Aright, if we have to be serious...

I posted on this topic recently here. In regards to 'the real secrets of tournament swimbait fishing'. The real secret being knowing when to put it down.

And all I can say is that if I did know when to put it down, I'd do a lot better in tournaments. Because many days when it was 'live and die by the swimbait' I died. And I continue to eat it on a regular basis :)

To improve in the future all I can think to do is practice practice practice and pay attention to everything. It really comes down to understanding the lake you are fishing, during the time of year you are fishing it, during the condition at hand. Then knowing how to respond.

Learning this on small lakes is not too hard. I think you can become proficient in evaluating conditions in 3-5 years. Learning this on bigger lakes can be harder. Learning this on the Delta, I'd say 6-10 years.

Its impossible to be formulaic about this across all lakes. Just impossible! Some lakes bite on sun, some on clouds, some on wind, some on rain. Some lakes are great in July, some are great in January. People who give you blanket advice on when to throw swimbaits (or not throw swimbaits) are not thinking clearly or are basing their advice on only a few locations.

If you fish all over the state, like I have, you realize there are no overarching formulas. Let's see: Shasta, Clear Lake, Delta, Chabot, San Pablo, Coyote, Del Valle, Contra Loma, San Justo, Los Banos, Shadow Cliffs, Spring Lake, Pardee, Melones, McClure, San Pablo, Santa Margarita, Cachuma, Mission Viejo, Perris, Diamond Valley, Casitas, Castaic, Castaic Lagoon, Poway, Dixon, San Vicente, Lower Otay. I've been to each. There's no 100% answer!

To answer the question about when to put it down, you'd have to learn each. Fish in all seasons, in all weather conditions. Fish at night if you can. Just learn it from the bottom up. Then you'll start to know when to put it down. I know pretty well on the small lakes that I fish often like less than 1000 acres. But on the big tournament venue lakes ... still a long way to go.