I am new to paddletail swimbaits. I've used a few Keitec type, not sure the brand they are. And I've used the Big Bite Baits Suicide Shad.

 

The first type appears to be made for a jighead. When you had a jig head, it looks complete, as if the jig head is the head of the fish.

 

The second type, it looks weird, because it adds a second head. I has 2 sets of eyes, and the contours are wrong.

 

So, with that second type, are you not supposed to use a jighead like that? Are you supposed to use a belly weighted hook? Are you supposed to cut the head off if you're going to use a jighead?

14 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

So, with that second type, are you not supposed to use a jighead like that?

You can if you like.

14 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

Are you supposed to use a belly weighted hook?

That would be my first choice especially if I needed to fish it weedlessly.

15 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

Are you supposed to cut the head off if you're going to use a jighead?

You can if you like. Doesn't really matter one way or the other unless the hook is very short.

It really makes no difference. 

Alright, thanks yall.

 The paddle tail or boot tail swimbait can be a very effective deal for just about any kind of bass and in a super wide variety of applications. Not news.  At this point its common knowledge that sliding one on a jig head can and does get bites pretty much anywhere in the country.

Whether it be a solid or hollow belly bait, small, medium or even the larger versions, these baits seem to have some serious strike drawing power at times.  Although I haven’t made an attempt to dive into this one yet, they do account for quite a few brown bass for me each year.

So, I figured it was time.

 

 I’ll start off with ‘The when’; and this may be the easiest aspect of this one.

Seasonally, as soon as there is open water here and straight through to hard water, I almost always have a swimbait on a jig head rigged up & ready to throw.  This is the deal I’ll be discussing here and I’ll get to the where and how in a bit.  But yea, when the local brown bass population is on the feed, they almost always seem fairly eager to choke one of these things. 

 

  Now let me get into some of my more common ‘where’ scenarios.

Right off the bat, the versatility of these things does lend them to be effective in a wide vary of ‘wheres’.  So it can literally be one of those 3 feet to 30 feet deals.  However for me, up in this clear water, regardless of season, time of day or body of water, a swimbait on a jighead is an effective way to cover water and it’s usually ‘deeper’ stuff. 

I’ll quantify that by saying I’m throwing them up on to or off of mid lake humps, up & off points, as well as drop-offs and into saddle areas.  Usually targeting bass in 10-20 feet.

  Bottom composition and cover can vary but in super heavy soft cover (weeds) I am not probing them with this bait.  I might swim one over and around it, but IME, they don’t fish very effectively through the slop.  Great way to cover a big mid-lake flat though.  Slow rolling one over the weeds can help find biters (and a bunch of Pike, unfortunately).

 On a hard bottom, I like the lift & fall technique, on both a tight & slack line, as well as the cranking it along slow and letting it deflect; trigger deal.

On a sand bottom I am all about grinding the bait.  Reeling it along in such a manner, and at whatever speed I need, to maintain constant contact with the bottom.  This is one of my more productive approaches that also gets me a ton of by-catch; walleye mostly.  A Football head is a solid choice.

 

  Now for the gear, and it’s really nothing special.

I use spinning & casting gear, pretty much interchangeably.

Almost always using 7 ft Medium action in both blanks.

Spinning gear is done with 10-15 lb braid and an 8 – 10 lb FC leader.

And the casting gear is straight 10-12 lb FC.

I will say that the spinning gear is usually selected when I’m looking to keep the baits deeper, say below 10 – 15 feet and the casting gear often gets the nod in anything shallower. Incidentally, this is the same tackle I fish a tube with.

 

The Jig heads & Baits ~

There is a plethora of good quality swim baits and matching jig heads to choose from now.  On line vendors literally list what seems like hundreds.  I’ve fished a dozen or so types & brands.  To keep it simple, I’ve pretty much settled on two; listed below.

  I do prefer softer baits in the 3 to 5 inch size range, with something close to 4 inch being a big player.  While clearly less durable, I seem to get more bites.  Along with that, having the right action, especially on the fall, is a must for me.  

