Page 53 - Modern Fishing

The tactics for
swimbaiting jewies are
remarkably different to
‘normal’ daytime tactics

WHAT THE HELL IS A SWIMBAIT?
6ZLPEDLWV DUH D ORRVHO\ GHÀ QHG larger and more lifelike imitations eventually succeed but there will
class of lures, designed to imitate than your typical lure. be a steep learning curve and if you
larger quarry and mimic a perfectly This technique is very easily HPEUDFH WKH À VK OHVV VHVVLRQV WKH\ ZLOO
healthy food source. From paddle transferred over to our beloved build character. This all or nothing
tail soft plastics to large ‘hybrid mulloway. Big mulloway typically approach was bred from Californian
baits’ they all come under the same feed on a large bait source, while lakes where anglers wanted to cherry
VZLPEDLW EDQQHU 6ZLPEDLWV FDQ EH there are quite a few other bait pick only the largest female bass.
crafted from hard plastic, wood, soft sources that make up the mulloway’s When limiting your arsenal to
plastic or all of the above, as long as diet, in estuaries. Mullet make up a large swimbaits of various varieties,
they are swimming like bait, they large percentage of their terrestrial there is a huge possibility you are
are a swimbait. intake and there is no better way limiting yourself to only targeting
Hard swimbaits typically have a to imitate a mullet than a slowly ODUJH À VK 7KLV WDNHV WLPH WR
joint in them. Whereas soft plastic worked swimbait. understand and a huge part of the
swimbaits impart their own action Almost all of my swimbaiting psychological battle is for you to
through the shape of their tail or water for mulloway takes place under the ignore your desires to downsize and
turbulence caused by the shape and cover of darkness. When embarking potentially catch better numbers of
undulations on their body. on the journey that is swimbaiting VPDOOHU À VK 6WLFNLQJ WR \RXU JXQV
6ZLPEDLWV RULJLQDWHG DV OXUHV for mulloway, you need to enter the though and imitating the trophy
designed to imitate the trout in swimbait psyche. sized mulloway’s quarry will
6RXWKHUQ &DOLIRUQLD·V GDPV DQG $OO RU QRWKLQJ ELJ EDLWV ELJ À VK eventually result in the utter sense
lakes that largemouth bass and hero or zero. These are all part of the of the accomplishment of sliding the
striped bass feed on. They were a lot swimbait specialist’s credo. You will QHW XQGHU DQ ;26 MHZÀ VK

MODERN FISHING 53