Just fished one for the fist time yesterday, got a few bites on it with one hook-up, lost it at the boat, I think I used the wrong rod but the way I fished it was on the bottom slow rolling it, any advise on this bait?

I always preferred a mh-h rod for that reason, I got tired of loosing fish at the bit because of not getting a good hookset on them. I personally swim them as slow as the tail keeps kicking, but they have been a quality over quantity bait for me.

you can unskin them to get more action 

I prefer the YUM money minnow over the shadalicious. And I use a MH-H rod .

When you match the hatch with a swim bait no doubt you will get nice fish??

3 hours ago, dropshottah said:

you can unskin them to get more action 

What does unskinning them entail? They have an outer layer you can peel off?

Didn't pick up anything about in skinning the bait but most of what I read is that they are supposed to be fished very slowly, I'm assuming that makes them a structure type bait, it was pretty effective using it as such, I had it rigged on a medium action Lews Rod, I'll switch it to one of my MH rods and try again, I was surprised just how much attention it did bring, I think that a few of the bites they just bit the tail because the bait was dislodged from the jig head, I may have tried to set the hook to soon and just need a little more time with the bait as well but for all the times I missed the bait seemed to hold up really well with very little wear.

Cut a slit in the belly. It will make it easier for the hook to penetrate the fish by having less plastic to go through. 

5 hours ago, JustinU1X said:

Cut a slit in the belly. It will make it easier for the hook to penetrate the fish by having less plastic to go through. 

I used a swim bait hook rather than rigging it weedless, the hook was exposed, I did see someone do that on you-tube while researching this bait though, how does that change the bait? Different fall? More swimming action?

I tried this bait in my swimming pool to get a feel for the speed of retrieve, too slow and no action from the tail end, too fast and it wants to lift and roll around, I'm finding it difficult to get just the right speed out of this bait.

I only fish these baits in 5ft or less and when there's grass present.  Like some others have said, these baits don't really work when fished slow. I rig mine weedless with a 6/0 or 8/0 owner beast weighted swimbait hook.  The huge gap provides plenty of room for a solid hookset.  I throw mine on a 7'6 H flipping stick and 20lb fluorocarbon.  It's like underwater frog fishing...you really gotta give the fish a sec or two to inhale the bait before setting the hook.

3 hours ago, RichF said:

I only fish these baits in 5ft or less and when there's grass present.  Like some others have said, these baits don't really work when fished slow. I rig mine weedless with a 6/0 or 8/0 owner beast weighted swimbait hook.  The huge gap provides plenty of room for a solid hookset.  I throw mine on a 7'6 H flipping stick and 20lb fluorocarbon.  It's like underwater frog fishing...you really gotta give the fish a sec or two to inhale the bait before setting the hook.

Much appreciated !!!!