Do you hook up your swim bait before you go out on the water or you hook up your swim bait after you’re already on the boat? I notice that A-jay pre hook his swim baits and just never thought of doing that. Anyway, thank you for your input. Have a blessed day.

I guess the first question that pops in my head is what kind of swimbaits are you talking about?

Hard? Soft?

I don't think I could ever be all one way or the other. Wait, that did not sound right.

I vote wing it. Rig on the water. If you rig ahead of time then maybe you have too much time on your hands, and not enough time on the water!

Some bass fishermen are drill sgt. efficient and organized and ready to fish as soon as they hit the water.

And then there are us junk fishermen who call getting ready is having some combos thrown together- usually 2 or 3 and no more. 4 would be unusual. Rushing to get the boat in the water. And then once on the water all the burdens melt away and I can relax and take a few minutes for some serious bass fishing information crunching from the apps which results in oh well & leaning over and grabbing an old lure off the bottom of the boat from the last fishing outing and start swinging away.

Here in Florida we can get away with it! 😉

No, honestly, it goes both ways. Sometimes I am well prepared in advance and hit the water running all rigged up and ready to go and other times its grab what you can and wing it by the seat of your pants.

I've showed up with rods, reels, and boat on lake and then realized I left the tackle box at home. Talk about winging it and scrounging around in the bottom of the boat. Junk fishing at its finest! Florida style figuring on a good day they will hit about anything that moves. (I am hoping) Even old tore up lures from the last time. I think this way is maybe more fun than all those electronics screens getting in the way.

Being retired does not mean improved organization. I think if anything it makes me lazier and more of a junk fisherman for the increased fun of it.

Soft

Greetings All,
Happy Friday!
@Justbass11 The ole legal general answer applies, "it depends".

My personal situation with angling adventures typically requires at least an hour or more travel time. Thus, fishing time is limited. Catching time is precious!

The AZ weather conditions can be an influence with all that too. High winds, harsh sun, etc.

Diligent precision rigging can be accomplished in more comfortable locations and conditions. So, I do a bit of prep work so that I can make the most of time at the water. It is just the little things that make it better for me. I can simply get to casting and catching.

You mentioned swimbaits, it does also apply to other soft plastics too. Depending on what you aspire for the proper action, precision rigging can be critical to that success. Swimbaits may not track well if you're hook is rigged too far off the centerline and or may tear easier too. Being comfortable in good lighting all helps to promote that level of success.

I put good quality knot tying in that similar category of diligent operations. If done it well, it is a benefit. Sure, I can tie a good knot in 20+ mph winds, that 4 pound mono is going to make ya work for it.

I prefer not to work too hard when recreating.

Be well, Cheers!

On 4/30/2026 at 4:03 PM, Justbass11 said:

Do you hook up your swim bait before you go out on the water

Yes. I'm often fishing at night, and I always have a plan. I don't want to turn on a headlamp while I'm in the water and spook any fish in the zone. Gotta try to be stealthy. Even footfalls can alert them and they're gone.

For me, It depends on the way I plan to rig the bait. If I'll be using a weighted swimbait hook, I use ones with centering-pin twist locks, I'll do it beforehand. For jigheads, I generally rig them on the water. I can tie on a jig and rig a soft plastic one in less than a minute, so I don't feel I'm loosing time. For some reason, I have a mental block when twisting one on a keeper. I'm OCD about it being perfectly straight, so I take my time and check it more than once, plus I use a jighead the majority of the time.

I always do it beforehand on the beach.

Otherwise it feels like adding treble hooks to every crankbait I fish right before I fish it.

Almost exclusively a jighead deal for me.

It must be rigged perfectly straight or it runs wonky.

Having several baits of various weights and a couple of different colors

Save time & frustration on the water, as I can take my time and get it right the first time (mostly).

I get bait tails bit off by pike quite regularly, so being able to simply cut off the old and tie on the new works better for me than having to stop and rig one from scratch.

Finally, I'll often use Loc-Tite for a final step to secure the plastic.

Pre-rigging offers the glue plenty of time to set.

A-Jay

I pre rig everything I bring doesn’t matter what it is and certainly not based on a particular bait.

I have somewhat of an idea once I decide where I’m going at least to begin with and plan accordingly

Mike

Pre rigging with glue often - but you gotta be able to rig on the water too - I’d say go with the flow and do what feels right.

I don’t pre-rig baits but I do pre-rig my combos. I usually leave at dark- thirty in the morning, I got a pretty good ideas where I going to have my coffee and egg biscuit, and where & what I’m going to start fishing with.

I pre-rig em and glue them to the jig head.

I've had to rig them up on my kayak, gluing them there some times gets interesting.