread. I will add no matter what else you do, tie on a Texas-rigged 7-inch Blue Fleck Berkley Power Worm and get to catching fish. This color worm has caught fish for me in everything from gin clear to chocolate milk water. Bass seem to love it.

Finally a thread I actually know something about! Like smalljaw67, I don't throw larger wakebaits, but I do throw the crankbait type more than any other lure because the ponds I fish are filled with vegetation and subsurface lures have to be weedless or else they hang up. The wakebait is perfect and catches fish like crazy. With that out of the way, I will say the Academy-brand H2O XPRESS wakebaits are great and are my favorite lure, you just need to switch out the hooks (they say they come with VMC hooks, and while that may be the case, they must be bottom of the barrel VMC's because they are awful). The larger Bass Pro Shops Egg works well, but the smaller one won't stay on the surface so don't really consider it a wakebait. My favorite BPS wakebait is the Super Shallow Crank, which works great as a wakebait or as a subsurface lure. Just tonight I was at the store and the Storm Arashi wakebaits were on sale for half off so I picked up two of them. Hope to give them a shot tomorrow night and see how the $9 baits do compared to the $3 Academy brand ones. I also use the Baby Minus 1 and the Mann's Waker Elite from time to time, and they work great, they are just not in my regular rotation. Finally, the wakebaits you can buy blanks of all over the Internet (don't know who makes them but if you Google wakebait blank they will come up with a ton of hits) are great. They run about a foot deep on a fast retrieve and wake nicely on a slower retrieve, and they create a ton of commotion with their internal rattles. If you want to try painting your own, give them a shot.

The Academy-brand H2O XPRESS Tackle Backpack is nice. I think it is around $50 and it comes with a few plastic Plano-style tackle boxes (the 3600 size). I have had one for a few years and really like it. It holds four of the tackle boxes in the bottom and has two larger storage areas up top for soft plastics, terminal tackle, etc.

The Fouzman color is really nice. It is a dark copper/blue/black combo that looks a lot like the darker bluegills we have in some of the places I fish here in Northeast Texas, where Santone is located. It works great with an Okeechobee Craw trailer. Edit: Here is a picture. This is not of the swim jig, but it shows the color nicely.

I use the Repel Lemon Eucalyptus spray and it works great. I can't stand Deet as it makes my skin feel really funny (tough to describe the feeling) but the Lemon Eucalyptus spray works wonders.

First time I used one was two weekends ago when fishing the marsh around Delacroix Island, Louisiana. Caught a bunch of redfish and speckled trout, plus two largemouth. Felt I needed to represent Texas while visiting my family in Cajun country.

I wouldn't like to fish with only one color, but if I had to I think I could have success using the standard Berkley Blue Fleck.

I'll go with plastic worm. Specifically, the 7-inch Power Worm since that is the one I have had the most success with.

That sounds like a strong possibility. Thanks.

To those of you who helped answer the question, thanks. I had some luck on this color the other night so I'll have to track down some other bags of it if possible before they disappear from the shelves.

Sorry to ask what seems like such an obvious question, but I am stumped. Purchased this package of baits at Academy. They have a lot of the Big Bite Baits lineup, including lots of colors of 5 inch trick sticks (in packs of 10). The problem is that this color is only available as a 5 pack (for half the price of the 10 pack), and the label on all the 5 packs is identical regardless of color (with no color listed). I went to several Academy stores, my local Cabela's, the Big Bite Baits website and several online tackle stores and can't find this color anywhere. It is close to Sexy Melon and Methiolate, but is not quite there. It is more of a peach/orange color with similar colored flakes, where Sexy Melon is more yellowish and Methiolate is more reddish. Thanks for bearing with me on the semi-odd question.

This has been my experience this year as well. I fish mainly community park ponds so I am always dealing with tons of vegetation. Basically, the only things you can fish are soft plastics rigged weedless and moving baits that you are able to keep within one foot of the surface. Anything that runs deeper will get hung up badly. Anyway, last year I fished wakebaits a lot but I always fished them subsurface as a super-shallow crankbait. For the last month I have been fishing them as intended. Sometimes the fish want them waked fast over the surface and sometimes they want them moving so slow they are almost standing still, but the fish have been killing them. At four different ponds I have been able to catch loads of fish, most of them coming from within 5 feet of the bank. It is my first real topwater fishing experience. While most of the bass I catch are less than 1.5 pounds, the topwater blowups are addicting and make me want to find some bigger fish and see what they can do to my little wakebaits. I've been using the H2O XPRESS (Academy house brand) as my wakebait of choice. The only thing you need to change are the hooks, which are sharp out of the package but get dull and start to bend pretty quickly. I've swapped them out with size 6 Triple Grips and had better hook-up percentages.

I always wondered this very question. After not being able to find the lures I was looking for in stores or online I found a custom painter who painted lures in a watermelon red color. After purchasing a few and liking his work I had him paint up some wakebaits in black/blue and junebug. So far I haven't caught anything on the watermelon red square bill because most places I fish are too full of weeds to use subsurface crank baits, making wakebaits the lure of choice. I have some store bought wakebaits that work in clearer water, but when the water gets murky and the light gets low the two custom-painted ones come out and do a fine job of catching fish.

Looks good!

If you need soft plastic creature baits I recommend the Havoc Pit Boss, Rage Tail Space Monkey and Zoom Baby Brush Hog.

+4 They are awesome.

Looks great. If I was talented enough to paint like that I think I would be afraid to use it for fear of losing it.

The one I catch the most fish on is a custom-painted black and blue wakebait. It works great in stained to muddy water and is great at night because of not only the color but also the wide wobble and loud rattles. The second best color I use is matte firetiger.

The three soft plastics I catch the most fish on (and therefore fish the most often) are a Rage Tail Space Monkey in the Double Header color, a Havoc Pit Boss in Okeechobee Craw and a 4-inch Senko in watermelon red/black flake. I typically Texas rig the first two baits with a 1/8 oz tungsten weight and fish the Senko Texas-rigged but weightless.

In both clear and stained water I have the best luck on the Double Header color (a laminate of green pumpkin and watermelon red). I have no idea why since they look so similar but it catches more fish in my ponds than the regular watermelon red color does.

1/4 ounce green pumpkin chatterbait.