Hey guys, 

 

Which one do you guys prefer and why?

 

What conditions tell you when to use one over the other?

 

 

I have a few hard swimbaits and a bunch of soft hollow body swimbaits and i was just wondering if you could give some input on when to use one over the other!

 

 

thanks!

Hard swimbaits are more for open water presentations because of the exposed hooks. Hard swimmer come in top water or wake baits, slow sinkers with multiple body sections and deep running styles.

The MS Slammer for example is hard swimbait used as a wake bait or shallow swimmer. Triple Trout and BBZ are mid depth swimmers that can be worked to make 180 turn arounds or swam at various speeds.

Soft swimbaits come in a wide range of styles from the simple hollow bodies, soft molded fish like profiles to slow swimmers like Huddleston Delux. The soft swimmer can be rigged to be weedless and can cover more of the water column for near surface to bottom bumping.

The right swimmer is the one bass are striking and only one way to determine that; try different types.

Tom

If cover allowed for both, which one would you pick?

If cover allowed for both, which one would you pick?

If I knew the location of active fish, I'd opt for the hard bait that'd cover that depth range. If I were using it as a search bait, I'd opt for the soft as I could cover more of the water column with it when rigged with a weighted hook. 

My choices for top water, (low light) would be an 8" Slammer or Mouse. Sub surface would be an 8" Hudd or large, paddle tailed, soft bait, rigged on a 6/0 weighted swimbait hook for probing the weeds. Options are quite limit-less!

Swimbait are one of the lure types you need to know what the bass are feeding on and should try to match the length and color to be somewhat similar to the prey fish the bass are looking for. Swimbaits are not crank baits and usually do not trigger a reaction strike, it is more of a feeding strike type of lure.

If you have toothy fish in your area, the hard swimmer would be my choice. Your tackle needs to be much heavier to use the swimmers that weigh over 2 oz, which may also factor into what type of swimbait to use.

If the bass in your area are under 6 lbs, then there isn't any advantage to using the big heavy swimmers, I would stay with 5" to 7" , unless you are trophy hunting. 5" bluegill or crappie is big for any bass!

Bottom bumping go with the soft swimmers, more open water try the hard ones. Remember to slow down your retrieve speeds, almost everyone fishes these lure too fast in the beginning.

Tom

Thanks!

 

The bass around here VERY rarely get above 6 pounds and we have tons of bluegill and perch in our lakes.  Im almost always fan casting and looking for fish, but our lakes are shallow and filled with submerged vegetation!

 There are more 6 lb plus bass in Michigan than many realize, saw a picture of a 9lber recently that I wish I had caught. In my opinion deep diving cranks, swimbaits and jigs are my most consistent baits for bigger inland lake largemouth bass, smallmouths are a whole different topic.

 

 I like both hard and soft swimbaits. I tend to use hard swimbaits on overcast days or when I want baits that have an exaggerated action.

 

 Soft swimbaits that I like would include ....  

Top Shelf inline baits

7" Rago BVD - I usually add a couple of nail weights to it but it also fishes well without nail weights especially if you are fishing higher in the water column. I like the Light Hitch color for clear water lakes. Intermediate tail kick.

 6" River to Sea Live Eye Bottom Walker -great for slow  rolling in deeper water, also readily available and inexpensive. Wide tail kick.

8" Hudd Rof 5 & 12 - The brown gold & golden shiners patterns somewhat resemble small carp, you will need a big boy rod to throw this I like a Dobyn's 867 - Subtle and super realistic swim. Also Trout works well even in lakes without Trout.

6" 316 Rising Son - I like to add a couple of nail weights to this one, great selection of colors and very well made. Wide tail kick great for aggresive fish.

 

Hard swimbaits....

 

6" Spro BBZ Wicked Perch Slow Sink -if you are new to the swimbait game I would recomend this as your first purchase as it's readily available, affordable and gets a lot of bites.

9" MS Slammer Baby Bass - very light for it's length, mid priced for a swimbait. Great for waking or twitching, just flat out gets bit.

River to Sea S Waver 168 - easy to throw and very affordable. It's a relatively new bait for me but a slow stop and go retrieve seems to be what works best along with light twitches.

 

If you really get into swimbaits and are willing to spend the money....

 

316 Wake JR - it will cost you and they are hard to hunt down but  are worth it in my opinion.

7" Triple Trout Baby Bass - great bait when the water gets warm

Matt Lures Hard Bluegill - great numbers bait.I'm also fishing a couple of other gill baits this year but I need to fish them longer before I can recommend them. 

 

These baits would make good start , fishing in Michigan like yourself these are baits that are proven to me based on my personal experience .