The Basics of Using Swimbait

A swimbait is one of the more versatile fishing lures. They come in multiple sizes with swimming tails, or straight tails, or forked tails. They are usually shaped to represent a small fish. Matching a swimbait to the color and size and body style of your local forage fish will put you in the fish catching zone.

A swimbait can be rigged Texas style (with the hook buried in the plastic) or with the hook exposed. You can flip them or pitch them into the brush. You can cast them out and retrieve it as you would a plastic worm, slowly working the bottom or retrieve it fast like a fleeing bait fish. There is almost no end to how you can fish these lures.

Trolling for tuna

When trolling for tuna, we may have a full spread of just swimbaits or we may have rods at the ready when trolling other tuna lures like clones or cedar plugs. For trolling a full spread of swimbaits, we will usually rig them with 2.5 ounce leadheads. A fluorocarbon leader about 5 feet in length and we troll them at speeds from about 3 to 9 knots. I like the 5 and 6 inch baits for faster trolling.

I will vary the speed constantly until we find a speed that suits the fish. At higher speeds the swimbaits will be right at the surface. As you slow down they sink and that will trigger strikes. When a tuna hits, we speed up a bit to try and get a double or triple.

After a minute or so we slow to idle and work to bring in the fish. The empty rods are left in the holders. We just let them sink down as we play the fish we have already hooked. Many times those other rods will get bit as they are sinking or as soon as you speed the boat up again.

Casting to Tuna

Early in the season when the tuna are aggressive, we usually troll a spread of tuna clones or plugs. We always have a couple rods at the ready rigged with swimbaits. Once we are hooked up with a fish or three, whoever is not playing a fish will cast out a swimbait and just let it sink.

It is a common tactic in our west coast waters and it results in catching a lot of tuna. The other trick is sneaking up on schools of jumpers and just casting your swimbait right into them. They will get hit almost immediately.

Colors?

Follow the same rule for any fish. Dark days use dark colors, bright days use bright colors. With any clouds at all we prefer purple with a darker body. Sunny days it is blues and greens. Channel Island Chovy is a popular color. Black back with a blue stripe and then a silver belly.

Rigging

For my trolling swimbaits I superglue the bait to the leadheads. I want the swimbait as straight as I can put it on so it will track straight. For the casting baits we just push them on over the molded barbs. I usually like 4-5 feet of fluorocarbon leader attached to them also.

Usually 30 or 40 lbs. test. Tuna make a mess of these baits and so they don't survive very many fish anyway. We use the larger leadheads for trolling and 1 to 2 ounces heads for casting. Later in the season smaller baits and slower speeds seems to be the ticket.

Swimbaits, never go fishing without them!