 When it comes to jighead shape, design and the all-important hook, again I like to keep it simple but here I am fairly particular.  Brand Name is my desired direction but will go with a Lesser-known deal when there’s merit.  I am eternally looking for jigheads with a quality medium and medium light wire hook that is also The Right Length.  Too stout here can be tricky to sink on the medium gear I use; especially on a long cast or very deep running bait. Additionally, too long of a hook seems to ‘mute’ and can even over power a bait.  I seem to get the best action when the bend is coming out the top of the bait no more than half way back of the baits overall length.  More than that is No Bueno.

My favorite heads match up to baits when they only go in about a third of the way (if that makes sense).

   Colors I keep close to the bait color and my default is just a plain lead, black or tungsten. Head shape & design includes where the line tie placement is located on the head itself. The right local will allow the bait to swim nicely, especially along the bottom and on the glide without forcing the bait to pick up unwanted & bite killing debris.  A decent keeper helps; a couple of different ones work for me.  In a pinch (meaning I ran out of a certain weight size) I’ve even used my tube jigheads with decent success.

Jighead weights range from 1/8 oz for the smallest and shallowest presentations up to ½ oz for the other end of the spectrum  I’d say I use ¼ oz and 3/8 oz the most though.

 

Strike King Rage Swimmer ~ Keitech Swing Impact FAT

 

Owner Ultrahead Football Jig Head ~ Owner Ultrahead Round Jig Head

Gamakatsu Round Jig Head ~ Dirty Jigs Tactical Bassin' Finesse Swimbait Jig Head

 

 

Fish Hard

A-Jay 

I killed big, prespawn smallies for awhile on paddletails this spring. Jigging started slowly, but a 4” white or natural colored paddletail on an 1/8oz(3.5g) tungsten round jig was money. I got incidental post spawn walleye too, but they don’t count. Those bass would mow those paddles right down and were often a quick “tick” and you better react! The quality of fish was superb 

I never use a jig head with a Keitech.

 

Always with an underspin. Current favorite is the Duo Realis Spin Hook.

4 hours ago, A-Jay said:

 The paddle tail or boot tail swimbait can be a very effective deal for just about any kind of bass and in a super wide variety of applications. Not news.  At this point its common knowledge that sliding one on a jig head can and does get bites pretty much anywhere in the country.

Whether it be a solid or hollow belly bait, small, medium or even the larger versions, these baits seem to have some serious strike drawing power at times.  Although I haven’t made an attempt to dive into this one yet, they do account for quite a few brown bass for me each year.

So, I figured it was time.

 

 I’ll start off with ‘The when’; and this may be the easiest aspect of this one.

Seasonally, as soon as there is open water here and straight through to hard water, I almost always have a swimbait on a jig head rigged up & ready to throw.  This is the deal I’ll be discussing here and I’ll get to the where and how in a bit.  But yea, when the local brown bass population is on the feed, they almost always seem fairly eager to choke one of these things. 

 

  Now let me get into some of my more common ‘where’ scenarios.

Right off the bat, the versatility of these things does lend them to be effective in a wide vary of ‘wheres’.  So it can literally be one of those 3 feet to 30 feet deals.  However for me, up in this clear water, regardless of season, time of day or body of water, a swimbait on a jighead is an effective way to cover water and it’s usually ‘deeper’ stuff. 

I’ll quantify that by saying I’m throwing them up on to or off of mid lake humps, up & off points, as well as drop-offs and into saddle areas.  Usually targeting bass in 10-20 feet.

  Bottom composition and cover can vary but in super heavy soft cover (weeds) I am not probing them with this bait.  I might swim one over and around it, but IME, they don’t fish very effectively through the slop.  Great way to cover a big mid-lake flat though.  Slow rolling one over the weeds can help find biters (and a bunch of Pike, unfortunately).

 On a hard bottom, I like the lift & fall technique, on both a tight & slack line, as well as the cranking it along slow and letting it deflect; trigger deal.

On a sand bottom I am all about grinding the bait.  Reeling it along in such a manner, and at whatever speed I need, to maintain constant contact with the bottom.  This is one of my more productive approaches that also gets me a ton of by-catch; walleye mostly.  A Football head is a solid choice.

 

  Now for the gear, and it’s really nothing special.

I use spinning & casting gear, pretty much interchangeably.

Almost always using 7 ft Medium action in both blanks.

Spinning gear is done with 10-15 lb braid and an 8 – 10 lb FC leader.

