The scene was quirky and comical. Like boys at a birthday party playing with new toys, 10 of the world’s top bass pros swapped rods and cast swimbaits between bites of sandwiches off a pier at Lake Amistad, way down on the Mexican border.

“Look how this one turns on the pause,” noted Mike Iaconelli as he tossed a prototype.

“No, I like the ones you can really burn and work erratically around cover,” said Kevin VanDam as he showed off Strike King’s new King Shad.

“Now guys, here’s how you’re supposed to retrieve a swimbait,” added Byron Velvick, who used these baits in competition for a decade before any of the eastern-based pros ventured to toss them and set a tournament weight record in the process.

At the conclusion of the Lake Amistad Bassmaster Elite Tournament, it was clear that this lure category was no longer a California secret or a way to lure trout-eaters, but a bread-and-butter technique for lakes everywhere. Though the event was won by Derek Remitz, who fished football jigs on deep ledges, most top finishers made major use of swimbaits to attain the 5-pound average needed to cash a check here.

This shouldn’t have been a revelation. Back in 1995, In-Fisherman published an article on the feats and features of supersized lures for bass. In 2000, Velvick set the all-time weight record for a 3-day tournament at Clear Lake by tossing swimbaits. “But that was California,” the experts said. Bill Siemantel has been preaching big baits and also winning tournaments for ages, too. “But that’s in California,” echoed the crowd.

Western pros Brent Ehrler and Ish Monroe used medium-sized swimbaits to catch key bass at earlier competitions in Florida and Texas. And in 2006, Davy Hite of South Carolina combined his knowledge of blueback herring behavior and Storm’s WildEye Swim Shad to take the top prize on Clarks Hill Reservoir.

When Steve Kennedy, a swimbait neophyte from Alabama, used newly purchased Ospreys, Huddlestons, and BassTrix baits to take the crown last April at Clear Lake, (setting a new record of 20 bass weighing 112 pounds in the process), the crowd went wild and swimbait makers shifted into high gear—and not just in California.

Mike Berry, owner of California SwimBabes, notes a recent shift in sales. “When I purchased Eagle Lures a couple of years ago, it was a struggle to increase sales outside the West Coast market,” he reports. “I moved the company to Ohio and worked to get my lures into the hands of top pros.

“Apparently it’s working, because since early 2007 I can’t keep up with orders for my Baby “E” and Tiny “E.” Indeed, it was Kevin VanDam who introduced me to the Baby “E” at Amistad, after he’d used it with success there. Along the way, Mike Berry’s brother Art, a bass pro from Hemet, California, has served as a conduit to other pros around the country, as well as an advisor on lure design.