If you want to find fish fast, it’s tough to beat a swimbait, no matter what species of fish you’re targeting. They work in almost any situation and the rigging options are endless. We use them for walleyes, smallmouth bass, pike, and they become massively important tools for catching big largemouth on the professional tournament bass fishing scene
Swimbaits are a fabulous tool for doing one thing: covering a lot of water to find fish fast.
James Lindner is a big fan of swimbait fishing and here’s some of his insights from the video above:
“One of the real keys to catching fish is finding them. Jeremy Smith and I have never been on this body of water, and you need a higher speed presentation to initially find fish. Then you fine tune once you’ve isolated where the fish live. We could probably catch more fish by slowing down and throwing a Neko rig or stick worms in these exact same areas, but right now these swimbaits are so efficient. Crank the trolling motor dial up and move quickly, making casts roughly 25 feet apart and cover a tremendous amount of water. It allows you to find fish fast and that’s the real key.
“Right now, we’re fishing relatively clean sand flats, but there are small patches of isolated weeds that are holding fish. Jeremy and I are just casting to those dark patches, and in-between we’re slow rolling the bait on the bottom.”
Swimbaits are one of the best tools for combing expansive flats. They work great over sand and rocks, but they can be utilized in sparse and thick weeds, too, when rigged properly.
It’s hard to fish a swimbait wrong, but what seems to work early in the season is slower speeds. Cast it out, let it hit the bottom, and reel it in relatively slowly. Vary your retrieve, stopping and accelerating the bait. Often times, the change of pace will trigger the strikes.
Next time you’re on the water and you need to find fish fast, don’t hesitate to tie on a swimbait. Make sure you pair it with a jig or hook that perfectly matches the size of the plastic and the depth of water you’re fishing.
