My Hollow Bodied Swim Bait Tweaks

These little baits have become all the rave, and for good reason. Awesome little baits that are versatile and actually catch a ton of fish. Im not got ramble about brands and colors and all that cause I believe as long as they have action they are all good baits and they all have a purpose. Here are a few things to try when fishing these little guys that might get a couple more bites. 

1. Fishing these weedless is the obvious and most common. But what about in open water? Rigged with a treble hook is a must. There is not a ton of ways to rig the treble but it will improve hook ups. 

2. Don't alway swim these baits. I have drop shoted and jigged these baits as much as I swim them. Jigging these baits with a fish shaped lead head is lethal on my home lake. Try it where you are.  

3. Use red hooks. Mix it up now and then, when you know the fish are there but not biting use a red hook. That one little tweak could blow the bite wide open. 

4. Belly Spinners! Belly Spinners! Belly Spinner! 

This is a good time near the rocks. You can also swap they blade out on some brands and use a smaller colorado blade. With a colorado blade you can now fish these baits in semi muddy water. 

5. I always use some type of scent, always! The brand doesn't matter much as long as the smell matches the forage of the bait. 

Hope my little tweaks will help in your swim bait success. 

Spro BBZ-1 4" Shad

So I picked up a couple of these little guys after watching some videos on youtube. Took it out to Folsom Lake yesterday. This thing looks good in the water. It has the perfect swimming motion to it and a good size to boot. Only fished It for about 20 or 25 casts but in that little time I had one little bump and spooked another fish when it hit the water once. Though I didn't catch anything, it was a promising outing for the lure. I cant wait to take this little guy to the delta. I would have thrown it more but I had other things to try.

They have about 5 or 6 colors now and three rates of fall. They have the floater witch I would guess floats and weighs 3/4 ounce. They have a slow sink witch has a ROF of 3 inches per second and weighs 7/8 once. The one I was throwing was the fast sink which is 1 foot per second and weighs 1 once.

Don't be afraid to pick this swim bait up. It has a price of about $18-$21.

Rigging The Huudleston

So let me start off by saying that there is no right or wrong way to rig your hud. Here's a few things that I do to my ROF12 that seems to improve my hookup ratio. notice I say hook up ratio, I have yet to really find a way to get the fish to bite the bait a bunch more, but when they do it seems that I hardly ever miss them. Take the tips you might like and use them, and just disregard the rest.

Most people like the Huddleston ROF12. In most cases these baits are gonna be swimming pretty close to the bottom in most lakes. Therefore I don't care to have hooks on the bottom of the bait. It doesn't make sense to put hooks where they can get snagged more often.

1. I cut off the stock hook.
(If your want to leave the stock hook I would recommend sharpening it.

2. Then I use 60lbs braid and tie a double clinch knot.
Also glue the knot with sum kind of strong glue.









3. Then I tie a size 4 Gamagatsu treble hook so that when the knot is clinched, it sits right next to the dorsal fin on the bait.


4. Now just rub on your favorite scent, give it any last minute touches and start chuckin that puppy.


The only other recommendation I can give if this doesn't work, repeat the steps twice so that you have two hooks on two separate leaders. Then put one hook on the each side of the bait. This will help when the fish are attacking from the side.

My Favorite Swim Baits

1. By far my favorite swim bait would have to be the River 2 Sea bottom walker. It comes in five sizes and 12 colors. I use the 4'' silver side mostly. This is a small profile bait that swims right along the bottom and in my opinion is the most versatile. Another good thing is that this bait is only about 10 bucks for a 3 pack.



2. My second favorite swim bait is the ever popular Huddleston. This has the perfect size for my local trout. Its 8 inch profile makes for a good meal for a spot of large mouth. These are a little more pricey making me weary of fishing them near cover. These run about 25 dollars now. What I like about these is that there are many way to tweak and tune them to your fishing style. One thing I always do with these baits is cut the gill with a razor blade and color it red. Then you stick a little piece of a toothpick i there to make it stay open. To me this looks more realistic to fish that may be trailing the bait.


3. Finally the last swim bait I use is the basstrix. This little bait can be fished in the thick cover. I love fishing this little guy in the Delta because of the numerous amounts of tulles and thick vegetation. They come in 5 and 6 inches, and about 15 colors. I have also had great success using these baits in shallow flats. I have had more hit on this bait than any other swim bait in my arsenal.