A Look at Lures Jackall: Giron is a jointed panfish-shaped swimbait with lifelike color and detail. Lucky Craft: Four different models of jointed Real California swimbaits mark Lucky Craft’s entry into the premium swimbait market. The 4-inch 110 model and 77⁄8-inch 200 are richly colored with detailed scale finishes to trigger bites in clear water or convert followers to biters. An internal weighting system keeps the lure horizontal and natural-looking on the retrieve or pause. Both will be available in the new fish-skin finish. River2Sea: This company burst onto the scene with an array of innovative lures including the Bottom Walker, a weighted soft swimbait available with or without a hook guard; a triple-jointed wooden swimbait, the Wood’n Slither; and wooden-lipped jointed baits with soft tails, the Wood’n Minnow and Wood’n Sunfish. The latest addition is Kong, a well-named 9-inch triple-jointed hardbait with a soft tail, available in floating and sinking editions. Construction is with stainless steel wire for durability. Tru-Tungsten: Designed by Tim Gregory with input from pros Ish Monroe and Matt Newman, the Tru-Life Swimbait is a 4-piece jointed lure available in 2 body shapes, an 8-inch trout and a 7-incher colored like a bluegill or tilapia. It comes with 4 tungsten balls that can be inserted in the body cavity to increase running depth. Won Best of Show in the hardbait category at the ICAST Show. Sebile: Four sizes of Magic Swimmer, a double-jointed swimbait with natural unulating action, highlight these innovative lures designed by Patrick Sebile. Black Dog Bait Company: Just two years old, Black Dog introduces the pudgy jointed Shellcracker, colored like a sunfish, and two sizes of Lunker Punker, a trout-style hardbait adorned with a feathered tail treble. A BD Glider is the latest, a sinking 71⁄2-inch swimbait. SPRO: Bill Siemantel’s BBZ-1 is a jointed 3-piece hard-plastic swimbait with a soft tail for lifelike action and vibration. Floating, slow-sinking, and fast-sinking models of this realistic 8-inch bait are available in three colors.

California pro Ish Monroe recently worked with Daiwa to design a pair of swimbait rods. “For big swimbaits like the 8-inch Huddleston Deluxe or 9-inch Big Hot Momma from California Swimbabes, choose a rod like Daiwa’s TL8016FB in their Light and Tough Series,” he says. “It has the power to cast and set hooks with those 4-ounce lures. I match it with Daiwa’s Luna reel, with a 5:1 gear ratio, and 20-pound-test Maxima monofilament. A medium retrieve reel helps to keep you from overwinding a swimbait.

“The rod is so stiff, I like to have some stretch in the line, which provides a bit of hesitation after a bass eats the bait. Delaying a bit makes for a surer hook-set. I use smaller baits like the Baby “E” in water less than 8 feet deep, fishing it on Daiwa’s TL8015FB, also 8 feet long, but rated heavy instead of extra heavy. For swimbaits under an ounce, I use the Light and Tough Froggin’ rod, which is 7 feet 4 inches long, and drop to 15-pound-test mono. You’re fishing swimbaits in fairly open water, so you don’t need super-heavy line.”

Fenwick has introduced a series of specialty bass rods, the Elite Tech Series, which includes a Swimbait model 7 feet 9 inches long, rated heavy power and fast action, to handle line from 15- to 30-pound test. Shimano expanded their Crucial rod series to include three swimbait actions, each 7 feet 11 inches long. One is rated for 3- to 5-inch baits; another for 5- to 8-inchers; and the heaviest for 8- to 16-inch baits.

Kistler Rods added a Big Swim Bait Special in their Graphite Plus Freshwater Series, 8 feet long and rated for lures 1 to 5 ounces in weight. Four extra-heavy action models in their Helium LTA Series also have been popular for swimbait fishing, ranging from 7 feet to 7 feet 11 inches.

While swimbaits have gained a reputation for catching outsize largemouth bass, they’re an overlooked option for lunker smallmouths and spotted bass as well. The smaller-mouthed species often can’t resist big baits, even 8-inch models. In April 2006, Mark Meddock won an FLW Stren tournament at California’s Lake Shasta by casting 8-inch Huddleston Deluxe baits for spotted bass. He modified the lure with a stinger hook toward the tail, and tallied spots from 4 to 61⁄2 pounds.

Jay Yelas has been using 6-inch Basstrix Fat Minnows to tempt outsized smallies and spotted bass from both shallow and deep locations in southeastern reservoirs. Here in Minnesota, Editor In Chief Doug Stange has had great outings on Mille Lacs Lake, casting Berkley Saltwater 5-inch PowerBait Swim Shad baits for smallmouth bass as well as walleyes and pike. These baits also work well for largemouths. He couples the shad bodies with Owner Saltwater Bullet heads weighing 1/2 and 3/4 ounce.

In some areas, there’s still reluctance to using big swimbaits. That’s due in part to the strong surge in finesse fishing, which seems at first glance to be diametrically opposed to heaving huge baits. What happens below the surface, however, is that bass tend to respond in kind to presentation styles. Place a bitty bait in their face and they may eventually nip at it. But make them think they’re about to overtake a big meal, and you’d better get ready to set the hook and hang on.