What Is The Secret?

[Hughesy]

What is the secret to getting a swimbait to have the perfect "s" motion at very slow speeds. Like when it falling. This is your basic 5" swimbait with the line tie in the middle of the nose. Slow to medium speeds are ok. Medium to fast speeds are great.

[Vodkaman]

Like lipped cranks, there is a minimum speed at which the action occurs. It is a hydrodynamics thing that I will not bore you with. The minimum speed varies with size (I think), so a larger bait will start to swim at a slower speed.

For your 5" bait, larger just means fatter.

Dave

Edited January 12, 2010 by Vodkaman

[benton B]

I just play around with swimbaits so I'm no expert but I've found that a good taper from head to tail thru all segments gives the bait a good action even at slower speeds. I've never really paid attention to how slow I can reel the bait and still get that same action. I like to place the line tie under the nose just a little to give the head of the bait a little lift.

[Toxicbaits]

In my swimbait experience I havent had to much of a problem getting a good S motion with my baits as long as they are s-l-o-w sinkers. with the faster sinks I put more weight in the head section to keep the bait down on the retrieve. this seems to add action due to the boyency(<----not the correct spelling i dont think) of the rear two sections. I use double screw eyes joints with no notch... I did read on here a while back about putting the V "notch" on the rear section of the bait intead of the head... this allows it to catch more water and if I remeber right the poster said this allowed a VERY slow retrieve with good action.

Hope this help a little.

Ceaser

[mark poulson]

From my experience, loose joints are the key to slow speed swimming action.

If my lure can bend into a U shape when I hold it with the head facing down, it will swim at all speeds.

When I showed one of my 7" swimbaits to Bill Siemantel recently, the first thing he did was the U shape test. When he saw it made the full U, he said I'd got it.

I also keep the ballast toward the front as much as possible, so the tail is free swinging.

Edited January 14, 2010 by mark poulson