I remember reading one time that someone trims the tails of their slammer. How much do you trim and how do you get the tail off and back on? Are there nails or just glue holding it in. Also why do you trim the tail? Better action? I threw mine for the first time last week and had some followers but no takers. Drove me nuts. Also how do you get a soft presentation throwing this lure. I think that might have been half my problem. Thanks...

Ok, I'll do my best to answer your questions:

>I remember reading one time that someone trims the tails of
>their slammer. How much do you trim

The stock bait is fine, no need to modify the tail. If you lose your tail or it gets torn up, the replacement tails are a little longer than you need. I would trim it to be the same as the original tail. You could use this picture as a reference if you don't have the original tail any more:

http://www.msslammer.com/colors.html

>and how do you get the tail off and back on? Are there nails or
>just glue holding it in.

There are nails holding it in, no glue. The easiest way to get the tail out is to rip the old tail out and pick out any left over plastic. Then take a pair of needlenose and reach into the slot and grip the nail toward the pointy end and push it out. If you want to try to preserve the tail when you take it out, it's possible, but you have to pick out some of the paint/wood around the head of the nail to get a grip on it to pull it out. I wouldn't do that unless you really had to.

>Also why do you trim the tail? Better action?

A longer tail will slow down the action. A shorter tail will make it kick back and forth faster. Mike Shaw explained it to me best by comparing it to the tail of a kite. A kite with a short tail will dart back and forth. A kite with a long tail will move much more gradually through the air.

>I threw mine for the first time last week and had some followers
> but no takers. Drove me nuts. Also how do you get a soft
> presentation throwing this lure. I think that might have been half
> my problem. Thanks...

I'm not sure what you mean by soft presentation. If you would like the lure to make less of a splash when it hits the water, you just need to cast underhand and feather the cast at the end. With practice you can make a 9" Slammer land with almost zero splash by killing it right before it hits the water. When you're retrieving the bait, it's supposed to make noise, throw a wake, etc. My best baits are the ones that go clack clack clack and throw a big wake on the surface. Don't get discouraged on that aspect ;) If the water is very calm during the day, just crank the bait down so it runs 6" under the surface. That's a good retrieve for those conditions.

Don't get too concerned with followers. After the thousandth fish follows your bait, you'll start to realize that if you see the bass following your bait, it probably sees you, and it's probably not going to bite. Yeah we all have the stories of the fish that was so stupid it hit the bait 3 feet from the boat. But by now most fish in California have seen a few swimbaits go by and they're kinda on the smart side. If they won't eat your Slammer, mix up the retrieve or throw a different lure out there.

Now that was a great response! Hmmm, I didn't realize the tails were longer on the replacements! I like kick in my baits...gonna have to re-do my re-do.

I have a question.

My 9" slammer sometimes does not want to swim at any speed. Sometimes it will work on top with a slow retrieve and some times it only works with a faster retrieve. It is one of the newer baits with the new type of hinge and it seems that the bait will kind of get stuck bent at the hinge. Has any one else had this problum? Any suggestions on how I might correct it?

The bait still gets bit as I had one try and kill it on Tuesday night, too bad the fish came out of the water and hit the bait on top (where the hooks aren't) but it would be nice to have some consistancy with the action.

Mike says - if you are having a problem with any of the baits that have the reverse joint, just call him 805-462-0592 and he will get it taken care of. There were a small number of those style baits put out, and he has gone back to the original joint now because not all of them were swimming consistently, like you are describing.

Sorry to hear about the big one not finding the hooks. I've only had a few come down on top of it, but yeah you can miss those kind of bites. The biggest bite I ever had on the Slammer was like that and I got the fish which was a 12lber. You could see the bait in the moonlight and then we heard the slosh noise but instead of slosh it was more like, ker - bloooooooooosh because the fish pile drove the bait back down into the water. Love that }(

Thanks for the repy Rob. I will give Mike a call. I used the bait in a tourney up at Folsom on Saturday and had the same problum, but did get a follower when it was running right too bad the fish that followed was a Spot! Thoes thing are crazy

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

John, I have one that style and had the same problem. I noticed when I got to looking at it that the eye screws were not inline. I think this was causing them to bind up. I just gently turned both screws till they were straight and it fixed the problem. However, that style doesn't have as much action as my other slammers. But it is louder.

the slammer experts are able to spin the slammer around on the surface when the fish is in flight so it lays on its back and gets the hook..kinda like tickling the belly of a dog lol

Thanks for the info...