What is the difference between a swim bait and a swim jig?  Other than tackle companies wanting to sell you more stuff!

Swim jig has a skirt.  Swim bait does not.

Thank you!  I was referring to the difference from the fishes perspective.

The only thing they have in common is part of their name, kind of like a southern iced tea and a Long Island iced tea...

IMO swimbaits are more realistic looking with a bait fish profile. Swimjigs can resemble bait fish or crawfish or frogs or any food for bass. Having said that, swimjigs have caught me more fish in clear water lakes where you would think more realistic baits would work better. Fish want what fish want. No rhyme or reason. 

If I'm getting hit on the swimbait really well I go to a swim jig to try to upsize. If I'm throwing an underspin I upsize with a spinner bait. With that said, sometimes they will hit a swim jig and not a swimbait. *shrug* fish are weird. If I'm getting hit on a swim jig really good sometimes it helps to go to a big yamamoto heart tail on a 6/0 to upsize.

 

I remember last summer at one pond where the bite is notoriously tough I couldn't get bit on anything except a huge yamamoto heart tail, but they were trashing the heart tail every cast. I went through a whole pack in 3 hours. It was nuts. 

Combine the two. Throw a swim jig with a paddle tail swimbait as a trailer. 

 It nessessarily an either , or , situation.

 

......additionally, a swim bait can be 3” - 12”+.

I reserve swim jigs for fishing vegetation. Their  weedguard vs. the open hook of a swim bait and the ability to fish it in a similar fashion to a jig/trailer give it the nod in my book.

Swim baits, are reserved for fishing over rock, gravel, or structure and off the bottom. I’ll even use one to quickly check out a ‘featureless’ flat when I don’t want the rattle of a crank. 

The problem trying to answer this question is defining a swimbait vs a jig trailer.

For example a fish head jig designed to be used with a swimbait trailer assembled as a swimbait with a soft body 5" to 12" swimbait, therefore is one and the same.

A swim jig being a standard jig with or without skirt that is retrieved within the water column that may or may not have a small swimbait trailer is a different lure than a swimbait, it's a jig and trailer. Example a 1/8 oz darter head jig with 3" or 4" trailer isn't a swimbait, it's a swim jig.

Tom

8 hours ago, Lottabass said:

Thank you!  I was referring to the difference from the fishes perspective.

Well, some fish like skirts but others don't. I don't judge though. ?

Thank you all!  I appreciate the insight and humor (jtharris3)!!!  I'm glad I joined this forum.  Lot of good info!

This was a huge debate on another site.  What is a swimbait, or a large bait.  The California swim jigs with the 5" robo trailers are a very large bait but the trailer can be fished alone.  I just make a 2 Oz limit.  If it's larger than 2 oz and swims under water it's a swim bait.  Punkers  are just large topwaters. This rule bends as a swaiver 168 is not quite 2 Oz but is a swimbait.  Then you have the group that breaks evert hinges down and a glide is a glide not a sb.

I guess I look at it this way. A swim jig is fished like a spinner bait and is an active bait for fish that want to chase. I think of swim baits like a Giron as finesse presentation for more neutral fish. 

 

Personally I think of baits like the rage swimmer more as a grub style bait when not rigged as a trailer. Definitely for more active fish.