Ok, I'm being completely selfish here. I'm fishing a tournament in a few days in spotted bass land and prefishing with swimbaits hasn't been spectacular.

So my question is, what makes a good spotted bass swimbait?

It seems like the obvious answer would be "smaller". 6 inch huddlestons, 7 inch triple trouts, etc... Am I missing something?

LA Slider, especially at the lake you are going to. I also have done very well up there with a 6inch Triple Trout but the fish were small, like 13 and 14 inch small. Don't sleep on the big stuff up there either as there are some monster largemouth swimming in that lake, it is supposed to be a great 10inch Triple trout lake.

My other favorite spotted bass swimbaits include MS Slammers and Lunker Punkers, for some reason spotties love feeding on top. I have caught or have seen caught my fair share of 4 pound and up spots on 8 inch Hudds as well. Personally I stopped fishing for the big spots and focused on the big largmouuth at places like Folsom, Melones, and McClure, and ended up catching more nice spots then I did when I was focusing on them.

John - do you rig a trap hook on the LA Slider?

No trap hook, but I am so paranoid about killing another big fish I never rig one. I have gotten short strikes on that bait, but most of the time the eat it, even when they are short striking it. I have had quite a few spotted bass that hit swimbaits like a striper (tap,tap, tap, BANG)

If they are eating, the 8" Hudd will work just fine. I've caught 2lb spots on the 8" Hudds. I'm affraid to try the Triple Trout because of all the wood that is usually in the Spot lakes. I haven't tried the smaller swimbaits like the Slider or the 6" Hudd just because they probably catch smaller fish. But then again that wouldn't be such a bad thing in a tournament, I'm sure the size of the fish would still be above average.

>Ok, I'm being completely selfish here. I'm fishing a
>tournament in a few days in spotted bass land and prefishing
>with swimbaits hasn't been spectacular.
>
>So my question is, what makes a good spotted bass swimbait?
>
>It seems like the obvious answer would be "smaller". 6 inch
>huddlestons, 7 inch triple trouts, etc... Am I missing
>something?

Nico, Don't let the small mouths of a spot fool you. The big Magnums will hit anything a head will hit and probably harder LOL. Typically the less diameter and the less height a bait has the better the hookups but they will hit anything you throw in front of them and they will tease the #### out of you. You'll probably catch smaller dink spots on swimbaits than you will heads due to the aggressive nature of the spots. Triple Trouts are one of the best spot swimbaits around. They love anything with wicked action. Slammers are great choices as well. HUGE spots love the HUDDS if you can get them to eat it (trout lakes). They will hit those 6 inchers but it has the same effect that it has on the heads (smaller fish).

I would STRONLY reccomend you stinger your hudds and or any big swimbait you throw at them. You won't gill hook a spot atleast I haven't yet. Granted we don't grow them much over 7lbs here in GA but we do have some 5's and 6's. Here's my best spot (6.3lbs)caught on a hudd

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o314/TritonMike/SpotCountryMike/huddspot.jpg

What Jake said ;) and I have hit a few spots on the 3:16 6" Real Deal Both floating and sinking, The last one was around 4 lbs at Pedro.

Don.

Thanks for the suggestions. This gives me a little more confidence throwing the 8inch hudd for those guys anyway.

Wish I had a 6inch real deal :)

Its probably to late for any help with your tournament but here it is anyways. Swimbaits do catch there fair share of piggy spotted bass. Just as often though you will see a frustrating amount of 5-8# fish that will follow and not strike. you might be able to get theses fish to hit a swimbait if you try different baits, speeds or angles but eventualy you'll lose there intrest or they will move off the spot.



#1 you have to give the swimbait a fair shot at getting bit. If you put your bait in the money zone enough times with out a bite don't try and force a bite. Try and fish faster and hit more key spots. Sometimes its takes a crazy fast retrieve to get a look from spotted bass. I have had days where you can go around and burn a fast sink BBZ or rof 16 Hudd and pull good fish off of key areas. Pay close attention to where the follows are coming from. Now you know where there at. Give them 5-10 mins and they will be right back where they were befor the follow. Now its up to you to catch them. You can try and go back with a swimbait a 6" hudd is a sweet follow up bait. More often than not I will go back with 6-8# floro. and a wacky rigged senko or drop shot rig.

My favorite swimbait for spots are mostly topwaters wake jr, punkers jr. and 7" slammers. This early in the year though I like hudds and 5" big hammers.

Didn't you used to have an anti spotted bass symbole under your name :) .