Big Swimbaits

[Ken L]

Swimbaits upto 5" or so are easy to source and cheap. Bigger than that and they start to get a bit thin on the ground and very costly.

Can anyone recomend a souce of reasonably priced natural looking swimbaits in the 7 - 9" range ?

Ideally, I'd like them to be either suspending or slow sinking like those in the storm range only bigger and with better hardware.

[Brian Carragher]

Up until the last line Ken I was going to say Storm lures but obviously not now

 

This may be one for Newt and big American lures

 

Seem to remember Hoppy4 had a really big pike on a lure of the type you're after but I can't recall what it was

[Brian Carragher]

Just a thought, I know a couple of people in the trade, so I'll have a look at their trade catalouge over the next few days to see what storm make in the way of 7/9 inch lures and post back up to let you know

[jeepster]

i'm guessing you know exactly the patterns you want, so why not have a go at making some, it'll fill in the time till you go on your next adventure

[Newt]

Not much help from me on this one I'm afraid. Large swim baits just seem to sell for silly money most places.

 

I did find This site that has 7-8 inch ones for pretty low prices ($2-$3) and they may ship to the UK. You could certainly ask. I know nothing about their lures but the pictures look reasonable.

[Dick Dastardly]

The Fox Replicants are a nice bait but they are expensive.I will have a look to see what some of my US and French catalogues have.

 

Gerry (Argyle) got hold of some great giant Grubs a while back maybe worth sending him a PM if he doesnt see this.

[Andy Macfarlane]

I don't know that swimbaits are any better than plain old shads, mounted on a jig head. I've got allsorts of swimbaits and grubs etc. but the best of the lot so far, is a 4" fluoro pink shad, mounted on a chartruese jig head. It doesn't look like much but it works. You won't see the marks but this little fellow is falling to bits.

The other lure is a Storm job or something my mate was using. After about 3 casts, this was all that was left of it.

 

[HOPPY4]

Ken L, I think that if you use one of the plastic shad or other plastis baits that the size of the jighead will make the difference. If the bait is to be fished slower and you have a lighter jighead, you will be more mid-water than if you have a heavier one. This is simple physics, but varied weights of the jig can make a difference. This also brings up another issue! How far are you casting anyway? Most of my cast are 40yd. and the water depth is manily 6-15 ft. in the waters that I am fishing. The weight of my jigheads are 20, 40, 60, 80 & 120 gr. for the plastic lures that I am casting. When we were fishing the northern Germany waters of the Ostsee, we were using the 60 & 80 jigheads in water to 30ft. in depth. They were still almost too Heavy for this depth. The Storm premade lures are Very Good, but I do not use them for all lure applications. I seldom use hard baits or spoons, but have a selection that I try from time to time. I have friends that sware by them and fish as well. The availability of Larger lures is not the problem, but the colors that you want may be. Take a look here: https://www.gerlinger.de/gruppe.php?current...ller=Balzeratch

Open the Shad sub-menus and go through them. The sizes are very reasonable although the prices are in Euro. I hope that this can help!!!

 

 

HOPPY4

Edited March 31, 2006 by HOPPY4

[Ken L]

Thanks guy's. I'll use big shads on light gig heads if I have to but I much prefer the way that the weight is distributed on a swimbait for what I have in mind.

I'm trying to selectivly seak out those big brarra as they move through a shallow water channel on the end of a sand spit at night and they have VERY good eyesight in the clear water.

The Storm lures significantly outfished both hard baits and jig/shad combinations on the last trip but the hardware just wasn't up to the job.

 

Strangely enough, on the previous trip, the spit was much longer (Different wind/tide conditions) and the extra weight of a jig/shad combination allowed them to outfish everything else in the deep eddy that formed just inside the spit.

 

I've seen the Fox lures and they look good but might be a bit heavy. Anything that anyone can come up with will be greatly appreciated.

[Vidar6]

Optimum lures suspender series and the original Wagtail from Zoota is both slow sinking lures, which could do exactly what you are looking for.

 

Not particularly cheap, but very, very good lures

 

Optimum & Zoota lures

Edited March 31, 2006 by Vidar6