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Chalk Talk: Reese on swimbait success

Chalk Talk: Reese on swimbait success

(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)

California pro Skeet Reese is a noted swimbait virtuoso, one of the few anglers to win multiple tour-level events with that category of lure. He won at Virginia's Smith Mountain Lake with a Rago SKT line-thru, and at Guntersville with a monstrous Basstrix. The particular swimbait you throw may be situational, but he believes that "there is a niche for it everywhere," and once you get going, "swimbait fishing is like a drug."

He insists that there's no bad time or place to throw some form of swimbait, so long as there's at least one foot of visibility. You have to be smart about picking not only the correct swimbait for the body of water, but also for the style of body and tail that you use. Even among soft swimbaits, there are substantial differences among their best situations. "Every micro little detail makes a difference in either getting a bite or landing a fish," he said. For example, a true boot-tail is better for slow presentations than a paddletail or the detailed rear end of his favorite Berkley Sick Fish.

The 4- to 6-inch models are his tournament workhorses, while the 7-inch and larger models only get pulled out in specialized circumstances. In recent years he's found many uses for the 3-inch Sick Fish, too, especially when bass are feeding on tiny shad. He calls that bait a "little Scooby Snack" or "a fish-catching machine" and dropshots it on a Trokar TK150 or else uses a wacky jighead for suspended fish. He throws it on his signature dropshot rod with a main line of 10- to 12-pound Nanofil connected to a leader of 6- or 8-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon.

With "tournament-sized" swimbaits, one key decision is whether to fish it on a jighead or a belly-weighted hook. Whether he uses a Trokar TK170 hook or a Trokar swimbait head depends first of all on the style of bait he wants to use, and secondly on the amount of cover.

"I fish hollow bodies more in shallow water than any other body," he said. "You can fish them weedless, while the solid body baits fish better on a jighead." With a 4-inch Sick Fish on a jighead, he'll use a 7-foot medium action spinnerbait rod and a 6.3:1 reel spooled up with 12- or 15-pound fluorocarbon, or occasionally as high as 20-pound. The rod and te line provide more shock absorbency than braid, which Reese needs because he said that he tends to come out of his shoes on his brutal hooksets. If you use a heavy head with a thick-gauge 5/0 hook, on the other hand, you'll need a stiffer rod and heavier line (usually 20-pound fluorocarbon, or braid if there's heavy vegetation) to make sure that the hook penetrates when you lean back on the bass.

When choosing a jighead, he wants a hook with sufficient gap for the amount of soft plastic, and he also employs various weights to make sure the bait stays where he wants it in the water column. For example, a 1-ounce jighead might seem massive, but on a 7- or 8-inch Basstrix, it doesn't necessarily fish as deep as you might expect because the lure's bulk provides so much buoyancy.

If you want to learn some of the other keys to Reese's swimbaiting system, including his tackle choices and why he's so fond of a small willow-leaf blade dangling from his swimbait hooks, check out his full video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.

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