Hey Spike and anyone else for that matter here's something I wrote up in about an hour this January but never posted...Maybe it will help maybe it won't.

Great leaders have it. The great sports players have it. A great fisherman definitely has it. Well what is ‘it’? If you haven’t guessed that ‘it’ is CONFIDENCE. A great fisherman has confidence that the bait they are throwing is going to get bit on every cast otherwise they wouldn’t be throwing it. When it comes to throwing the big swimbaits for bass fisherman have a hard time getting confidence in these baits. I’ve heard everything from “It would have to be a monster to eat that!” to “Do you actually catch fish on that thing?” Well the answer is “No they don’t.” and “Yes, I have along with thousands of other people.” To me there are 2 kinds of confidence that will lead people to throw the big rubber and wood swimbaits. They are borrowed confidence and personal confidence.

Borrowed confidence is usually why you buy a swimbait in the first place. It could be from a picture at the local tackle shop that shows someone with a trophy bass from your local lake that was caught on a swimbait. Maybe you read a report online about someone catching their first ten pound bass on a swimbait and decided to buy one because you would like to be the one posting that report about your first ten pound bass. Whatever causes you to buy your first 9 inch lure usually comes down to borrowed confidence. The “If they can do it, why can’t I?” way of thinking. The problem with borrowed confidence is it can run low in a hurry. You go out your first time with your freshly bought swimbait thinking that the swimbait is all you will throw and for 5 hours you do and you get skunked big time, no follows, no taps, nothing. It can really get you down. You were pumped up to buy it and get to throw it only to be knocked off that pedestal during your first trip. Well get back on that pedestal and keep throwing, maybe not everyday all day but try to throw them an hour or two a trip, maybe just a few casts when you arrive at a spot and a few casts when you are leaving a spot, just make sure the swimbait sees the water every trip. Eventually you will get something, a follow, a hit, and eventually some fish.

This is where personal confidence comes into play. You paid $30 for the swimbait, threw it for a few hours every trip and finally you caught one. You just cleared a big hurdle, that first fish on a swimbait. This hurdle is usually the hardest and luckily it keeps getting smaller as the fish count rises right along with your confidence. Seeing other people catching fish on swimbaits can give you confidence, but there is nothing like holding a fish that you personally caught on a swimbait to give you a big confidence boost. Eventually throwing a 9 inch swimbait isn’t so daunting and you find yourself doing it more and more. Consequently the more and more you throw the swimbait the more fish you will catch. Granted you won’t be getting 10 fish per day on a swimbait like you would on a Senko or a plastic worm, but the fish will almost definitely be quality fish. I say almost because I have caught 1 and 2 pound fish on a 9 inch bait.

So what does this all mean? If you have been on the edge about trying out swimbaits, go to www.calfishing.com and read the trophy forum for lots of good information about swimbaits. Also www.trophybassonly.com has a great forum, along with hundreds of pictures of trophy bass many of them caught on swimbaits. So go online, get some confidence, buy some swimbaits, (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/swimbaits.html?from=calfish) and start chucking.

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Pretending to be a swimbait fisherman since 2001.