It is interesting to watch / hear about what happens when guys who are unbelievably good fishermen arm themselves with the big baits. You know really, I can relate to a lot of what they are going through with the wrong equipment and odd rigging.

I seem to recall that the first swimbait fish I ever caught was casting a 7" AC Plug on a 9'4" Sabre 190-9 ocean rod with a Calcutta 400 ... from a float tube :) Talk about awkward. I also seem to recall that I was using an Arbogast AC plug with the stock hooks and it is so so painful to recall all of the fish I lost because of those garbage hooks.

Should guys who are fishing at a high level be a little more with it? Yeah you would think so. But it's also important to realize that many of these guys have caught only a handful of bass over 7lbs in their life. I'm not making that up, they say it themselves.

I had a chance to fish the FLW Delta National Guard tournament as a nonboater last month and was amazed by the swimbait tackle guys were using. Good fishermen too! It was the usual assortment of flipping sticks, low profile baitcasters and light line like 12-20lb test. Yeah 12lb.. believe it.

What I realized with two of my pros was that much like Steve Kennedy, they had not caught a lot of big bass in the past, especially in tournaments. Two of my pros caught the biggest bass they had ever caught in a tournament when I fished with them, and those fish were 7lbers!

What I've realized over time is that 95% of fishermen will not believe something until they experience it first hand. With swimbait fishing, it takes a long time (typically) to get the full range of experiences. It's not like you go out the first day and get your hook bent out, your trap hook leader broken, your line broken, and miss 15 fish in a day because your rod is flimsy, has a 10" butt section and only 8 guides.

It takes time on the water to experience those things and realize that catching 10lb+ fish on swimbaits is not like any other type of bass fishing. I'm sure many pros walked away from that Clear Lake tournament with some plans to re-tool their arsenal but it still might take them 5 more years to dial things in. Not because they are dumb or bad at fishing but because it might take 5 years to experience the full range of bad experiences that the wrong tackle can inflict on you.

And one last thought... From a sponsor perspective, some of these guys simply may have their hands tied. If you're sponsored by Kistler and they don't make a swimbait rod, what are you going to do on day 4 of the tournament when the camera is zoomed in on every detail? Just like you guys noticed these guys aren't using swimbait sticks, people would notice if Steve Kennedy was wielding a 7'11" Okuma XH :)

So, yeah... I look at this stuff and dockboy, I'm right there with you wondering what in the world these dudes are thinking but in a lot of ways it doesn't surprise me one bit.