Ike's love of swimbaits

Should you happen to be planning a trip to Falcon Reservoir anytime soon, try to visit a certain underwater roadbed on the lower end of the lake where the depth drops from 20 feet on top of the road to 35 feet on one side. You probably won’t need anything except a supply of swimbaits.

Michael Iaconelli knows the place well. During the Bassmaster Elite tournament there last April, the New Jersey pro brought in 113 pounds of bass in four days with a swimbait and still finished a distant 11th .

Afterward, the 2003 Classic champion was as excited about his swimbait as he was about his Top-12 finish.

“I’ve been fishing swimbaits for several years, after first using them at Clear Lake, but this tournament definitely proves these lures work just as well in lakes that aren’t stocked full of rainbow trout,” he exclaimed. “The more I fish them, the more I realize swimbaiting is more than just a lure. It’s a technique like crankbaiting or worming, and it will work all year long in a lot of different situations.”

That’s primarily because today swimbaits are produced in far more sizes and styles than in years past. They’re not all 12- or 15-inch lures painted like trout; in fact, some of the most productive sizes are less than 10-inches in length, and many soft plastics companies now make 4 to 6-inch versions that can be fished weedless.

Design innovations like these, along with his own years of experimentation – many Elite pros are ‘secretly’ fishing swimbaits every chance they get – have led Iaconelli to isolate several specific techniques he uses with swimbaits most often. He doesn’t hesitate to break some of the established rules about using these remarkable baits, and predicts swimbaits will continue to evolve as anglers develop more ways to fish them.

One of Iaconelli’s favorite swimbait tactics is fishing them as deep as 30 or 40 feet. This is what he was doing at Falcon, slow-rolling a Baby E swimbait near the bottom just like a spinnerbait.

“I added a ¾-oz. weight so the lure would sink faster, and I was able to fish it in places the bass had never seen a swimbait. I believe the greatest attributes swimbaits have are their natural profile and their subtle swimming action, no matter how or where you use them. When you can get them deeper than normal, you’re adding a brand new dimension to swimbait fishing.

“All I do when I’m fishing them like this is just reel them steadily, popping them occasionally to try for a reaction strike from a following bass. Before I give up on fishing deep, I’ll also change retrieve speeds, slowing down, speeding up, just for variation. These are the same things you do with a spinnerbait or crankbait, only now you’re doing it with a larger and more realistic looking lure.”

When he’s fishing the larger, more traditional jointed swimbaits, Iaconelli normally uses a fairly slow and steady retrieve that allows the lure’s own swimming action to work for him. Still, he pops his rod occasionally or speeds up his retrieve momentarily for a different appearance to perhaps trigger a reflex strike.

“Sometimes I really burn the bait right under the surface to show the bass something else,” he explains, “but you should always remember a swimbait’s own swimming action and try to take advantage of it. Most of the time, you can fish these lures within a couple of feet of the surface, too, because that same swimming action will draw bass to them.

“I like to fish them this way across points so bass in both shallow and deep water will see the lure, and I make sure I cast parallel to the point, as well. Remember how and where you fish crankbaits, and use a swimbait the same way. Don’t be afraid to throw these big lures around boat docks, paralleling riprap, bridge pilings, or swimming them through and over flooded timber.”

Iaconelli believes an added bonus that comes with fishing big swimbaits in places like this is that they frequently cause bass to give away their locations even if they don’t actually strike the lure. Swimbaits are famous for generating followers, and even when the lures are retrieved close to the surface, bass will trail right behind them.

“Another way I know bass follow swimbaits is from noticing where a lot of my strikes occur, which is often quite a ways from where the lure first landed in the water. More than a few strikes happen right at the boat, so you always have to expect to get hit.

“I’ve also noticed you can catch bass in the hottest part of the summer with swimbaits, even when fishing them shallow. I promise you, in just a few years of fishing these lures, they’ve become some of my favorites baits.”

Iaconelli also likes the newer, smaller swimbaits now being produced by many soft plastics companies. Not only do these lures have vibrating drop-down “boot tails,” they can also be rigged weedless, which makes them ideal for weedbeds and other cover.

“Bass have seen millions of worms and jigs and spinnerbaits, but not that many swimbaits, and even fewer in the weeds. I like to rig them weedless with a 6/0 hook and just slip them through the vegetation. With their kicking tail, these swimbaits not only create more vibration than a soft jerkbait, they have their own side to side rolling action, as well. When I want to fish them deeper, I either use a jighead or a belly-weighted hook.

Iaconelli fishes his swimbaits on 12- to 20-lb. fluorocarbon line and uses a 7 to 7 ½-foot rod with good backbone but with a fast tip to help both casting and hook-setting.

“You can cover the entire water column with these types of baits and the sky’s the limit on how you can retrieve them, so try different presentations. Just remember, no matter what type of retrieve you use, a bass is probably looking at it.”

Especially along the edge of that roadbed down on Falcon.