What are a few good swimbaits to start out with? 2025
Scorcher214 reply :
I need like $20 more to get free shipping from TW. So i was looking at the Giron, SK king shad and sexy swimmer. Since I haven't fished swimbaits before, i dont wanna spend 30-40-50 bucks on one. Oh yeah and not one that is too heavy. I dont have any swimbait specific rods, so the heaviest I would go would be 3/4oz.
Thefishy1 reply :
http://www.***.com/Sebile_Magic_Swimmer/descpage-SMS.html#multiview
I would recommend the Sebile swimmers, the 95 and 125 are the best producers for me. The greatest part is that any Med Heavy or Heavy rod can throw them and I have caught fish from 9in all the way up to 5 and 6lbrs on them
I have the sexy swimmer also and was not too impressed with the build of it compared to the sebile. With the joints made of what seems to be only plastic I can see them breaking on a big fish.
OHIO reply :
Spro makes some good ones. I just bought the Tru tungsten tru-life and the BPS z9r.
I made a thread about the Giron a couple months ago and I got mixed reviews on it. A lot of them were negative, so I opted away from it.
Micro reply :
The Giron is a decent (only decent) bait.
For the money, the River2Sea V-Joints are great. They compare very well to the much more expensive Jackall Mikey Jrs. I would say that they have 95% of the action at less than 1/2 the price. The hardware is rock solid and they have very good hooks. I prefer the 95 series.
http://www.***.com/River2Sea_V-Joint_Min_Wake/descpage-R2SVMW.html
Pic below - V-Joint on top, Mikey Jr below.
FIAB reply :
If you don't want to spend much and don't have to buy from *** then I don't think you can find a better price on a swim bait than at lurepartsonline. They have the 5" Tru-Life Swimbait for 9.99. I have seen this bait for sale as much as $29. Others may know if this is an OK swim bait to start out with or not.......I have not used the hard swimbaits any just the soft plastic ones like the money minnow.
SeanW reply :
Id suggest you search Coyote Bait and tackle. They have a huge selection of swimbaits. They also have many of them at huge discounts. If you call and ask for Denise tell her Sean referred you, you may get a special pricing. If you have questions, they are swimbait knowledgeable and can help ya out.
Chris at Tech reply :
Don't discount the soft swimbaits. Get yourself a pack or two of the Shadalicious 5.5" and some weighted hooks.
Primus reply :
I agree that the Tru Tungsten & River to Sea baits are solid choices for the money. I would also look at the River to Sea Live Eye Bottom Walker, I like the 6" size.
Scorcher214 reply :
QuoteDon't discount the soft swimbaits. Get yourself a pack or two of the Shadalicious 5.5" and some weighted hooks.
I tried the 5in monney minnows, never caught anything. Maybe since i live in michigan i should get some smaller ones lol.
Chaz Hickcox reply :
The Castaic Original Hardheads are great and inexpensive. They work much like shallow cranks, but have a great swimming action. I've caught a lot of fish on the threadfin shad.
mozy reply :
I would try the Spro BBZ-1. They are $20 and have great action at any speed. You won't find too many negative reviews on this bait.
J Francho reply :
QuoteI would try the Spro BBZ-1. They are $20 and have great action at any speed. You won't find too many negative reviews on this bait.
Depends on which bait you're referring to. The Shad is a TOTAL CLUNKER, and I'm not the only one. The 6" Jr. trout is a winner in both fast and slow sink.
baluga reply :
Quotehttp://www.***.com/Sebile_Magic_Swimmer/descpage-SMS.html#multiviewI would recommend the Sebile swimmers, the 95 and 125 are the best producers for me. The greatest part is that any Med Heavy or Heavy rod can throw them and I have caught fish from 9in all the way up to 5 and 6lbrs on them
I have the sexy swimmer also and was not too impressed with the build of it compared to the sebile. With the joints made of what seems to be only plastic I can see them breaking on a big fish.
Magic Swimmer 95 is also my best producer. 8-)
mozy reply :
QuoteQuoteI would try the Spro BBZ-1. They are $20 and have great action at any speed. You won't find too many negative reviews on this bait.Depends on which bait you're referring to. The Shad is a TOTAL CLUNKER, and I'm not the only one. The 6" Jr. trout is a winner in both fast and slow sink.
What do you mean by clunker? Mine has performed perfectly.
Micro reply :
I agree. The spro shad is a fantastic bait, one of the better hard swimbaits out there. Even the tiny one performs exceptionally well. JF must be thinking of some other bait.
Primus reply :
QuoteThe Reaction Strike Revolution Shad look just like the one above. About $5 on fleabay.....Bill
I've tried the Reaction Strike, didn't care for it.
J Francho reply :
QuoteQuoteQuoteI would try the Spro BBZ-1. They are $20 and have great action at any speed. You won't find too many negative reviews on this bait.Depends on which bait you're referring to. The Shad is a TOTAL CLUNKER, and I'm not the only one. The 6" Jr. trout is a winner in both fast and slow sink.
What do you mean by clunker? Mine has performed perfectly.
Many, many hours spent underwater, not a single fish caught. Its almost uncanny. Many other baits have caught, that one is a dud. I gave my four away.
Greed reply :
I need to find fish that are big enough to hit a swim bait before first >
GrundleLove reply :
SPRO BBZ-1.