And the casting gear is straight 10-12 lb FC.

I will say that the spinning gear is usually selected when I’m looking to keep the baits deeper, say below 10 – 15 feet and the casting gear often gets the nod in anything shallower. Incidentally, this is the same tackle I fish a tube with.

 

The Jig heads & Baits ~

There is a plethora of good quality swim baits and matching jig heads to choose from now.  On line vendors literally list what seems like hundreds.  I’ve fished a dozen or so types & brands.  To keep it simple, I’ve pretty much settled on two; listed below.

  I do prefer softer baits in the 3 to 5 inch size range, with something close to 4 inch being a big player.  While clearly less durable, I seem to get more bites.  Along with that, having the right action, especially on the fall, is a must for me.  

 When it comes to jighead shape, design and the all-important hook, again I like to keep it simple but here I am fairly particular.  Brand Name is my desired direction but will go with a Lesser-known deal when there’s merit.  I am eternally looking for jigheads with a quality medium and medium light wire hook that is also The Right Length.  Too stout here can be tricky to sink on the medium gear I use; especially on a long cast or very deep running bait. Additionally, too long of a hook seems to ‘mute’ and can even over power a bait.  I seem to get the best action when the bend is coming out the top of the bait no more than half way back of the baits overall length.  More than that is No Bueno.

My favorite heads match up to baits when they only go in about a third of the way (if that makes sense).

   Colors I keep close to the bait color and my default is just a plain lead, black or tungsten. Head shape & design includes where the line tie placement is located on the head itself. The right local will allow the bait to swim nicely, especially along the bottom and on the glide without forcing the bait to pick up unwanted & bite killing debris.  A decent keeper helps; a couple of different ones work for me.  In a pinch (meaning I ran out of a certain weight size) I’ve even used my tube jigheads with decent success.

Jighead weights range from 1/8 oz for the smallest and shallowest presentations up to ½ oz for the other end of the spectrum  I’d say I use ¼ oz and 3/8 oz the most though.

 

Strike King Rage Swimmer ~ Keitech Swing Impact FAT

 

Owner Ultrahead Football Jig Head ~ Owner Ultrahead Round Jig Head

Gamakatsu Round Jig Head ~ Dirty Jigs Tactical Bassin' Finesse Swimbait Jig Head

 

 

Fish Hard

A-Jay 

Thank you very much for taking the time to share that information and the picture.

 

I never would have though to run one on a football jighead.

1 hour ago, RRocket said:

I never use a jig head with a Keitech.

 

Always with an underspin. Current favorite is the Duo Realis Spin Hook.

Thanks for sharing. I didn't know those existed.

I keep the jig head simple.  I use dirty jigs guppy head in 1/8, 3/16, 1/4, and 3/8.  I have 2 boot tail molds that I use as well as Keitech swing impact fat which I have in 3 sizes and a bunch of colors because they are so fragile.

 Recently I bought some Tackle Max fugitive swim baits.  I am impressed with them so far.  A few trips ago it took 8 Keitechs for 10 bass.  Earlier this week I had 14 using only 2 fugitives and both were repairable when I got home.

@A-Jay The most important aspect of Andy’s informative post is the size/length of the jig hook shank. You want to match up the size of the swim bait length with the hook length. Always strive to use a hook length of 1/3 or no more than 1/2 of the baits length. 1/3 is preferred to get the maximum flex/ wiggle of the baits tail action. Too long of a hook kills the bait’s action. 

@Dwight Hottle I can agree with this 100%
 

I also approach plastic worms and creature baits similar or Texas rigged senkos. Smaller hook is more action. A standard 4.2 sweet beaver creature bait is a 2/0 ewg for me where I see almost everyone else using 3/0 and even some guys using 4’s! A 2/0 ewg or screw lock hook is perfect for t rigging standard senkos imo. Good bass don’t play games generally, so if I get a solid thump..I don’t wait too long and a smaller hook is plenty to grab them in these instances and reduces gut hooks. I do feel many people are a little worried about missing fish or skinning them and play it safe with a larger hook. A 2/0 is a standard for most of my soft plastic fishing; An exception is when they’re really eating senkos, I’ll drop to a 1/0. Full sized brush hogs and 7” senkos I use 3/0; 10” worms 4/0

Ok, now the other side 

 

I never felt the need to use a jig head on a swim bait. 
I get that’s it’s probably the most common way to rig one from amateurs to pro’s, we see it all the time. 

