When it comes to catching big bass, few can match the
record of SPRO pro staff angler Bill Siemantel, who has caught more than 300
largemouths topping 10 pounds and at least a dozen over 15 pounds. Many
of those giants have come on swim baits, a lure he has been designing,
perfecting, and fishing for more than 25 years.
‘My father and I built our
first swim baits out of wood in the mid-1980’s, remembers Siemantel, after we
discovered big bass would regularly hit big lures. As we fished these
larger lures, ranging from 8 to 12 inches long, we realized you can fish them
the very same ways you fish smaller 2 and 3-inch lures.
The keys are understanding
how they work in the water and using the proper retrieve technique for the
conditions. It’s really that simple, and I believe any fisherman who has
the desire and is willing to learn how to use swim baits definitely can and
will catch larger bass.
In 2006 Siemantel began
developing the BBZ-1 Swim Baits for SPRO, a series of three injection-molded,
8-inch jointed lures featuring a soft flexible tail for even more natural
swimming action. They’re available in floating, slow sinking, and
fast sinking models to cover all water depths, and it took Siemantel two years
to perfect them. Today, the BBZ-1 lures are fished all over the world in
freshwater and salt for dozens of species, and Siemantel himself has caught
bass topping 18 pounds with them.
I look at swim baits as
tools, explains the California pro, who in 2009 was inducted into the
Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame for his contributions to bass fishing, and the
real beauty of these lures is that they teach you more about bass, and much
faster, than small lures do.
The SPRO BBZ-1 swim baits
have been designed to look and swim with total realism in the water, and with
the three different models you can not only fish different depths throughout
the water column, but also use a wider variety of presentations. Probably
the first thing a fisherman notices with swim baits is that they have
phenomenal drawing power and can make a lot of things happen, and I can tell
you from experience that’s true with the BBZ-1.
The very first bass I
caught on a BBZ-1 prototype was a
5 pounder that hit in the
middle of the lake, continues Siemantel.
The lure was wood and it
wasn’t painted, but it had enough realism to fool that fish. The beauty
of an 8-inch lure, in comparison to both smaller and larger sizes, is that it
can represent more types of forage than a 3-inch or a 12-inch lure can so it’s
actually more versatile on different lakes.
Some bass fishermen
hesitate to use a large 8-inch lure and choose a smaller crankbait
instead. The disadvantage lipped crankbaits have, however, is that
because they’re floating lures they arc in a pendulum pattern during retrieve
and are at maximum depth only for a short time.
The slow sinking and fast
sinking BBZ-1 swim baits, by contrast, can be fished at any depth, even in the
middle of the water column for suspended bass, and kept at that depth much
longer.
For fishermen wanting to
try these lures for the first time, Siemantel suggests they start by fishing
points, steep bluff walls, or underwater humps and ridges, depending on what’s
available. He also recommends using a slow, steady retrieve that imitates
a naturally-swimming baitfish.
Points are universally
attractive to bass throughout the country because they offer structure, depth
changes, and generally some type of cover, he notes. What I like to do is
position my boat up on the point in the shallow water, cast out to deeper
water, and slowly retrieve a floating BBZ-1 up the point.
After just a couple of
casts like this, I change to the slow-sinking BBZ-1. I make the same cast
to deeper water and count it down several seconds before I bring it back up the
point. The first casts with the floating bait will get the attention of
bass in the area and begin to draw them in, but the slow-sinking BBZ-1 swimming
in slightly deeper water is what usually brings the strikes.
I’ve seen this happen so
many times it’s almost a ritual for me, and anyone who fishes swim baits
regularly will see it, too. These lures will re-position bass, literally
drawing them in from open water to structure or cover because they represent an
easy meal. Today, I always have a floating BBZ-1 rigged and ready in the
boat now wherever I go.
Siemantel also likes to
fish steep-sided bluff walls, where he moves his boat next to the wall and
makes long casts right along the rock face, actually touching it periodically with
the lure during his retrieve. Bass suspend along these types of structure
but will come up to hit a slow-moving swim bait.
One way to visualize this
is to think of a bluff wall as the bottom, says Siemantel. Just rotate
the wall in your mind and think that you’re slow-rolling your swim bait along
that bottom. Rock bluffs usually have small, subtle features on them
under the surface that we can’t see, but these features, such as little
indentions or outcroppings, attract bass, and when your swim bait comes past,
the fish definitely see it.
The slow sinking BBZ-1
falls at a rate of one foot every two seconds, while the fast sinking model
falls one foot per second. With my boat electronics, I can learn the
water depth and count my lure down to whatever depth I want to cover.
Fishing humps and ridges
follows much the same principle, in that Siemantel likes to fish up the slope
rather than down it, and he again recommends beginning with a slow, steady
retrieve.
Later, when you gain more
confidence with swim baits, you can vary your retrieve speed and even twitch
the lure with your rod, just as you do with smaller lures, he advises, but if
you’re just getting started, keep everything simple. Establishing a
consistent cadence is extremely important with swim baits because you’re basing
your presentation on realism, and most forage swims slow and methodically.
Using properly matched
tackle is also extremely important in swim bait fishing, and Siemantel uses the
same rod/reel/line combination with each of the three BBZ-1 models. These
include his own custom-designed 8-foot heavy action rod (produced by Lamiglas),
a Shimano Calcutta 400 because of its line capacity and strength, and 25-pound
Maxima monofilament. He has used this combination for the past 12 years
and it has certainly proven its worth, considering the quantity and quality of
the bass he’s caught with it.
I think the main thing to
remember about fishing swim baits is putting in the time to understand the
lures themselves and how they work, concludes the SPRO angler. While you
can fish them the same ways you fish smaller lures, these larger baits impact
the bass much differently.
When you use a big lure
like the BBZ-1, you’re going to learn fish behavior much faster because the
fish react more quickly, and you’re also going to increase the size of the bass
you catch. Big lures like this will increase your chances dramatically.