Best swimbait on the market.
J Francho reply :
That's actually four baits. Which one?
gobig reply :
I have no experience with the micro BBZ 1 but I am sure it will catch fish as well. My experience with the 4in was some what like J Francho. I didn't catch much with it on a straight retrieve. The only way I have caught a fair number of fish with it has been stroking it off the bottom and letting it settle back down or ripping it out of weeds. The strike comes on the fall. The 6in has been the most consistent swimbait I own. I have not put any toads in the boat with it but it will put numbers of 2-5lb fish in the live well. That's not saying it wont catch a toad but this has been my experience. Now I have caught quite a few fish over 5lbs on the 8in, the largest going 9.7 lbs. When the bite is on with this bait 20 lb plus limits are not uncommon.
The biggest problem with hard baits and belly hooks is you can't effectively crawl them on the bottom with out getting hung up all the time, unless you modify the bait. You can drill a hole in the top of the bait and glue in a magnet. Then run a leader from the line tie to a treble and the magnet holds the hook in place. Similar to the system Castaic uses.
As for good baits starting out I would suggest... 6in BBZ, Ospreys, 6in huds, Mattlures has some good baits that won't break the bank, A/C minnows are good, Blackdog mini cracker, Tylures makes some good inexpensive bluegill baits. There are a lot of good baits out there around the $20 price point. I would suggest staying with the bigger names.
wisconsin heat reply :
QuoteQuoteDon't discount the soft swimbaits. Get yourself a pack or two of the Shadalicious 5.5" and some weighted hooks.I tried the 5in monney minnows, never caught anything. Maybe since i live in michigan i should get some smaller ones lol.
I have caught tons of fish on luckestike bass magic swimbaits"3.5" none on the 4.5 and none on a 5inch berkely hollow belly...i bought a pack of 3.5 in shadalicious when my 3.5 bass magics ran out... they werent the same, the shadilicious was made with too firm plastic, not very flexible and an almost nonexistent action...
Micro reply :
QuoteQuoteQuoteQuoteI would try the Spro BBZ-1. They are $20 and have great action at any speed. You won't find too many negative reviews on this bait.Depends on which bait you're referring to. The Shad is a TOTAL CLUNKER, and I'm not the only one. The 6" Jr. trout is a winner in both fast and slow sink.
What do you mean by clunker? Mine has performed perfectly.
Many, many hours spent underwater, not a single fish caught. Its almost uncanny. Many other baits have caught, that one is a dud. I gave my four away.
That's okay. After nearly 30 years of trying, I caught my first bass on a Jitterbug last fall. Until then, I thought Jitterbugs were clunkers. ;D
J Francho reply :
They are, in 99% of daylight hours, LOL.
=Matt 5.0= reply :
QuoteQuoteI would try the Spro BBZ-1. They are $20 and have great action at any speed. You won't find too many negative reviews on this bait.Depends on which bait you're referring to. The Shad is a TOTAL CLUNKER, and I'm not the only one. The 6" Jr. trout is a winner in
both fast and slow sink.
Agreed. I bought a few of the 4" Spro shads and they just plain suck. They have amazing action and look great in the water but they don't get bit.
However, the 6" rainbow trout was causing the largemouth and smallies to commit suicide this year. Unbelievable bait for $20. I keep two fast sinks in my boat at all times.
Tuckman reply :
I agree that the Spro BBZ shad is a good way send a school of feeding fish back where they came from. On the other hand I have seen J Francho's swimbait box and have surmised that the man may have a few screws loose to toss that stuff up here.
I DO plan to try the new baby BBZ shad this year for blind bed fishing on some of the lakes that I fish.
The swimbaits that I throw are a white lady sebile 125, and a Keitech swing impact FAT. Both baits work great for size and numbers. I just destroyed the smallmouth on them this fall. The good thing is that I can drop around $100 and be set on swimbaits for the year. I can also throw them on the same 7' MH rods that I use for almost everything else.
BassThumb reply :
Good to see that I'm not the only one that hasn't had any luck at all with the BBZ Shads. I think they look great in the water but they don't even get bit by northerns, even in the lake where I lost 4 Sebiles to snakes in the last two years. I thought at first that I was maybe doing something wrong, so I tried every retrieve I could think of, and I have yet to catch a single fish.
Why is it that the BBZ Shad suck so badly? I mean, they look great, don't they? :
I don't have many hard swimbaits to speak of, but the one that I do like is the Sebile 125 in slow sink. That one is a keeper. I generally prefer the soft paddletail swimmers like the Money Minnow.
Tuckman reply :
I don't get the erratic action out of a BBZ Shad that I can get out of a sebile 125. I usually fish my Sebiles like a jerkbait and I was still getting fish on them when the water was down to around 50 degrees this fall.
IMO the sebile 125's swim alot better than the sebile 95's, but I do like fishing the 95s on a spinning rod overtop spawning beds.
Soft swimbaits have been awesome for me. I have not thrown the hollow bellies much because I have not yet any reason to deviate from the keitech's (except being overpriced, lol). I throw mine on a GYCB swimbait head.
Also to avoid losing expensive baits, I throw all of my swimbaits on 50lb braid without a leader. If the fish care, they didn't tell me, and when a fish bites on the long end of a 100' cast you just reel into him and hes hooked. I do use a rod with a soft tip though.
8-)
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