i have some of the storm swim baits. the big ones, 5 inch i think. i have bluegill and shad. i'm going fishing early in the morning one day this weekend. i was wondering if they might be good for a big bass early in the morning. would it be worth passing up the good daylight topwater bite in hopes of catching a really big bass with a swimbait? or would buzzbaits or spooks be better for big bass early?

i've never really spent any time using them. i can't seem to gather much faith in them.

All of those are big bass baits.

Personally, I would start with the buzzer.

I bought some swim baits before I read an article by a big bass fisherman from California. As I recall, this guy fished big swimbaits exclusively, 5-6 days a week, 6-8 hours a day. Over a period of a year he claimed he averaged 1.5 bass over10 lbs per MONTH! (Approximately 3 bass for every 400 hours of fishing).

Now, I might not have all the numbers right on this post, but you are still going to need some patience to fish those lures. I have been catching some quality largemouth on the Yamamoto Fat Ika, you might want to give that a try.

I have some of those too and once again I haven't used them that much so I really can't say how well they work.  I did buy them to target larger fish (but not huge) and not to use all the time.  Also to use around stumps and when fish were in deeper water, since they are fairly reasonably priced, looseing them won't be a big concern.  I don't think they will work well in weeds, but like I said I haven't really tried yet.  If they don't work they do make smaller ones.  I am a firm believer in if you don't try you'll never know.  I do have a little smaller version of a sunfish and it has a pretty good record catching fish and not just bass.  I have been picking up a few baits like RW is talking about (5"+) really big just to try on certain lakes.  Swimbaits, snakes, ect. I don't expect to catch many but maybe the one or two will be worth  it.

At the Wal-Marts here it looks like they are selling alot of the storm baits so they must be working for some body.

I'd go with either the Spook or buzzbait eary, then switch to the swimbaits later in the morning.

I 've never caught a bass early in the morning with swimbaits, I 've caught them in the middle of the day fishing them deep over structure and retrieving them very slowly, my suggestion to you is, breath deeply and arm yourself with lots of patience, first because they hang up very easily and second ( probably not what you want to hear ) you 'll be casting all day long with them before you get a strike.

They shouldn 't be called swimbaits, they should be called skunkworks. You won 't catch many fish on them but when you do catch one it 's usually a quality fish.

slightly off topic but the storm baits sell very well around here (RI) but they are used for stripers in the bay.  They get so thick that they will hit anything.  The storm sB's last relatively well and are very hassle free.  long casting also.