Anyone fished big swimbaits for bass?

[alloutdoors]

By big swimbaits I mean 8" and up, things like Huddleston's, Savage Gear Real Trout, Spro BBZ-1 80's, etc.

When I was younger I used to go fishing every chance I had. After getting married and having kids it seems like I get down to the creek and fish for smallies a couple times a year and I do some trout fishing when we are on vacation, but that's about it. Last year I was fishing for some trout for dinner at a state park and was catching quite a few that were just under the 12" legal length. I caught one in particular that was about 1/8" shy of being legal, and when I released it I realized it wasn't doing particularly well, despite my best efforts to get it going again. It was swimming circles and kept listing to one side. While I was debating whether to grab my net and just add it to my bag I noticed a shadow moving underneath the trout. I stood there and watched as an enormous largemouth slowly swam up and just inhaled the trout. My personal best bass is over 6lbs, and this fish was easily larger than that, and this was in a lake that I have fished pretty much all my life and never saw a bass over about 3 pounds.

Anyway, having seen this play out right in front of me it sort of rekindled some of the passion I used to have for bass fishing when I was younger and led me to do a bunch of reading over the winter on throwing big swimbaits for bass. I picked up several big trout imitators and had to get a new rod and reel since these baits run 3.5 to 5+ ounces and I didn't have any setups close to that heavy. These definitely aren't baits to fish for numbers, but when you want to go after the biggest bass in the lake they seem like a great choice. I'm looking forward to getting out this weekend on another trout stocked lake and putting everything to its first field test. Now I just need to find a bass like the one I saw last year.

Has anyone else had success running any of these big baits?

8" Huddleston's in a couple different rates of fall, and one weedless.

8" BBZ-1 floater and slow sink models, and a River2Sea S-Waver 200 glide bait.

Close up of one of the Hudds.

And a BBZ.

[Fletch]

I want to catch the bass that is hitting those!!

[doebuck1234]

13 minutes ago, Fletch said:

I want to catch the bass that is hitting those!!

Me too!!i was using a custom made wake bait for my personal best largemouth prob only 3-4"long. can imagine what kind of slob would hit those!!!

[alloutdoors]

Surprisingly guys still catch 2-3lbers on these, especially the surface lures where it's sometimes more of a reactionary strike. But they will definitely draw out the big ones. These are only 8" baits, small in comparison to the 12" live trout that I watched get eaten last year. My best guess is that bass was around 7-8lbs.

[doebuck1234]

Sounds believable with hungry bass around!may be something id look into giving a shot at.best of luck!

[The_Real_TCIII]

You've got a small fortune in Huddlestons there!

[alloutdoors]

The Hudd's aren't all that bad, at least as far as these big baits go. If they were Deps 250's that would be a small fortune. They are all pricey compared to typical bass tackle, but not that far out of line when you look at similarly sized musky lures.

[dbHunterNY]

have had much more luck swimming weedless stick bait that big, but mostly on the smaller end of that size.  i still have some soft plastic swim baits that big like the Banjo minnows that you'd see on TV. never use them though.

[alloutdoors]

Ha, I remember the Banjo Minnow, probably have some in my garage somewhere. I had a grandmother who spent too much time watching QVC, so as a kid I wound up with kits of the Banjo Minnow, the Flying Lure, and Roland Martin's Helicopter Lure as Christmas presents. I did catch a nice bass on the Flying Lure once, jigging it and making it look like a crawfish.

[The_Real_TCIII]

I used to love fishing big plastic worms, 14-16". I wish I still lived near a big LMB lake. Chautauqua is a poke for me

[Pygmy]

I don't have tackle heavy enough to fish a lure that big...My HEAVY gear  is a 7"  medium light action open face rod that I run 10 lb. test on.  I also don't fish largemouths much.    My standard rig for walleyes, smallies and panfish is a 6 1/2' light action graphite with 6 lb. test...