Hey all,

 

Ive had strikeking shadalicious swimbaits for awhile and i have always had trouble rigging them properly. I bought gamakatsu weighted swimbait hooks and the swimbait always fell off and hooksets were terrible. I tried a jighead to experience the same result. I recently bought Yum money minnows (5") and the hooks that go with it, and those have another issue. I follow the rigging instructions but the the bait will not swim straight and doesnt stay under water. I tried my strikeking shadalicious swimbaits on the Yum hooks but the same thing happened. The only solution lately has been to use a 5/o gamakatsu ewg worm hook and a 3/8 oz tungsten bullet worm weight. I rigged the swimbait on this hook and it swam much better, i got a fish and lost one- hooksets still suck and i know its not proper to be rigging swimbaits on worm hooks :/ . Need some help on this. Thanks!

 

Welds

Take a look at Owner twist lock keel weight hooks for swimbaits.

Tom

Part of the reason I quit fishing hollow belly swimbaits is how much of a pain they are to rig and set the hook with. I'd check out a line through swimbait so you don't have to worry about it anymore. I'm sure you have a lot of weeds to deal with in Florida so maybe something like a Optimum top of the line or you could go with a 6" weedless Huddleston if you really want weedless. 

I am with Tom. Owners twist locks are my choice.

It's not the hook. The nose on shadilicious is pure garbage. Sorry Big-O if that was a bait you worked on. You either have to use a normal weighted hook with no lock or... Get a knife or something similar and heat it up with a lighter and then stick it in the nose and melt it. It's is totally hollow all the way and there is nothing for a twist lock to hold onto unless you melt it.

If your looking for a great hollow belly I would check out basstrix. They are super durable as far as hollow bellies go and and I think are the original hollow belly.

I would maybe fish shadilicious if I didn't have to modify baits out the pack. It's a huge issue IMO and I can't believe they haven't started pouring a solid nose.

Good Luck

I use to use them but gave up on hollow bellies in general due to price/quantity/durability issues. I use to slit the belly so I get better hooksets and used a twistlock hook so it would stay on a little better.