SWiMBaitS tIps
that stabs and/or coils into the bait’s head about a quarter inch holds the plastic in perfect alignment. Simply run the point into the belly and out the back so it sits in a weedless position. For a more proactive approach, prevent weed snagging by ensuring proper hook placement. When you run the hook through the bait’s belly and out the back, bringing the point out too far forward gives the bait excessive
room to slip down the hook’s bend and that opens a gap between the back and the hook point. essentially, you want the bait snug against the top side of the hook bend so the plastic’s own tension holds it in place. don’t overdo it, though. inserting the hook point too far back on the bait creates an unnatural bend by bunching the bait in front of the hook bend. Sebile simplifies the procedure with a hook channel drilled through each bait. When in doubt, use the pinch method: lay the hook level with your bait, lightly pinch the body where the bottom of the bend aligns and use this point as your guide for running the hook through the bait.
optIons
OTHER OPTIONS FOR BOLSTERING YOUR SOFT SwIMBAIT INCLUDE:
Slip the eye of a treble hook onto the bend of a swimbait hook or that of a swimbait lead head. Add a plastic bead to the main hook’s bend to keep the stinger in place. In open water, dangle the stinger from the bend of a swimbait hook to increase its effective range, but pin it to the body in weedy habitat.
Rig a treble hook with a split ring and work the ring onto the neck of a weighted swimbait hook, between the eye and the lead. Use a split ring that’s smaller than the main hook’s eye to lock the dangling stinger in place.
Replace the blade on an underspin swimbait head like a Basstrix Spintrix with a treble hook. Similarly, Sworming Hornet’s Fish Head Slider features a wire loop on its underside for hanging a split ring and a treble hook.
With a through-line bait, tie your line to the top ring of a 3-way swivel positioned under the bait and add a treble hook to the other two rings (connect with split rings). For additional lip- grabbing power, run a stinger harness from the swivel’s center joint and pin this trailing hook under the tail.
MORE BITE FOR YOUR BAIT
to make their swimbaits more effective at latching what bites, savvy anglers boost the standard hardware with additional hooks. Bassmaster pro Byron Velvick has learned that multiple points reduce the risk of fish shaking off, while they up his chances of nabbing indecisive short strikers. Velvick’s namesake rago BV 3d features a line-through design that runs diagonally from the snout to just behind the molded, downward slanting pectoral fins. Velvick ties his line to a forward facing treble hook and then pins one of the points in the bait’s belly. This aligns the remaining two points parallel with the underside so the bait’s pectoral fins serve as weed guards to minimize snagging. Velvick expands his hooking potential with an owner stinger harness. The harness comprises a length of 80-pound braided line with a large loop at one end and an owner eZ-Snap (dual interlocking design) to hold an owner treble hook at the other. Partially running the loop through the eye of a lead hook, passing the treble through this loop and then cinching down the braid positions a hook at both ends of the bait. (Pinning the trailer behind the ventral fins provides another set of weed guards.) The stinger harness also works with swimbait heads or swimbait hooks. Similar to a stinger harness, use the tag end of a main knot tied to the swimbait hook to hold a treble. experiment with tag end lengths to determine the best stinger placement.
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