Personally I use a Gamblers Duz It the majority of the time down here always fished in, through and around scattered to moderate grass fields. 
The big adjustable blade allows it to be retrieved in different levels of the water column without having to adjust the retrieval speed.

Another plus is I throw this anywhere I would a spinner bait for a different look 
which helps to establish a pattern more easily. 
It just gives more options than just a nose dive when killing it.
Also considering the flash in more tannic and less than ideal conditions, it has a tendency to draw fish in where just the thump or wiggle of a tail won’t. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike

DOA makes a short shank jig head that I like to use with smaller  swimbaits .   . 

There is no such thing as "supposed to do."  There is only adapt, adjust and make it work however you can make it work.

 

This is one of my all time favorite lures.

 

My preferred location for bass fishing dictates how I have to use the paddletail. This is my heavy cover lure in shallow waters. Water primarily less than 6 feet deep along the edges of Florida lakes.

 

I have no choice but to rig it weedless because I am dragging it through some heavy cover like lily pads and thick eel grass and other vegetation including trees and bushes.

 

I position my boat about 15 to 20 feet away from edge of lily pads and work the front edges of lily pads first. Then I move in to where my boat is right up against the lily pads or even moving into them. I prefer to use a 7' MH F to a 7'6" MH F rod with a 4000 size reel and about 15 to 20 pound straight braid.

 

I cast it all the way to shore- onto shore- if I can get it that far. The 7'6" rod is my distance rod. I try to fish the edge of shore and that open area behind lily pads, and then slowly move into the lily pads on surface, just under surface and letting it drop into the open spots I can see.

 

I want my lure to stay clean and free from snagging vegetation on the way back to me. Bass absolutely slay this thing! Sometimes I got them jumping out of the water to get at it.

 

Another place I like to use it this way is in very shallow vast expanses of eel grass where the eel grass is either protruding from the water you can see the tips of it barely sticking out of the water, or there is about 1 to 2 feet of open water between tops of eel grass and surface of the water.

 

If there is 6 to 8 feet of open water above eel grass then I may switch to open hook paddletail swimbaits.

 

I will swim it around in there not letting it go deeper than say about 1.5' to 2' down into the eel grass, but keep it up high in the water column swimming it either on the surface or through the very tips of the eel grass. The blowups can be explosive.

 

Often the bass will hang out in the eel grass, where there are holes the bass will layup down in there waiting for something they can eat to come along and so they can be quite aggressive going after this lure.

 

In the areas I prefer to fish there is no such thing as bottom fishing. If a person tries to let a lure sink to bottom where I fish, the fish would never see it, never hit it, and it would be clogged up with muck and vegetation. Gotta make it come alive in mid to upper water column. This lure can drive bass crazy instantly.

 

I almost never use this lure with an open hook. If I am going to use a paddletail as a swimbait then I will switch over to a premade open hook swimbait with lead weight inside of swimbait. My favorites used to be the old Calcutta flashfoil but they are now out of business and so I have to dig into my old stock and try and find those where I can or something similar. I throw these on a 6'6" or 6'8" MH MF to even XF rod with straight braid. And this is where my vintage rod collection really comes alive here. Open water schoolies tear it up in lakes and especially the St. Johns river.

 

If I notice fish are hesitant or short striking I will sometimes add a stinger treble hook to it. I had one already rigged up on my GLoomis GLX BCR803 rod and just added a stinger to show you how I learned to do it. The stinger hook swings back and forth with movement of the tail. Bass do not get off the hook too often on this rig.

 

 

Getting back to the weedless paddletail setup I prefer, to me the brand is irrelevant. I buy based on size and especially shape of the lure. I prefer a #4 weighted hook, sometimes no weights and just a hook, but what I look for is a thin tail. I do NOT want to use a paddletail that is as thick as a cigar. All that useless extra rubber is just getting in the way of a good hookset. It fills in the gap and makes it much harder for the hook to slide through it and into the fish.

 

So shape is key to me here. If I had to cut off some of the thick end just so I can move the hook back to a thinner part or adjust the lure higher up on the line some how, then so be it. But where that hook goes through my paddletails has got to be the thinnest portion of the lure for far easier hooksets.

