Swimbaits or swimmers are a loosely defined class of

fishing lure A fishing lure is a broad type of artificial angling baits that are replicas designed to mimic real prey animals and attract the attention of predatory fish, using appearances, flashy colors, bright reflections, movements, vibrations and/or loud ...

s that are designed to primarily imitate the underwater swimming motions of

baitfish 300px, Feeder Goldfish are common baitfish. Bait fish (or baitfish) are small-sized fish caught and used by anglers as bait to attract larger predatory fish, particularly game fish. Baitfish species are typically those that are common and b ...

es.

History

Swimbaits originated in the late 1980s as lures designed to imitate rainbow trout in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

s that

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, bu ...

and striped bass fed on. They were larger and more lifelike imitations than most available mass-produced lures at the time.

Types

Swimbaits are mainly broken down into 2 categories: hard body and soft body swimbaits.

Hard-body

Hard-body swimbaits are often made of either a

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

material. The goal of these baits is to mimic a baitfish in which a

predatory fish Predatory fish are hypercarnivorous fish that actively prey upon other fish or aquatic animals, with examples including shark, billfish, barracuda, pike/muskellunge, walleye, perch and salmon. Some omnivorous fish, such as the red-bellied piranh ...

(such as

, smallmouth bass,

spotted bass The spotted bass (''Micropterus punctulatus''), also called spotty, or spots in various fishing communities, is a species of North American freshwater fish belonging to the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of the order Perciformes. It is noted fo ...

pike Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to: Fish * Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus'' * Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes * ''Esox'', genus of ...

trout Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...

etc.) would eat. These baits are designed to have a swimming action that will provoke a

predatory Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...

instinct from the fish that cause it to strike the lure. The action of the lure varies based on the number of joints in the bait. A hard body bait with a single joint (or more commonly known as a ''glide bait'') provides an serpentine or "gliding" action in the water which can be fished on a variety of retrieve methods and speeds. Multi-jointed hard baits provided a more of a natural swimming appearance to the bait but can also provide some unique action with different retrieve styles and speeds.

Soft-body

Soft-body swimbaits are almost exclusively made out of

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, an ...

or soft plastic not unlike what your favorite package of artificial worms are made of. Some soft body swimbaits are designed to draw a strike from fish while very detailed baits (usually top hook) rely more on looks than actions. Soft body swimbaits have several sub-categories including paddle tails, line through, and top hook swimbaits. Paddle tail swimbaits are by far the most common swimbait many anglers use. These baits come in an array of sizes with the smaller sizes often being used as a trailer for a

spinnerbait A spinnerbait or spinner is any one of a family of hybrid fishing lures that combines the designs of a swimbait with one or more spoon lure blades. Spinnerbaits get the name from the action of the metallic blades, which passively revolve around ...

, chatterbait or underspin. The larger sizes however are seen often being fished on a swimbait Jig head or a weighted extra wide gap hook (ewg). The paddle tail swimbait also comes in either a solid body and hollow body. Line through swimbaits are a large swimbait which allows the line to run through the body of the bait to keep the fish from using the bait as leverage to thrown the hook. Top hook swimbaits are swimbaits which utilize a large, strong, jig style hook which protrudes from the top of the swimbait. The top hook swimbait will typically have a wedge style tail that's designed for colder water.

References

External links

'Top Ten Swimbait Picks in my Box'
- TheWiredAngler article with images {{fisheries and fishing Fishing equipment