Big Glides and Big Swimbaits

I use them quite a bit but more for saltwater as I don't bass fish much. However my lifelong best friend helped develop the swimbait revolution so I do use them a lot.

Can't speak highly enough about Bull Shad swimbaits they work

I am curious, but don't know where or when to throw them.

I've caught fish on glides all year except prob late summer when I don't really fish that much. In winter I'll usually do a count down to get em deeper or attach grenade weights to em to speed up the process. There are times when they will come off the bottom just to look at it and meet my bait halfway. I do get a lot of followers, but sometimes they will blast it aggressively. Supposedly the glides are better than the choppers when its cold, but i just always seem to have a chopper tied on. I'm trying to throw the big swimbaits more for the bottom dwellers. Just haven't committed myself to it. I did order a Battle Shad 9" last week, but that thing holds a 12/0 beast hook which i had to order as well. In spring and summer, the choppers are fantastic around wood, grass and especially docks. Just have to careful about breaking ur bait trying to sling it under one. Berkley just came out with the Chop Block in big sized that hopefully will be good around docks. I got the 8 and 10' one but haven't tried em yet. Milliken has a good video explaing glides.

Milliken

I've had some huge bass follow a crappie up when I am fishing piles. Always wondered if I should have one of these tied on when crappie fishing.

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I got into the big swim baits about 4 years ago. I fish at Toledo Bend.

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Going to try to go more this year. What water do I throw these in?

Any where really. But they swim about 1 to 3 feet deep. you can let them sink. but then you run into problems of them snagging something and you just lost your bait. I fish them with 25 lb floro line. And after about 50 cast I re-tie. or after a bite. But where I fish them the most is on a flat. about 5 to 15 ft of water with grass under, and you have about 2 to 5 ft of open water on top. If you watch on your live scope you can see that these baits draw a lot of attention. You will see fish follow them often but not bite.

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But where I fish them the most is on a flat. about 5 to 15 ft of water with grass under, and you have about 2 to 5 ft of open water on top

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Right up my alley. Going to try at 6 mile/Sandy this Spring.

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Lastly you will need a fiberglass rod built for the weight of the bait. Around 7 ft for use 2.0 to 4.0 oz baits.

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Glass rods can work fine for specific applications but they arent a necessity. I would wager the majority of guys throwing swimbaits are using graphite rods.

For glides, wakes, slides and other treble hook swimbaits, a rod with a more parabolic bend is needed. For single hook swimbaits and especially if running a weedless swimbait (magdraft freestyle), a faster rod is needed to drive hooksets.

Depending on what your current fishing styles include, you may already have a rod that would work for baits up to 2-3oz.

A heavy flipping stick is often a more parabolic bend and can handle the heavy weights of glides.

For throwing soft swimbaits (small line-thrus or 6" magdraft), a jig rod would work fine.

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I've had some huge bass follow a crappie up when I am fishing piles. Always wondered if I should have one of these tied on when crappie fishing.

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On our private lake, the lake record is 13 pound largemouth, caught on a 9 inch crappie.