(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.)
Most lures and even categories of lures are situationally specific. They might represent a particular type of forage, work in a certain depth range, or be best in one type of cover. Small swimbaits break that mold. They can be worked at any depth, in just about any type of cover, and throughout 10 or 11 months of the year.
That’s why Ott DeFoe never leaves home without them. He’s used small swimbaits from the East Coast to California, from far northern Michigan and Minnesota all the way down to Florida. One of his most notable career achievements, an Elite Series win, came on a swimbait, albeit not a small one, but the point is the same – they represent a struggling baitfish and they’re a meal that most bass can’t pass up.
He defines “small” swimbaits as those under 4 inches, and calls them “a fish-catching technique.” Most importantly, they’re a fabulous tournament tool: “They work for big fish and they work for numbers.” A big key to their success comes from rigging. They can be put on a jighead, on a weedless hook, or with a line-thru treble.
For jigheads, he uses aspirin-head versions for finesse techniques, starting at 1/8-ounce. He’ll move up to VMC’s Boxer head, which has a beefier hook, when he wants to use baitcasting tackle. He also has a selection of underspins, which are exceptional in the Carolinas and Georgia, but don’t seem to work quite as well on his home lakes in Tennessee. Nevertheless, he calls them “a deadly, deadly tool, especially in wintertime.”
He’s mastered a system that preserves baits and maximizes hook ups with the line-thru treble. He’ll knock the nail out of a regular rivet from Lowe’s or Home Depot and run the hollow, flanged sleeve out the bottom of his lure. Then he threads his line through that and attaches a split ring with a treble on it. The split ring adds a little bit of give that further benefits the lure. “You can catch a whole bunch on one bait before it tears up,” he explained. This is a rig that he uses in open, shallow, clear water, but he prefers to use the jighead when possible. Why? Because fish grab the treble-hooked bait from behind and 30 to 40 percent of his catches end up bleeding. A little Mountain Dew or Seven Up usually stanches it, but he won’t take the risk unless strictly necessary.
One other rigging technique that he sometimes employs is a VMC Rugby Head or Swinging Rugby Head, which he uses to drag his swimbaits on the bottom.
Some of his favorite small swimbaits are the Bass Pro Shops Speed Shad (3” and 3.8”) and Sassy Sally (3.5”), but no matter which ones you use, if they come in a clam pack he urges you to keep them in there, despite the hassle of storing them that way. It maintains the integrity of the bait.
For retrieve speeds, he said that “slow and steady wins the race,” although there are some times when burning your lure pays off. Depth control is also critical, as most of the time these lures work best at or above the fish’s eye level. “They ain’t gonna see your cricket if you go under their heads,” he said.
If you want to learn some of the other keys to why DeFoe never goes anywhere without a small swimbait rigged up, as well as why he keeps his color selections simple, check out his full video, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
