Big bass love to eat swimbaits everywhere they swim.
September 27, 2024
By David A. Brown
Jimmy Mason’s been at it for more than 20 years. As one of Alabama’s top bass guides and a seasoned tournament angler, his tackle collection reflects as much.
But if you pressed Mason to pick one bait for the late summer-early fall season, he won’t hesitate to point to the Bass Mafia bag holding his assemblage of soft swimbaits and the tackle tray full of lead heads. Especially during the late summer to early fall timeframe, largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass all fall for this professional baitfish impersonator.
“One hundred percent, it’s absolutely one of those baits that targets all three species because it imitates the shad that all of those fish eat,” Mason said. “Depending on jighead size, you can adjust for depth and the amount of current, so it’s a very versatile bait.
“The swimbait arsenal that I have in my boat goes from 3 inches to 7 inches and I have jigheads from 1/8-ounce to 1-ounce. This allows me to adapt to (whatever scenario I encounter) and cover from a foot to 30 feet.”
Advertisement
The swimbait is so versatile you can catch small fish all the way up to the biggest fish in the system. Why the Preference? Mason guides anglers on Pickwick, Wilson, Wheeler, Guntersville, and Smith lakes, but he’s confident he can take his swimbaits anywhere in the south and tempt bass wherever they roam. Best part about this technique is the ability to quickly adjust for different spots on the same fishery without a complete retooling.
“I recently fished a (brief) morning trip on Wheeler with some people that were on vacation and we were catching schooling fish on a 3-inch Yum Scottsboro Tackle swimbait with a 3/16-ounce jig head in 3 feet of water,” he said. “Whereas, if I was fishing a tournament, there are some deeper ledgers in 18 to 25 feet where I would be fishing a 4 1/2 - to 6-inch Scottsboro swimbait on a 1/4- to 1-ounce jighead, depending on how much current is running.
“There are several of those spots within half a mile of where we caught ‘em schooling. So, by varying the size and weight of the swimbait, you’re able to cover the entire water column.”
Advertisement
Varying retrieves further diversifies the swimbait appeal. As he notes, a quick burst of speed can alter the look enough to trigger bites.
“With FFS, you can see how fish are responding to your bait can be so valuable,” he said. “You can see if that slower speed gets the fish to react, or if that faster speed makes them react. You can see what they want on any given day, and what they want any given hour.”
What They Like In his area, and in much of the South, numbers often lean toward largemouth, so we’ll start there. His most common choices are the 3- and the 4.5-inch Scottsboros. The smaller bait’s ideal for targeting bass feeding on young-of-the-year baitfish—either monitored on his Livescope, or spotted busting bait balls in the backs of creeks.
Jimmy Mason knows how powerful a swimbait is in the Tennessee River systems. For this application, he prefers the Scottsboro Hellfire Finesse Swimbait Head’s screwlock keeper design.
“When you’re casting to breaking fish, a lot of times you’re making that very fast cast into the area where fish have come up and you have a short window of time when the bait is actually in the area where the school is breaking,” he explained. “A lot of times, you’ll cast past them and burn it up to where they’re breaking.
“Once you get it past them, you still have a chance to catch fish, but once I’m out of that high-percentage area where the biggest part of the school is breaking, a lot of times, I’ll burn it on in. With that screwlock, you have less chance of the bait sliding down the shank of the hook or a fish pulling it down. It’s more efficient because you’re not having to re-rig.”
Mason’s also keen to use his swimbaits to target largemouth on gravel bars where they’ll feed shallow in the morning, before dropping deeper and relating to current. Here, the same 3-inch Scottsboro fits the traditional presentation of casting upcurrent and bringing the bait down to the feeding area.
“I’m going to use that bait more to cover water on those bars, or on a ledge spot or an offshore shell bed,” Mason said. “I’m going to cast that swimbait, let it fall to the bottom and use a slow retrieve.”
For deeper spots, he switches to the 4.5-inch Scottsboro with a 1/2- to 3/4-ounce head. In swifter current, an ounce size may be necessary, but lighter is better and the bottom line is imitating the larger gizzard shad that bigger largemouth will be targeting.
The Cousins Complementing his largemouth work, Mason also enjoys throwing swimbaits for smallies and spots. For the latter, it’s typically a current-oriented scenario, but the brown ones do their share of fall schooling, too.
By downsizing a bit, you can also catch smallies and walleyes on swimbaits. “For smallmouth, I’ll fish a swimbait on a weighted hook because they like a waking action,” he said. “When they’re schooling on gravel bars, I’ll rig a 4 1/2-inch Scottsboro on a 6/0, 3/16- or 1/4-ounce Owner Beast hook so I can fish it up in the water column.
I’ll throw it up shallow, 1 to 2 feet, when they’re schooling and use a slow, steady retrieve so that tail is wagging. You get a lot of big bites this time of year like that.”
For deeper looks, Mason will use a 3-inch swimbait on a 1/8- to 3/8-ounce Scottsboro Hellfire Finesse Swimbait Head or a 4 1/2-inch bait on the 1/2- to 3/4-ounce Scottsboro Recon Jig Head. He typically fishes his swimbaits on 15-pound braid with a 10-pound fluorocarbon leader, but in stronger current, he’ll go straight fluoro because the sinking line cuts through the water better.
He finds his spotted bass are very similar to smallmouths, in their preference for main lake or main river spots washed by current. Nabbing a smallmouth and spot on back-to-back casts—no rarity.
“When I’m targeting spots, I’m picturing the rock piles and gravel bars that are getting the heaviest current flow,” he said. “Casting upstream and letting that swimbait wash down and hit that rock pile or gravel bar that’s out in the current is deadly.”
He finds the 3-inch Scottsboro on a 1/8- to 3/8-ounce head does the trick here—and for efficiently covering the long flat points common to Smith Lake.
Big smallmouth bass will eat a swimbait anywhere in North America--it's a solid bet. Stick It to ‘Em: Mason appreciates the higher landing percentages of single hook baits, but he stresses proper bite response
.
“It’s not necessarily like a flipping hook set with the upward snap; I feel like get a better hook set when I sweep to the side,” he said. “I use a medium-heavy rod, so it loads up well, but I’ll do a firm pull back when I sweep to the side.
“I feel like (this hook set) doesn’t pop the fish’s mouth open. Especially as you get into the larger sizes, that 3/4-ounce jighead is just like flipping with a big tungsten weight.”
