a while back, i actually had the good fortune of having a mattlures ultimate bluegill given to me by a friend when i told him i was gonna start trying to learn swimbaits.  the bait was used and needed some work, so i pretty much put it aside to work on another day.  it was by no means in bad shape, but it had some tears, was missing an eye, and needed a touch up on paint.  

fast forward to trey catching his 2 hawgs a few posts ago.  i decided then that maybe it was time to pull this bait out and see what i could do.  i went to work with some colored sharpies, spike it dye, super glue, and a razor blade to repair and rejuvenate the bait a little.  after my admittedly amateurish nip and tuck job, this bait was ready to rock and roll.  

took the bait out today with a front quickly moving in.  right after i got to the lake, i noticed a pack of 2-3 pound fish cruising down the bank and headed my way.  make a cast and the nicest fish in the bunch shoots out and hammers the bait after only a few cranks of the handle.

i was happy to say the least, but my joy was short-lived when i saw the tail fly off the bait when the bass came up and shook his head.  

after getting this pic and unhooking the bass, it started to rain and i was disgusted with myself and just went back home.

all this taught me a very important lesson the hard way.  braid and soft swimbaits do not mix.   tearing this bait up was totally my fault.  given the amazing debut of this bait, i can only imagine what might have been.  fantastic bait matt.  totally lives up to it's billing, and then some.  even in a less than mint condition, it still rocked the house.

i post this cause it seems a lot of guys are getting into swimbaits on here now.  hopefully this will keep anyone else from making the same mistake with braided line.  here's the fish and bait (minus the tail).  good luck out there y'all.  

Sorry to hear that, Paul. That is a GREAT looking bait!!!

nice fish but i still dont see why using braid is such a bad idea? :-?

and it was a gift too! Bummer, Bummer ...

                       As Ever,

                        skillet

nice fish but i still dont see why using braid is such a bad idea? :-?

dave, i'm pretty sure it was the braid that cut the tail off the bait.  

Thanks for posting Paul. Yes braid will cut a soft bait like butter. Swimbaits are bigger and heavier and create leverage . If a fish is thrashing about and the bait hits the braid its goint to cut it.  Notice the clean cut on the tail. Same thing if your fishing a large Senko. I hate braid. Some preferr it but I cant stand the way it fishes. To each thier own. But with big softbaits, its a no no. Paul if you retreived the tail you could fix just about anything with Mend it. not superglue.

I no longer like you Paul.  I have been resisting buying this lure, even after seeing all the big fish being caught on it.  I can not resist any longer!  I just placed my order.  The bait monkey strikes again!  Now I just hope I am able to get it before next weekend so I can catch a big one on my trip with some buddies.  That might get them to buy them also

Well that kind of sucks to hear.  Ana I will definitely take that into account when I finally get myself a good swimbait.  Still a nice fish though!

Well, I have been pond jumping lately and am not willing to lose the bluegill! I'm heading up to Kentucky/ Barkley Lakes next weekend, so I'll give it a go fishing out of a boat.

Exactly how do you fish this lure?

8-)

Paul, are you sure it was the braid that sliced the tail off? I'm trying to think how that could happen - if the tail came around to make contact with the line, the hook point would have had to be pointing away from you, which would mean a lost fish, most likely...

kent, other guys on here could probably give better pointers than me about how to fish the bait since i have so little experience with it.  but it  basically seems to be a chunk and wind bait.  let it sink to the depth you wanna fish and start cranking.  throw in a twitch or pause here and there and make sure you have a good grip on the rod. ;D

tony, i'm not really sure how the line cut the bait.  but my guess is that it was on the hookset.  i'm sure when the fish hit the bait, there was just enough slack in the line that some of the line got behind the bait.    when i set it probably clipped the tail right off in the fish's mouth.  when he came up and shook his head the tail just flew out of his mouth probably.  but  like i said that's only a guess.  but i'm pretty sure that it was the line that cut the tail though given the clean nature of the cut.

d**n Paul that sucks bad. I bought the baby bass bait from Mattlures and I have had zero luck out of it  :-[

Maybe I will learn one day.

Nice fish! Thanks for the info on not using braid with soft swimbaits. I fish mostly with braid but will definetly keep at least one rod/reel loaded with mono or floro for this purpose.

Aside from Pauls mishap, do you set the hook smartly with these or do you let the fish run and then sweep it? :-/

Man Paul, sorry about the lure. Nice catch though! Your confidence in swimbaits has to be getting better!

Chris