Where & How to Fish ’Em
McClintock recommends casting swimbaits anywhere you’d fish livebait or more traditional striper lures: Around submerged wood cover, current eddies, shoals, gravel bars and mid-depth holes in rivers, and around points, tributary pockets and submerged humps in slackwater reservoirs.
Many artificial lures require a great deal of rod manipulation on the angler’s part to achieve the right action, but usually not swimbaits. “I’ve had good luck just casting ’em out and reeling ’em back to the boat at a fairly fast, steady clip,” Fred says. “This mimics a fleeing baitfish to a T. Just hold the rod steady and the lure’s realistic swimming action and thumping tail do the work for you.”
Then again, two years in a row he’s watched Stange work the WildEye Swim Shad in a unique way that definitely does work for big fish. “Basically, he works the bait very aggressively,” McClintock offers. “It’s a heavy bait for its size, and it’s made differently from some of the other baits that are more like plastic crankbaits than straight swimbaits. The lead’s molded into the head of the bait and the bait’s beveled, with the bottom wider than the top.
“First of all, Stange’s always in position to strike with the rod tip up. A striper hits so hard that if you aren’t totally prepared, they just pick your pocket and get loose right away. As soon as the bait touches down, rod tip up high, he cranks the reel handle quickly about 10 cranks, pauses momentarily, then cranks quickly another 10 or 12 cranks. This creates a sort of walk-the-doggy swimbait action that makes this bait flash and swim in a way that stripers really like. He keeps the rod butt tucked into his stomach with the rod tip up pretty much through the entire retrieve. It works.”
For a real adrenaline rush, cast a swimbait at surfacing stripers, McClintock suggests. “I’ve had schooling fish just about rip the rod out of my hands, they attack these lures so savagely. If you spot schoolies, cast close to the surface boil and either burn the lure back toward you by reeling it very quickly, or let it sink a foot or so on a tight line, then use a constant medium retrieve. Surfacing fish usually hit it right away but sometimes they follow, in which case you can often trigger a strike by sweeping the rod tip to one side or switching to a stop-and-go retrieve.”
*Don Wirth, Nashville, Tennessee, is a long-time In-Fisherman contributor and an admitted striper junkie. Fred McClintock (931/243-2142; trophyguideservice.com) guides for stripers on the Cumberland River system in Tennessee and Kentucky.
