I've just acquired some Mission Fish and Mattlures swim baits for my first attempt at California style fishing for trophy bass. These baits are expensive, but the quality is outstanding! I plan to use these on Guntersville Lake, which has a massive population of 4-8 pound bass and quite a few fish in the 8-14 pound range. I have plans to get photographed with a few double digit bass this year. Guntersville has thousands of acres of hydrilla and milfoil, which hold most of the forage species and bass. The water clarity is usually from 2-6 feet deep and it has a good algae bloom. I'm planning to use 50# PowerPro, in the moss green color, for its sensitivity, weed cutting ability, and thin diameter. Is this a good line choice? Thanks in advance for all suggestions.

Welcome :) This is a popular question regarding swimbait fishing in non-trout lakes. Often times the answers to these questions are very logical.

First question should always be: What are the bass eating?

I am guessing things like bluegill, other bass, shiners, maybe shad or gizzard shad or both? Plan your bait arsenal accordingly.

Next question should be: Where are the biggest bass in the lake?

Most times the answer to that question is very obvious because big bass live in obvious places. Whatver the dominant cover is, look for the biggest form of that cover. Biggest trees, biggest weed beds, biggest docks, etc. Whether you immediately catch big bass on those areas or not, the biggest bass in the lake are probably there so stick it out in the right areas.

If you're imitating what big bass are naturally eating at your lake and you're around the big bass, you're going to get them sooner or later, it really can be that simple.

In regards to tackle, one should always match tackle to conditions. Out here we fish a lot of clear water. Braided line frankly doesn't get bit well in clear water because bass can see it. Braided line, in my opinion, is also not good for slow presentations where the bass have more time to look at the lure even if the water is dingy. If the water has 2 feet visibility and a bass is one foot from your lure looking at it, it can see your line just fine.

If you are going to fish braid, use it strategically. Like in areas where it's extremely grassy and you are fishing fast, or where the water is just terribly muddy. I personally don't feel like fishing fast and I don't think fishing muddy water is great for swimbaits anyway, so I never use braid. But maybe in your area it would be useful, or maybe you can work out an effective braid/florocarbon leader system. If you're not getting bites with the braid, do try some 25 mono or 25 florocarbon and see if you don't start getting bit a little better.

Good luck

What Rob said, especially about the line choices. Btw, some braids(Fireline}( ) have a tendency to break/snap in two on a hard cast with a heavy bait.........don't ask;-) .


Dan

"Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less"

Deo Vindice

Hey shad lips,
Im sure you will like the mission fish. It is a versitile bait. About the braid, Braid is tough and sensitive but I belive that florocarbon is = in sensitivity and close in tuffness. use 20-25# floro and Im sure you will be happy with your results.

Yeah ... Fireline is garbage, as well as most every other brand of super line on the market. 50# PowerPro on the other hand is great handling stuff. I use it for pitchin' creature baits and jigs into the edges and hole of weed mats and it pulls big 'uns out of the jungle just fine. I also use it Carolina rigging, but I tie a 3-4 foot leader of 20# P-Line CXX to the swivel. It will cast a 1 oz C-rig 75-85 yards and it never gets fouled on the rod tip or eyelets.

With all of the weeds in Guntersville Lake I'll have to keep the swim baits moving or they'll get buried in the hydrilla growing up from the bottom. You can't imagine the weeds here unless you've seen it for yourself. Many of the weed beds are from 50-250 acres in size in the spring and may only be separated by 50 yards from the next huge weed bed. They continue to expand until the late fall. I'm not complaining, because that's what makes the fishing so great!

I guess I'll give the fluorocarbon line a try. I've heard good things about Seaguar for a couple of years now. I'm afraid that a big bass will break the 20# stuff off in the weeds. That's why I started using 50# PowerPro ... after losing a couple of 12-13 pound fish in the matted stuff with premium 20# mono. I was also hoping to use PowerPro so I can use my Shimano low profile bass reels instead of my round high line capacity Shimano reels for fluorocarbon. These swim baits should cast from 75-100 yards with the proper rod, shouldn't they?

I doubt you can cast a swimbait a full football field. Unless your shaquille O'neal.

I can probably cast 20-25 yards on my best cast.

http://www.calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/bigreenjobass/

"These swim baits should cast from 75-100 yards with the proper rod, shouldn't they?"

Not necessary IMO. I only fill 1/2 half the spool in my low profile Antares AR or Calais 200 with 20# test Seaguar CP with the other 1/2 filler mono. I'm only casting 50-75 feet..... I think?


dan

"Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less"

Deo Vindice

Hey shad lips 75-100 yard? I dont think even the right rod will help you cast that far. The real is just as important as the rod in getting good distance on a cast with 20-25# line and a heavy bait. The low profile reals you are talking about are not realy met to throw big baits such as swimbaits. You will get much better distance with a bigger round style real that is able to hold a lot more line than your low profile reals. The more line you have on the spool, the more line that comes off with each turn of the spool thus increasing your distance. Another problume you might run into is, throwing these big baits all day will put a lot af wear and tear on a real that is not ment to work that hard. A curado or something similar sould be ok for the smaller baits and shorter casts but to even get close to the distances that your talking about you should step up to a round style real in the 300-400 size.

I've got two 400 series Shimano Catala reels that will hold plenty of fluorocarbon line, however I was hoping to use the thinner PowerPro on my CU200BSF Curados. With my Super Free Curado I can cast a 1 oz Carolina rig with a 3-4 foot leader at least 75 yards with moss green 50# PowerPro (12# diameter) and a 7' rod rated up to 1 oz. I'm a pretty good sized ol' country boy, so I can really load up the rod and fling a bait way out there. I'm guessing the new 1.3 - 1.9oz swimbaits I've got won't be as aerodynamic as a C-rig? I plan on using my 8 1/2' salmon rod or my 7 1/2' flipping rod, which are each rated for lures up to 2 oz.

Just a thought...
If you hook a 10 plus bass at say, 75 yards... you're going to have to worry about losing her that much longer because she's going to have A LOT of opportunities to get away. I don't see a real need to be casting that far, just brings down your odds once they're hooked.

Shad Lips -- Have used Curado's successfully for many years for big bass in ugly structure (the heaviest wood/weed you can imagine). Not to mention big pike and muskie's. Everyone keeps saying they'll fail with swimbaits and big bass, but I've had no problem throwing 1/2 to 3 oz. muskie baits and catching big bass, walleye's, pike and skie's. Just my experience.
As for line: Braid rocks, but good braids are few and far between. 30/50/80# TufLine are very reliable (50-80 KILLER for jigs/frogs). PowerPro has been great too. Feel's a little different pitching (may be an oval braid?--worth getting used to. Much better color than the black/white Tuf , and I've used 10-50# PP and all are incredibly strong and most importantly abrasion resistant!!! Try the 20# green PP. It's amazing!) That said, do look into flouro -- always good to have a couple reels spooled w/ it for certain situations, and it's killer for c-rigs.
Totally know what you're saying about Guntersville--awesome lake, KILLER grass/cover. The foil up here (Minnetonka, et.al.) is thick and fishy, so try Curado's and 20#PP til it fails you!! Good rippin' -- d