However, my host for that day in 2007 was Paul Hirosky, a Pennsylvania angler who fishes the Bassmaster Elite Tour. I figured he had a trick or two up his sleeve to put us on fish. At our first stop, I was surprised when he picked up a rod with an unusually large lure tied to the line. He fired a long cast over a submerged weed bed.

“Paul, on a day like today, I figured we would be skipping finesse jigs under docks or drop-shotting small worms along the deep weed line. You certainly don’t expect to catch a bass on that lure, do you?”

The answer came unexpectedly as his rod arched deeply in a sweeping hookset. Within 60 seconds, he was lifting a 3-1/2 pound largemouth from the water. Turning to show off the bass, Hirosky noticed my puzzled expression.

“To tell you the truth, I’m a little surprised too,” he said. “You know I just returned from Bassmaster events in California and Texas where this new style of hollow-body swimbait was getting a lot of play for big bass. I caught some nice fish on it out West, but I wasn’t sure how it would work on northern bass. Guess we know the answer now.”

A New Generation Swimbait

Two years later, Hirosky admits the learning process with soft-plastic swimbaits is still ongoing.

“Swimbaits are not new,” Hirosky said. “Innovative, some would say fanatical, anglers on the West Coast have been designing and fishing large, fish-shaped, hard-plastic and rubber-molded lures for a number of years and catching big bass on them from exceptionally clear-water lakes.”

However, those oversized prey imitators – some more than a foot long – have had little impact on bass fishing outside select Western lakes. It wasn’t until the introduction of the Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube that anglers in other sections of the country began taking notice.

“This new generation swimbait design incorporates a hollow body with a hard-kicking paddle tail,” Hirosky said. “Perhaps it is the hollow body that allows the bait to swim so enticingly. These swimbaits can be rigged Texas-style on a large single hook. The snag-resistant rigging has appeal to tournament fishermen as well as average bass anglers in regions of the country where bass are more likely to be found around cover than in open water.”

Ranging from 5 to 8 inches, this style of bait does not require a special rod as needed for heavyweight swimbaits; instead anglers can use their medium-heavy or heavy-action rods successfully. Also, the price per single new bait is considerably less than a traditional pre-rigged swimbait.

Like Hirosky, Elite pros Russ Lane of Alabama and Pete Ponds of Mississippi enjoyed their first real swimbait success at California’s Clear Lake in 2007. Fishing the Basstrix, Lane caught 28 pounds the first day of the tournament. Ponds finished the event 11th overall with catches that include bass over 9 pounds taken on swimbaits during consecutive days.

The Basstrix immediately became a hit on tour; however, the company apparently was unprepared for the demand. To fill the void, other soft-plastic companies began turning out versions of the hot new lure, including the Money Minnow (Yum), Hollow Belly (Berkley) and perhaps as many as a dozen similar baits.

“These new swimbaits have the size, shape and subtle action that attract bass,” Lane said. “No flashy blades, no rattles. There isn’t any exaggerated motion. The paddle tail gives a natural swimming motion to the entire body, just like a real prey fish.”

Ponds jumps in. “At first, fishermen may think this style of bait is too big for bass in their lake. If you look at what anglers are accustomed to throwing – tubes, worms, cranks and so forth – you can understand their point of view,” he said. “But if you look at it from the perspective of the size of prey fish largemouth bass actually eat, then 5, 6 or 7 inches isn’t too large for normal-size bass. I am convinced that a 7-inch swimbait can catch bass all over the country.”

But both anglers caution that hollow-body swimbaits are not miracle lures. You are likely to see a lot more bass following the bait than eating it.

“Big bass seem hypnotized by it,” Lane said. “Many times bass swim right to the boat with their nose inches from the swimbait, only to turn away.”

Ponds agrees this type of swimbait gets a lot of attention from 5-, 6- and 7-pound bass in the South and North, making it an important tool for locating big bass. “Speed up the retrieve or slow it down; I have not figured out a way to make followers bite,” he said. “But when one decides to take it, there is no getting the swimbait away from it.”

Lane and Ponds point to early spring through pre-spawn – a time when big bass are moving toward bedding areas – as the best swimbait bite. Lane said he also enjoys success again in fall with water temperatures around 60 degrees. Ponds catches bass on swimbaits through the summer whenever fish are in a positive feeding mood.

Rigging and Retrieving

How Pete Ponds rigs a swimbait: (1) make a channel in the head of the swimbait with a hook point; (2) before tying the hook to the line, push the eye of the hook backward through the head – this prevents tearing the bait by pushing the lead weight through the head; (3) tie the line to the hook and push a toothpick through the bait and the hook eye to prevent the bait from sliding up the line; (4) clip off the ends of the toothpick; (5) size up where the hook bend should lay in the bait; (6) run the hook through the body; (7) using pliers, open the bend of the hook a bit more; (8) note the wider gap; (9) skin hook the top of the bait with the tip of the hook point to protect it from catching debris.

As noted, Texas rigging is an important selling point for this style of swimbait. Keeping the hook point protected in this way, anglers can swim it through cover as well as skip it under docks.

While a 4-inch model usually can be used with a 3/0 or 4/0 hook, the 5-1/2- to 8-inch models require a 5/0 to 8/0, wide-gap, weighted hook, either offset or with a keeper appendage to lock the swimbait in place. The weight (from one-sixteenth  to one-quarter ounce) on the hook increases casting distance, increases running depth and acts as a keel to keep the lure from rolling over.

“On very sunny days, a slower and deeper retrieve is better,” Lane said. “On overcast days with a breeze, bass usually like it closer to the surface with a little faster retrieve. But you’ve really got to experiment with the retrieve and let the fish tell how to work it.”

Generally, Ponds reels the bait at a slow, constant speed. But he also has caught bass by using a speedy retrieve that wakes the surface, as well as by yo-yoing one along the bottom.

“In clear lakes I have cast them over points that are 40 to 50 feet deep and had bass come somewhere from the depths to smack the swimbait that is only three feet under the surface,” Ponds said.

“When the water has a little color to it, the swimbait is more productive around cover such as vegetation, lay-downs, brush piles and docks than in open water,” Lane said. “Under muddy or extremely dingy water conditions, swimbaits loose their effectiveness.”

Ponds said he has come to believe the color of the hollow-body swimbait is critical. “I’ve experimented with lots of various forage fish color schemes,” he said. “Darker patterns may have a place in somewhat stained water, but for clear lakes, only translucent color patterns get the attention of bass.”

The Smallmouth Addendum

“The problem is smallmouth tend to slash at a swimbait. When using Texas-rigging, I catch less than 50 percent of the smallmouth that strike at it. However, by rigging the bait with a treble hook, you up your chances of landing a smallmouth to 80 percent.”

Using a baiting needle, Balog runs the line through the head of the swimbait and out the belly about one-third the way back. He then slips a three-sixteenths-ounce tungsten bullet weight onto the line and ties a split ring to the tag end. Next a No. 2 treble hook is attached to the split ring. He carefully pulls the line though the nose, drawing the sinker and split ring into the belly of the bait. One tine of the treble is embedded in the belly of the bait.

Among anglers using hollow-body swimbaits, most agree they have only scratched the surface on use of this new lure. You may be the one to discover an entirely different presentation.