Swim Baits

[crappieseeker]

Do any of you use swim baits? Here is my new addition to the soft plastics I make. It is a 2 inch swim bait.

[GCD]

I'm sure those will troll very nicely with that wiggley paddle tail, and I guarantee that blue and white one will get bitten on a cloudy day!

Excellent plastics as always CS!

[1perchjerker]

crappieseeker ,
look good !
Down here the colors are blue head and clear tail with silver glitter or white tail with silver glitter.
1perchjerker

[steelslinger86]

Two of my favorites are the bobby garland strollr, and the charlie brewer slider, which are similar to yours, so I would bet they will be successful. My favorite color is black and chartreuse. Good job.

[Fatman]

Nice bait!!!! Once some bills get caught up I'm hoping to get some new plastics.

Fatman

[crappieseeker]

GCD, that blue and white is a great color. I usually do well on that color when it is in the real cold part of the winter. I am going to pour up some nice colors when it cools down a little bit.

Thanks 1perch, I have poured up some of that color for somebody on here before but I cannot remember who, so it must be a good color.

steelslinger86, I love those baits as well and I also like the bobby garland baby shad.

Fatman, just let me know when you want to buy some plastics. I might can hook you up.

[GRIZZ]

These look like excellent baits. I'd like to see it in solid colors and some natural colors or smoke/glitter or clear/glitter and chart/glitter.

I do have one observation though. I have been a fan/follower/user of swimbaits for a couple years now and one thing I have decided is that people are calling lures "swimbaits" to jump on the swimbait bandwagon that are not really swimbaits. In my testing of many swimbaits one characteristic defines a true swimbait, and that is a whole body swimming/bending motion that sets them apart from paddletails or swimming hardbaits. Hard or soft baits that actually swim, meaning that when the bait is in motion the whole body swims like a fish in an undulating realistic pattern of both the body and tail that differentiates them from the paddletails like sliders.

There are a ton of paddletail type swimbaits out there that are just junk. Not only don't you get the body motion, they are so stiff you don't even get tail motion unless your rippin it through the water so fast only the most aggressive fish would ever strike it. Almost all of the hollow bodies swimbait/paddletails are like this. A good example of what was once a great swimbait is the Northand mimic minnow. The original had a thicker tail body and no fins and it really swam when you retrieved it. They remolded it and now it has fins and a thinner tail and is simply a paddle tail.

No one has really got the formula right in crappie sized baits yet, and I put this out there as a challenge to you bait makers out there. Build a bait similar to this one above that is a morph of the 2 baits in the picture. A more natural fish shaped body with a slightly thicker tail body than the above baits that when it swims it makes the body wobble in a 2 inch "swimbait". I think the first person to really get this type of bait "swimming" properly and not just paddling in the 2 inch size is going to have a cash cow lure on their hands. I'd sure buy a ton of them.

All that being said I still really like your new lure and I'd like to try some. Nice work!

[ReelfootYankee]

Yes, your are spot on just my oppoin! prop. baits and Hy-brid blade's for a diff. actoin!
I fish a bait that we been useing and keeping low,pro. cuase i would love to put a pat. on it!
Two of my friend's no but iffen i had the $$ i would set it a sail!
I dont no how many times i started to post on this idea and just never finished.
Reason being i catch 2/3rd's of my panfish off of it!
And iffen i've ever made major buck's off of it so would my fishing budd's!!

[crappieseeker]

GRIZZ, so many people have different interpretations of swimbaits. There is no true definition of swimbait according to In-fisherman. Here is what they said in an aticle.

"While no industry definition for “swimbait” exists, we suggest that the category includes baits that not only produce a wiggling tail action, but also move somewhat in the manner of a crankbait, a complicated 6-part motion that provides much of their appeal. While some have bills, others gain action from the shape of the plastic, in combination with the weight of a jighead.

Like you said, most paddletails do not give you full body action, but are still considered by many to be a type of swimbait. This bait here is made of soft plastic. I have not even tried one out yet but I am sure the tail will have action. I really understand what you mean about baits with no action. The tail action is what generally gets the fish's attention in my opinion. So if the tail atleast has action, it should be ok.

The thing about us bait makers is this, we can only make what the mold makers produce. I have ideas for several baits that I think would be awesome. However, it cost lots of money to have custom bait molds made. I cannot afford the upfront money to have anything like that made. Trial and error of getting it right would cost a small fortune. I am sure the big time bait makers could do this, but us peons cannot. the mold makers say that the tooling and time it requires to try and make those small molds is not worth the effort. I am like you though, if they ever get the right one made it would be a hit for sure.

Send me your address in a PM and when I get a chance to pour up more I will send you one to try out ok. Thanks for your observation.

[GRIZZ]

Thanks for the info Seeker. Those InFisherman guys should know. They have been pushing plastic swimbaits for as long as anyone. I wasn't sure that you jig pourers knew something I didn't about making molds. I figured you were making them yourselves somehow.

PM sent. Thanks!