These are two techniques that are of interest to me and yet I've heard nothing about how smallmouth are reacting/catching on them.  Anyone use these for smallies or will I be wasting my time throwing them?  I'm confident in what I throw now but want to "broaden my horizons" and see what others are saying about these two baits. Thanks guys and let me know.

People use the football jigs a lot for smallies in Idaho; most add a hula grub to the jighead, but you can use a jig skirt and trailer too.

Swim jigs will work around here, but not a lot of people are throwing them.

Football jig (heads) will reduce lost jigs when fishing rocky structure, but they don't prevent it completely! Swimbaits are the other extreme, they rarely (never) get hung-up. I have fished Mattlures' Shad without success, but I think the Baby Bass might be more productive. I have had good success with the swimbait for largemouth and see no reason why big smallmouth wouldn't find it appealing. We'll see, but nothing yet.

8-)

Thanks guys, I appreciate the info. sounds like I'll seriously throw the football jig.  Swim baits sound like it's still up in the air and will try little at a time.

Thanks again.

Swimbaits are the other extreme, they rarely (never) get hung-up.

u must not be chucking them in all the right places then  

Swimbaits are the other extreme, they rarely (never) get hung-up.

u must not be chucking them in all the right places then

If we were talking about other classes of lures, I would agree wholeheartly, but from what I read and specifically from Matt (Mattlures), swimmbaits are most effective where baitfish would not normally be found. I fish the Mattlures Baby Bass over structure in open water. The smaller swimbaits are, for the most part, fished high in the water column. I don't usually get hung-up in these environments with a single hook bait.

8-)

Going over structure and open water is definitely great, but i think if you are limiting swimbaits to just these situations you are missing a lot of potential opportunities.  

I like to run my swimbaits under/over/past a lot of cover as well.  I do agree the single jig hook baits are harder to hang, but I've done it plenty of times  ;D (probably a testament to my skills as an angler as much as the stuff I was fishing)

For the og poster, football heads are a staple here in the NW for smallmouth.

just my .02 of course.

I fish the Tennessee River's "Rocks From Hell."  Football heads help, but that only extends the life of a jig from one minute...to two.

8-)

Agree with RW on this, footballs are hot for brownies and swimbaits should be a winner as well but I haven't tried them.

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