RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
jesse,
Oct 01st 2003, #1
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
jesse,
Oct 01st 2003, #2
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
Mattlures,
Oct 01st 2003, #3
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
brian,
Oct 01st 2003, #4
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
Nico,
Oct 01st 2003, #5
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
swimbait,
Oct 02nd 2003, #6
The PERFECT swimbait !,
Leapin Bass,
Oct 02nd 2003, #7
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
BassinPatrick,
Oct 02nd 2003, #8
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
Mattlures,
Oct 02nd 2003, #9
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
Jeff,
Oct 03rd 2003, #10
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
Mattlures,
Oct 04th 2003, #11
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
gonebassin,
Oct 05th 2003, #12
RE: The perfect swimbait ?,
Chris,
Oct 09th 2003, #13
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brian | Wed Oct-01-03 09:21 PM |
Charter member
2409 posts
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#11122, "RE: The perfect swimbait ?"
In response to Reply # 0
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Number one most important factor: Originality
It has to be different than just about anything else on the market. There are so many specialized baits already, that most categories are already near perfection. If you try to make a jointed bait, you'll have a hard time trying to make a better one than the slammer. Paddle tail, the osprey and rago trout are tough to beat as well, and there's also a ton of baits in that category currently on the market. Yours may get left in the dust if it's no different than the other dozens of paddle tail swimbaits currently available (which are tried and true). 3:16 has some pretty good original designs, that's what I like about mickey, he's original.
Word of warning- if you're going to make a swimbait to sell commercially, first of all make sure you're not stepping on anybody's toes already making swimbaits. Secondly, make sure your bait will catch fish, not necessarily fishermen. How pretty does an MS Slammer look anyway? Not as fancy as a castaic hardbait that's for sure, but it's the most productive hardbait that I know of. If it catches fish, the fishermen will follow.
Your design is going to take a lot of original thought to present something that will catch fish consistently, warrant its price tag and give people a reason to buy that one over the other dozens already available. I would suggest spending a lot of time throwing swimbaits, a lot of time talking to guys that throw swimbaits if you can, and knowing the ins and outs of swimbait fishing and where there's room for improvement and addition.
With all that said, here's a few things I find important in just about any swimbait:
Hookup percentage: ms slammer with gammie trebles probably has the best hookup ratio of any swimbait. The more trebles the better on swimbaits. You don't carolina rig a trout bait, there's only a couple situations where you need a weedles trout bait, and that niche is pretty well filled (mission fish). The vast majority of the time if you're fishing swimbaits like you should, it'll be in open water and you should be more concerned about hooking fish rather than getting snagged.
Size: if you're replicating a trout, 7" should be the smallest you go. I'd say the largest would be 14", maybe bigger. 12" is a safe bet for sales.
Motion: good action is key. In my opinion the megabait charlie is a great example of what not to do... Make your bait not swim like the charlie and you'll be ok :D Best action award would probably go to the stocker trout. Trout in real life just kind of cruise with flicks of their tail. You want your swimbait to exaggerate their motion like it's struggling, or looks like it can't burst off very fast if it's ambushed.
Color: this plays a minor role. Size and motion seem to be the stand bys. If your swimbait is colored somewhat like a trout, it'll be fine. This is the part where you can catch more anglers than fish. A pretty paint job is fine and dandy, but I guarantee a bare wood colored slammer will still catch as well as the day it was painted. I used to have a slammer that was so chewed up it looked nothing like a trout color anymore, and it still caught just as well.
A little more than $.02 -Brian
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swimbait | Thu Oct-02-03 12:19 AM |
Charter member
9890 posts
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#11125, "RE: The perfect swimbait ?"
In response to Reply # 0
Thu Oct-02-03 12:22 AM by swimbait
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First off - good luck. Everyone is jumping into the swimbait market right now.
What do I want in a swimbait. I want a bait that looks and swims like a frickin trout! I see all these baits coming out lately that don't really look like a trout. You know what looks like a trout, a Castaic Hardbait, Castaic Softbait, Generic hardbait, MS Slammer, Stocker Trout, and a couple other ones. Some of these baits look more like trout than others, but they all have one thing in common. They either look like a trout, or they swim like a trout. Stocker trout doesn't look exactly like a trout, but it sure as heck swims like a trout. MS Slammer doesn't look exactly like a trout, but it has a trout profile and it sure swims nice. Castaic Hardbait doesn't swim exactly like a trout, but it sure looks like a trout. You get the drift there.
I also second what Nico said about having to re-rig, nail weight, tune repeatedly, superglue etc. Fishable baits are what stay on the end of my line. I don't have time to tune baits every trip. If a bait doesn't swim after 2 or 3 casts, I cut it off and throw it on the deck and tie on the next one. What catches fish is what says on the end of the line. I think this is half the reason so many fish get caught on the Slammer. You put it on, tune it once if you need to, then you fish it and it's good trip after trip after trip after trip. Getting 100 fish on a bait is no big deal. For $30 a bait, that's a bargain at twice the price.
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BassinPatrick | Thu Oct-02-03 02:12 PM |
Member since Nov 29th 2002
93 posts
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#11134, "RE: The perfect swimbait ?"
In response to Reply # 0
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is your bait going to be wooden? if so, the castaic trout hard bait comes to mind. you can make it out of wood, or even injected, hard plastic. thats what i want to see, and not at 100 bux a pop either. something that dives 4 feet on a medium retrieve, and crawls the surface on a slow one, but maintains the same good action however fast you crank it. most importantly just ake it have the profile of a trout, like not cylindrical, but ovular(is that a word?) you know what im sayin. well if its gonna be a soft plastic bait, you may as wekk just give up...there are MANY soft plastic lures out there. i throw the stocker, thats a bait i think draws the most strikes. if you can make a stocker without making it a STOCKER, i mean not usin the wing, but has the same action, and has 2 hooks, you've got a winning bait. -patrick ________________________ Assalt Lures http://www.assalt.com Big Hammer http://www.swimbait.com Catch and Release!
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