Any swimbait guys here?

 

I caught my very first fish on a glidebait Friday morning and the monkey wants MORE.   

 

My rod I have is rated for 3/4-3.5 ounces.

 

What are some good hard swimbaits that fit that size category?

 

I guess soft as well, but I'm mostly thinking hard as I already have a couple of Magdrafts.

 

I'm also thinking more of a bluegill shape vs shad as most of the lakes I fish don't even have shad.

 

THANKS!

baitsanity explorer gill

22 minutes ago, Peacedivision said:

baitsanity explorer gill

 

Thanks.

 

Looks like they have a really lifelike looking hardbait as well. The Gillroid.

 

There's a lot of good LOOKING baits, the problem is you just never know how they will perform in the water.

Raid Osakana Slide 170

Megabass iSlide 187

Spro Chad Shad

Bullshooter

Gillsoft 130

 

And a PB Rat. It's definitely a glide. Trust me.

savage gear pulse tail line thru bluegills (soft..ish swimbait)
jackal gantarell, the jr is good too, but much smaller than anticipated
explorer gill
triton mike bucca bull gill, bull gill 4x4
toxic wade hoggs/wade jr (wake)
pb rat
combat rat. i can not get this thing to dive, even on my fastest retrieves *positive imo*
deps bullshooter
employee gill
black dog baits shell cracker g2
the only one of these that i do not currently own is an "employee gill". I have fished one though, and it is on my "to be bought" list

Edited August 19, 2025Aug 19 by wolfe_ohara
added a lure

S waver 200 

Wade Hoggs ABS and Whipper Snapper

Klash9

Tiny Klash

Lanciotti Psycho Gill

Edited to add softbaits:

3:16 Rising Son 6” or 8” line through top hook

OSP Karen

Berkley Nessie

 

Whatever you do, don’t let the bank monkey ever catch you visiting the black market on swimbait underground…

 

2 hours ago, wolfe_ohara said:

savage gear pulse tail line thru bluegills (soft..ish swimbait)
jackal gantarell, the jr is good too, but much smaller than anticipated
explorer gill
triton mike bucca bull gill, bull gill 4x4
toxic wade hoggs/wade jr (wake)
pb rat
combat rat. i can not get this thing to dive, even on my fastest retrieves *positive imo*
deps bullshooter
employee gill
black dog baits shell cracker g2
the only one of these that i do not currently own is an "employee gill". I have fished one though, and it is on my "to be bought" list

Looks like you’ve gone down the rabbit hole, lol.

 

What are your favorites out of that list?

Dang those PB Rats are like $130.

 

My wife would kill me.

 

 

 

 

If she ever found out.

 

LOL

The heck with it, I’m going to buy the rat.

 

I stayed up way too late last night watching YouTube and watched some pretty cool rat fishing videos.

 

It will be the most expensive lure I’ve ever purchased. 

Go look at swimbait underground. They are always for sale over there…

15 minutes ago, Smirak said:

Go look at swimbait underground. They are always for sale over there…

Was just gonna say that myself. More like fire sale prices lately. Good time to buy.

 

18 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

I'm also thinking more of a bluegill shape

The rabbit hole runs deep. Lots of superior choices you'll never see from typical retailers. Like @Smirak said, join the Swimbait Universe page on FB. There are baits for sale-posts coming up all day long. Ask for members to vouch for sellers as solid before you buy.

 

Spro Chad Shad are like $50 and they absolutely work. If you’re close to a BPS gotta ask for them, they started locking them up due to theft.

29 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Was just gonna say that myself. More like fire sale prices lately. Good time to buy.

 

 

11 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

Looks like you’ve gone down the rabbit hole, lol.

 

What are your favorites out of that list?

top 5, no order

pb rat 

bucca 4x4

gantarel

wade jr

explorer gill

the line thru gills are often on sale for $10, at that price they make the list, at retail they are a close 6th place

4 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

 

Be very careful...

If I was just getting into it and for your weight range listed:

 

SPRO Chad Shad

Tiny Klash

S-Waver

Bucca Trick Shad

6th Sense Trace

Bacca Burito 5"

Savage Gear line through bluegill

Bass Mafia Daingerous unloaded 6 and 7"

Huddleston 68

 

Lots of great suggestions above. The Bull Shad Bull Wake has been a productive baits for me. The 6" Bull Shad slow sink is 2 ounces and works nicely if you have shad. The 6" Floating Bull Shad is 1.9 ounces and if you weight it just right it'll almost suspend and at times they just have to eat it while it's sitting still.

The 6th Sense 6.5" Draw glidebait is 1 ounce and is a pretty herring shaped bait if you have them in your lakes. The Spro Rat & Spro Chad work pretty good.

1 hour ago, GreenPig said:

The 6" Floating Bull Shad is 1.9 ounces and if you weight it just right it'll almost suspend and at times they just have to eat it while it's sitting still.

Agreed. I like tweaking floaters to sink ultra slow. Even inexpensive ones ABS types like a Trace. I've had really good luck with how you can slowly work these to behave like sitting ducks over weed tops where even slow sinkers would drop too fast on a slower retrieve.

PB Rat ordered.

 

Haven't been this excited since Christmas of ‘87.

11 minutes ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

PB Rat ordered.

Nice. Now order a Black Dog Baits Shellcracker G2 crank-down wake. Trust me.

Shell Cracker G2 – Black Dog Bait Co.

 

Ooops. Sold out. Check out SU. They pop up.

 

Another buying option for BullShad:

SWIMBAIT CITY STORE

22 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Nice. Now order a Black Dog Baits Shellcracker G2 crank-down wake. Trust me.

Shell Cracker G2 – Black Dog Bait Co.

 

Ooops. Sold out. Check out SU. They pop up.

 

Another buying option for BullShad:

SWIMBAIT CITY STORE

 

 

I’ve tried finding that Shell Cracker before and saw it isn’t made anymore.

 

Seemed to have good reviews

 

I wasn’t expecting to buy something as expensive as I just did so I figure I’ll only buy one more swimbait this season which will most likely be a bluegill profile.

 

I still need to stock up on other baits for the fall.

 

I told my wife I made an order and how much it was. Little does she know it’s just one bait vs about 15 or so. lol 

22 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

I’ve tried finding that Shell Cracker before and saw it isn’t made anymore.

Haven't heard that. He's been sold out in the past. Anything's possible though.

 

Look at this as an alternate. Cranks down too.

Deps Tiny Bulldoze 100 Swimbait - Tackle Warehouse

22 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Haven't jheard that. He's been sold out in the past. Anything's possible though.

 

Look at this as an alternate. Cranks down too.

Deps Tiny Bulldoze 100 Swimbait - Tackle Warehouse

Yeah I started my own little list of what looked good as well as a decent price before I started this thread.

 

Had the Bull Gill, G Dash, Vatalion.

 

4 hours ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

PB Rat ordered.

 

Haven't been this excited since Christmas of ‘87.

did you get the 2 or 3 piece rat?