I live in South Louisiana and need some guidance from the experts with swimbaits. I purchased pack of the 6" Berkley Hollow Belly swimbaits at the Outdoor World, took everything else out of my boat so that I would stay with it and headed to a reservoir in Mississippi with relatively clear water. I used the hook provided in the package and rigged it texposed. The good news was that I had seven "bites". Unfortunately, I still have not caught a swimbait fish. I could really use some advice on how to get started with swimbaits. Thanks.:-(

To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi. - William Faulkner

I would take a look at a 7 inch MS Slammer. If you read back a few posts to the discussion about learning how to catch swimbait fish, jointed wooden lures like this was how many of us started out.

The 7 or 9 inch Slammer will have a handful of nice features. They last nearly forever (my best bait is 5+ years and many hundreds of fish old). They don't imitate one specific baitfish. More of an all-around type lure (buy the baby bass color). Small bass love this lure. They're light enough you don't need a special rod and reel. And they doesn't require much if any special skill to use.

Then again, 6 swimbait bites in a day isn't that bad :)

Thanks Nico. I've read articles written by you and Rob using the Slammer. Makes one want to move to California! The Slammer should work in these timbered, Mississippi reservoirs. At least if it should hang up it will be close to the surface. I saw two of the fish come from submerged tree tops and hit the Berkley. They were small fish so that was part of the problem.

I've been a jig fisherman for forty years, back to the days of bucktails and pork eels but I'm convinced this swimbait deal will get some fish the jig won't if I will just put in the time.

Ordering Slammers tonight.

Thanks, again.

:-)

To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi. - William Faulkner

Don't feel too disappointed missing fish on the weedless baits. Basstrix style baits and Mission Fish are very known as being lures that are hard to hook fish on.

I think the worst display of this I ever saw was fishing as a nonboater in a Pro/Am, I watched my pro get 14 bites on a Mission Fish and land 2. Some of those were real good fish. I've had similar experiences with Basstrix and Mission Fish - setting on big fish and losing the fish. It's the nature of the lure.

To improve hookup ratio on the Berkley Hollow Belly (which is an identical copy of the Basstrix) rig the lure with a treble hook on the belly. There's a few ways to do it:

1. Push the EWG hook through the nose, then put the eye of a #2 or #4 treble hook over the point of the EWG hook. You can put a piece of surgical tubing over the eye if you like (just like a spinnerbait trailer hook). Then thread the EWG hook back in to the belly of the bait and out the back.

2. Get a KSH custom bait weight like this:

http://www.calfishing.com/files/Images/2008_11_23_bass-a-thon/ksh_custom_baits_bait_weight2.jpg

Arguably the world's most expensive 3/4oz lead sinker at $3.50 apiece. However, they fit perfect inside a 6" basstrix and put the wire loop in a place where you can attach a treble right in the middle of the belly of the lure. You'll catch many more fish this way. Note that I'm holding the weight upside down in the photo above.

In the end, Nico makes a darn good point which is that the best way to get your confidence up is with a Slammer. You should land about 80-90% of your Slammer bites.

In regards to increasing your hookup percentage on hollow bellies and Mission Fish, heres what I do. First, use braid with a leader. Next is the way you rig them. With the Mission Fish never texpose the hook, leave it on the back (it still remains more or less weedless). Also, slightly bend the hook up and out. With the hollow bellies, people want to make them more complicated than they need to be. Why not just thread them onto a jighead? I think I fished them with the "specially made hooks" once and couldnt stand it. A buddy showed me a cheap jighead that had a big gap and was very strong. I thread them on whatever weight I think I need, and superglue them to the back of the jighead. Works great and you will not miss fish. Obviously this cancels out the weedless part of the bait, but so does adding trebles. BTW, the Mighty Minnow on the jighead is proving to be very effective.