Smack 'Em With Small Swimbaits

By David A. Brown
Special to BassFan

The bite was tough and guys were struggling, but Luke Johns found a way to make big things happen en route to winning a major event. The Folsom, Calif. angler was facing frustration with moody fish, but knowing what swims in his Folsom Lake home waters, he knuckled down and collected a dozen good bites.

Bottom line, playing the game their way delivered the victory; and the star player in that deal was a 3.3 Keitech Swing Impact Fat on a 1/4-ounce Owner football head.

“We had bright, sunny days and not a lot of wind to get the fish fired up, so I just crawled it across the bottom; just barely turning the (reel) handle,” Johns said. “I was able to get quality bites and get a lot more bites than a lot of the guys I was fishing against.”

In this and many other scenarios, a small swimbait can yield big results. Searching or targeting, a peppy pace or a slow roll, Johns said this bait category serves a broad spectrum of needs and opportunities.

A Must-Have

Throughout Western waters, giant swimbaits and glidebaits get a lot of well-deserved attention, but overlooking the tiny swimmers – the ones measuring four inches or less – will cut your game short. From minimalist looks to dressed up presentations, Western anglers keep this modest bait category in the rotation.

“It definitely has to do with forage,” Johns said. “A lot of our lakes have pond smelt, a very small baitfish that are one or two inches long.

“Also, we have a lot of spotted bass fisheries and (with the exception of the Kokanee salmon-stocked reservoirs with giant spots) these fish are typically smaller in size and they have a smaller mouth. Those fish have good eyesight, so they’re able to see something small in the clear water.”

In addition to pond smelt, a properly colored swimbait can mimic a variety of forage, from shad to perch. During a tournament on the Columbia River, Scott Hellesen notched a second-place finish by determining that the smallmouth were eating salmon smolt and then matching the forage with a 3.3 Keitech Swing Impact Fat fished on what is probably the most common rigging option – a ball-head jig.

As Johns points out, the small swimbait brings year-round applicability. Most every day he’s on the water, he’ll have multiple sizes rigged and ready.

“It’s a great bait to cover water with because it’s not as slow as a dropshot, but it still maintains the finesse aspect,” Johns said. “On some of these spotted bass fisheries, it’s hard to power-fish some of the times, especially on bluebird days when they shut down on the usual power-fishing things like a jerkbait or a crankbait.

“A swimbait is a good tool that you can use to cover the water and those fish will eat it, even when they’re a little bit (stingy.) It works anywhere you find bass because it’s (a profile) they’re used to seeing.”

Recalling his Folsom Lake success, Johns notes that that crawling a small Keitech across the bottom is one of his all-time favorite techniques.

“It’s a way to cover water, but you’re still not fishing super fast,” Johns said. “You have to maintain bottom contact. A lot of times, in the winter, fish will tuck themselves to the bottom. If you’re fishing too fast, the bait’s going to rise up off the bottom and you’re not going to get those bites.

“I call it counting the rocks because you’re basically feeling every rock you bump over. Those fish are sitting down there and they can grab it when it comes past their face.”

Other Configurations

Basically the utility player of the soft-plastics arsenal, the small swimbait affords multiple options beyond the jighead norm.

> Blade runners: When the ball-head alone doesn’t earn the bites, add some flash and vibration to close the deal. Traditional underspins will push finicky fish over the edge, as will a 1st Gen Topspin.

Joseph Orozco of Bass Union Tackle fits his underspin with a Keitech Swing Impact Fat and uses this setup as a search tool, as well as a mood-tester. Basically, if he spots schoolers or finds a group of fish on Garmin LiveScope, Orozco fires his bait in their direction and puts that blade/swimming tail to work.

Aggressive fish will pounce quickly, but if they turn up their nose, Orozco shifts from the underspin to a finesse jighead.

> Get the drop on ‘em: “If the fish are suspended a little bit off bottom, I’ll throw a Keitech Swing Impact Fat on a drophshot, but I won’t fish it the typical way you fish a dropshot" Orozco says. "It’s not so much about shaking (the bait) across the bottom; I’m basically just dragging it across the bottom and using the dropshot style as a way to keep the bait up off the bottom.”

> Full house: Alabama rigs and small swimbaits go together like rice and beans. Whether it’s a steady retrieve along bluffs, breaks and points, or a low-and-slow presentation, a gang of 3-inch swimbaits resembles the bait balls that hungry bass seek.

Nick Cloutier of Oakley, Calif. is familiar with the concept and offers a key piece of advice anchored in field-proven success: Don’t be afraid to tick the bottom with an A-rig. Even with live sonar, it’s often hard to spot fish pinned to the rocks – until they spot a bait ball pass overhead and burst up to grab it.

A few more tips for small swimbaits:

> Going soft: When Austin Wilson of Citrus Heights, Calif. needs a crafty look for probing mid-depth flats with hard structure like stumps and chunk rock, he’ll often rig a four-inch Keitech Easy Shiner on a 2/0 Gamakatsu finesse EWG hook with half a nail weight in the belly. In this setup, the swimbait mimics a spy bait, so he’ll simply cast the bait, count it down about 10 seconds (depth depending) and bring it back on a slow retrieve.

> Bothering bed-fish: Matthew Nadeau of Nevada City, Calif. knows the 2.8 Keitech on a light ball-head makes a great prespawn locator, but he’ll bench this bait once the bass – especially smallmouth – move onto the beds. Referencing a past tournament win on Lake Almanor, Nadeau said he’ll pitch the 2.8 Keitech Swing Impact Fat on a ball-head to the beds and when he sees his line move, he sticks it to ‘em.

His general spring plan: Idle likely areas until he spots a bedding fish, swing out wide to avoid spooking the fish, then circle back for on-point casts. It's an uncharacteristic swimbait presentation, but Nadeau said he typically needs only a few shakes to irritate a bed-fish into biting.

> Avoid displacement: When he’s targeting groups of fish, Oregon's Colby Pearson often rotates through a selection of Keitech Swing Impact Fats, Megabass Hazedongs and Scottsboro swimbaits — all on light ball-heads. Each style and their different sizes have different jobs, but the one thing that remains consistent is his retrieve strategy.

“Halfway through my cast, I’ll reel in because if I pull that wolf pack of (fish) all the way to the boat, I’d only be able to catch one,” Pearson said. “But if I can keep them pinpointed where they are, I can catch four or five at a time.”