 

Another thing I gave up worrying about decades ago is lure orientation in relation to the hook. It does not matter if I turn the lure sideways or upside down. None of those fish are taking the time to swim up to it and examine it and say hey you know he put this on the hook all wrong so I'm not going to hit it. Orientation makes zero bit of difference. And I had no choice but to start doing it this way because of how manufacturers shape their lures.

 

On some paddletails they shape it like a fish. Thicker rubber if orientated as normal, but if turned sideways I have less than half the thickness of rubber for the hook to slide through it and into the fish on a hookset.

 

I am also not a color freak about it. In murky waters the fish can't see it. Can't judge color down there same as we do out of the water. They hit so fast and so hard color is irrelevant. So I focus on 3 shades of contrast- white to light in color, medium shades like shad grey or silver, and dark colors. Makes no difference to me. Others can debate whether it makes a difference to the fish or not. All I know is I still catch fish no matter how I do it. Maybe one way catches more, who knows. I could care less. I am out there to have fun, not win tournaments.

 

Hands down this is one of the best lures ever invented because it can be so versatile and fished in so many different ways.

 

This one is rigged sideways because the shape of the tail is thinner sideways for easier hooksets.

With the above hook and slack line this one tends to drop more horizontal. But with the hook shown below it tends to drop more nose first. Both work. Just adjust how to use them a little bit. That said, I am no longer buying the hooks shown below, and will use up what I have; and go with the above hook shown above as my more preferred one now.

 

Others will probably not agree with me on this, but there is such a thing as too much rubber and TOO thick of a lure. Size and shape matter to me.

 

When a lure is the size of a cigar in the upper portion of the lure, all that rubber fills the hook gap void and gets in between the hook and fish for a good hookset. There is quite simply too much rubber filling up that gap for me.

 

And in the tail section I want it to thin down where the hook goes through the lure for easier hooksets- less rubber for hook to slide through. So the following lure is edited in areas I look for size and shape. Brand is irrelevant but on this particular brand I get to talk to the man who makes it and I kidded him once and told him I can cut your lures in half lengthwise and catch twice as many fish because of how much rubber he uses. Too much for me. I had hoped he would create a thinner version but he never has so I go elsewhere to find the shape and size I prefer.

 

A lure of this size and shape is more suited for how A-Jay fishes them above because his hooks are exposed and no rubber to push through for a hookset and no rubber to get in way either, and I just do not fish them that way at all. So this one is rejected and I move on to thinner lures with about half this amount of rubber.

 

 

Good timing.  LMB in my lake moved into the grass this week.  Belly weighted hook with paddle tail is getting choked. This yesterday afternoon on Rage Swimmer

Nice fish! And using paddletails about the same as I would.

 

Bazoo, on way to lunch I stopped off at a local bait and tackle store to look in clearance bins for rubber lures and found some of the shapes I avoid.

 

Both of these lures are shaped vertically extremely thick to me. These would work great how A-Jay fishes them above with exposed hook, but for what I do here in Florida if I had these to use both would be hooked sideways where they are thinnest. Sideways is half the rubber for hook to try and penetrate- I think and believe increases my hookset chances dramatically.

 

***The discoloration on one lure is the lubricant this brand uses is turning into a gel and yellowing. It wipes right off, but even at $1.00 per pack I was not buying these.

 

 

Recently I was fishing in a crystal clear spring fed river with a pretty strong current. So I used the current to my advantage with this next setup using a slip sinker about the same way I do in saltwater inlets.

 

Since the river bottoms are swept clean back to pure sandy bottom, I can let this lure hit bottom in front of lily pads or other cover and let the current push the lure along without really moving the weight.

 

I like to believe I can get better lure action this way by disconnecting the weight from the lure freeing it up for more lively action and twitching.

 

I have to confess I got this from Shaw Grigsby a local fisherman who lives not far away. Decades ago he did a video on clear spring water here in Florida and his choice lure was tubes. Since I never use tubes I kind of modified what he was doing with the paddletail swimbaits.

 

 

Shaw Grigsby - Sight Fishing For Clearwater Bass (1991)

https://youtu.be/HLO-8gJJ80Y