Jumping Into Large Swimbaits Without Breaking the Bank

My first experience throwing large swimbaits was years ago, not fishing for bass but monster pike in a world-renowned trout stream. A few months before a family trip to the Bighorn River in Fort Smith, Mont., my little brother had gifted me a 10-inch glide bait for Christmas. When we arrived at the river for a week of fly fishing, we learned from the local guides that some pike were kicking around a particular stretch, and the guides wanted them out of the river.

Over that week, those few pike became my mission. On the final evening, we pulled the boat over in an area described as the pike hangout. I chucked that glidebait out on completely undergunned equipment and slowly worked it back. Surprisingly, I watched a massive gator-mouthed pike follow it right back to my feet. She didn’t eat on that cast, but I glued myself to that bank.

About 20 minutes later, she followed again. I killed the bait, and to my surprise, she wolfed it down as it glided and fluttered to the left. After a short fight, we had her on the bank and took a top predator out of a phenomenal trout stream.

The Fish That Hooked Me

That fish and that eat got me addicted to large swimbaits. I began using them to chase all kinds of fish — musky, pike, and bass. I found that swim baiting had a cult-like following in the bass realm and dove right down that rabbit hole.

Unfortunately for my bank account, I discovered that those baits are ridiculously expensive — it’s not uncommon to spend $400 on a custom glide bait; to do it right, you also need specialized rods and reels.

I recently sat down with Chris Odom, owner of Harpeth River Outfitters in Pegram, Tenn., to discuss swimbaits. His shop has some of the best inventory of any mom-and-pop store I’ve ever seen. So, I figured he would be the best person to discuss more budget-friendly swimbaits that people can throw on their current equipment that won’t break the bank. You can experiment with these smaller options to drum up a memorable fish and see if swim baiting is for you.

Where to Start: Large Swimbaits

G-Ratt Pistol Pete

The first lure that Chris pointed me to was the G-Ratt Pistol Pete. The G-Ratt is a scaled-down glidebait and will allow you to experiment with gliding baits without investing heavily in specialized gear due to its smaller size.

The bait is only 5.75 inches and weighs in at 1.2 ounces. You can choose between 16 different colors that will allow you to match the forage base in your local waters. One of my favorite aspects of this bait is the replacement tails, which you can order separately.

Chris said one of his favorite things to do is to swap out the stock tail with a chartreuse tail to give natural shad-colored baits a little pop that tends to draw in bigger fish, especially in stained water.

The Pistol Pete retails for $22, and the tails are $6, which is very reasonable for a glidebait compared to other options on the market. To fish the bait effectively, reel a half a turn and pause, reel half a turn and pause, etc.

This retrieve will give you the classic gliding action that fish find irresistible. If you find success throwing the smaller glide, you can upsize to G-Ratt’s Sneaky Pete and Poppa Pete, which cost a little more but are still reasonably priced.

Spro Sashimmy Swimmer

The Sashimmy Swimmer is much lighter than other small swimbait options, with the 105 weighing in at ½ ounce, and the 125 weighing in at 3/4 ounce and with a retail price of $17. It has four separate sections that give it a much more “snakey” action than a glide bait. It’s ideal for throwing on your favorite crankbait or jerkbait rod.

The advantage of this bait is that it will allow you to target large fish and numbers of fish. The Sashimmy shines in lakes with long, thin baitfish like shad, perch, and herring. This bait is slow sinking. Spro doesn’t advertise the exact sink rate, but I can tell you it’s slow. This bait is not for fast fishing unless the fish are in skinny water. You need to let it sink.

Even though it sinks excruciatingly slowly, I’ve seen some amazing bites from the Sashimmy. I like throwing it on structure on 45-degree banks that drop into deep water.

Once the bait pulls away from the structure, I begin a countdown and let it hit depths of roughly 10 feet. Then, I start a slow, steady retrieve. Often, you’ll see a fish follow the bait, at which point I burn it, giving a rapid baitfish fleeing motion that triggers a kill response in the fish. They’re some of the most incredible sight fishing eats you’ll see.

Spro Shad Swimbait 4″

This is my absolute favorite swimbait to throw when I’m on a body of water with sunfish, bluegill, and other large-bodied forage species. The Shad Swimbait is available in three sink rates: floating, slow sinking (3 inches per second), and fast sinking (1 foot per second), and they all retail for $25.

I tend to fish fast, so I prefer the fast-sinking model. It allows me to cover water in multiple depths quickly and eliminates time spent sitting and waiting for the bait to sink. I’ve found the Sashimmy shines in the springtime when bluegill and sunfish move into the shallows to spawn.

The Shad Swimbait sports a single stout treble hook. I’ve found this eliminates catching smaller fish — a fish has to commit to this bait to get the hook in its mouth, and smaller fish tend not to be able to get the entire bait in their mouth.

Generally, when you miss fish, it’s not necessarily anything you did wrong; it’s just smaller fish attacking the bait. As I said, the hook is stout, so hammer hard on hook sets to ensure good hook penetration.

Little Creeper Baby Trashfish Swimbaits

After reviewing hard baits with Chris in his shop, I asked him about soft swimbaits. Without skipping a beat, he pulled out the Little Creeper Baby Trashfish. These ultra-realistic soft swimbaits imitate suckers, squawfish, and other small forage fish.

Chris explained that the magic behind these swimbaits is how soft and malleable the rubber is. This allows the trash fish to have subtle, life-like action even when slow-rolled and jigged on the bottom.

One of my favorite features is how the baits are packaged. They come in a two-pack, with the tails held in a small plastic clip that protects them. This ensures that the tails don’t get damaged or kinked and guarantees that the baits will fish properly right out of the package.

Chris recommended rigging these on a weighted swimbait hook like the Gamakatsu Weighted Monster EWG hook. The baits are 4 inches long, so a 4/0 hook works perfectly. The most success I’ve had with this bait is throwing it tight to cover, working it slowly on the bottom, and allowing the suppleness of the bait to do all of the work for me. You can get the baits for $16 and the hooks for $7

Gear for Throwing These Swimbaits

You likely already have equipment that you can use to throw these baits. Chris recommends throwing these lures on either a medium-heavy or heavy rod, so your jig rod or topwater rod could work just fine. He recommends reels with a 6.4:1 gear ratio or faster spooled with 12-15-pound fluorocarbon.

Swimbaiting for giant bass can be highly addicting, and it doesn’t have to cost you an arm and a leg to try it. These swimbaits are relatively economical and don’t require going out to purchase new rods and reels. Head out to your local fishery, give them a whirl, and you can decide if jumping into larger baits and specialized gear is for you.

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