The first one is always the hardest one. It's hard to believe you'll get bit on a 9" bait until you get bit on it. I know the feeling exactly. After reading about all these huge bass at Casitas on AC Plugs, Castaic's and Dinosaurs I bought a 7" AC and a Dinosaur. The first time I took the Dinosaur to Casitas I fished off the shore and in my mind I believed that I would just throw it out there and start catching right away. Imagine the how disillusioned I was after an hour or so! I didn't get touched. We threw the AC from my friend's boat at Casitas later on and figured it would be hookup city. Yeah right. Same deal years later at Santa Margarita Lake, I still had my 7" AC Plug and got re-motivated to throw it. And throw it I did for a darn long time before I got bit. Getting that first one took probably 2 years of half-assing it. I look back now and would KILL to be on Casitas in '95 throwing trouts or Margarita in '97 knowing what I know now.

The difference is now I have a boat, a half dozen swimbait rods, and the confidence to throw when I think I'm going to get bit. When you're just tossing it out and winding it in, you're looking for a needle in a haystack. When you start being agressive, making moves, working your bait across key spots, sneaking up on points and cover and all that stuff, that's when you get hit. For every pic of a guy with a big fish hanging on a swimbait, you can bet that guy put in a whole hell of a lot of time to get that fish.

I doubt you're striking out because you don't know how to fish, it's probably just because you haven't seen it happen yet. Some of my good friends whose arms I twisted and pulled on telling them to throw the Slammer didn't believe in it until they saw me get a fish on it in person. Once you SEE it happen, then you'll believe it. If you can 'see it' happen to yourself, that's awesome. If you go with someone else and see them do it, that works too.

Anyway, the only way you'll get a fish is to keep trying. Swimbait fishing is trendy right now and sounds all glamorous, but you're either going to be grinding them out or making specific moves to get swimbait fish these days. The days of stupid easy fish are mostly gone.