Soft or hard?  What are you looking for in a bait?

One that works!

Seriouly....

In a soft swimbait today they are all mainly the same, one thing I found with the Money minnow is the slit in the belly seems to make rigging the bait easier, the hook ups more solid, and the baits seem to last longer.

In hard swimbaits I fish the East coast so I use mainly shallow running baits to cover a lot of water in and around cover like milfoil and hydrilla.  These 4 to 8 inch baits need to be durable due to the toothy critters that live in the same waters.  Personally I look for baits that I can control the depth like the King Shads run from a surface wake bait to about 3 to 6 feet down and can be cranked fast without them rolling over.  Sebiles you can fish deeper as they sink and they also can be cranked very fast without any problems.  One that is producing well for me is the big jointed Rapala.  It is a heavy lure with a great profile.  Big fish hammer it and the finish is holding up well even with the toothy critters chewing on them.

So to answer your question I am looking for swimbaits that are durable, have a good finish, track well on any retrieve, and baits I can control the depth I want to work with them.

What i will be looking for in a bait is quality and the finish of the paint.  You don't want to pay 20.00 for a bait and have it break after the first fishing trip.  Some good ones are Sebiles and Spro BBZ-1 Shad.  Some soft ones would be The money minnows and the BAss Magic.

Hard baits-Smaller Spro BBZ-1, Tru Tungsten, and King Shad all right at about $20.00.

Soft baits- Take your pick. I like the Bass Magic and Shadalicious.

I have had good luck with both Mattlures Baby Bass and Shad.

8-)

Yeah, the Mattlures MattShad burned 'em up this fall when the fish were chasing bait....used up several packs in November. I only caught 4 fish on my MattLures Baby Bass swim, the 4th fish being a huge striper that hit it right at the boat when I only had about 8 ft of line out. I guess he's still got it... 'cause I dont.  

Me personally, I LOVE the Lake Fork Tackle Magic Shad.  Its a soft plastic swimbait that can be deadly when reeled slowly over the top of hydrilla or other grasses.  Its only like 6 bucks per pack and each pack comes with four plastics!! ;D

In a soft swimbait today they are all mainly the same, one thing I found with the Money minnow is the slit in the belly seems to make rigging the bait easier, the hook ups more solid, and the baits seem to last longer.

The paddle tails are "mainly" the same.  However, you can get Mattlures soft baits for less than $20 and they are not like paddle tails at all.  

The Mission Fish is also different than other paddletails.