The paddle tail swimbait can be a deadly tool in any bass fishing arsenal. Learn when to fish a paddle tail swimbait and how it can salvage your day of fishing.
The paddle tail swimbait is a versatile bait that can be fished in many ways and as a trailer for a ton of baits. This article will focus on a specific situation where the paddle tail shines.
The Paddle Tail Swimbait Saved My Day
Just last week I went fishing at a river that is about three hours from my house. This river requires a hike so I have to pack light. In a last-minute decision, I threw in a pack of 2.8 Keitech paddle tail swimbaits.
In the past, the wacky rigged Senko was the ticket, and then a Texas-rigged finesse worm after that. That was not the case. I fished for about 45 minutes with only three fish. This is usually not the case in this river at this time of year for me.
At this time, I noticed that the bass were pushing bait up against the bank, but that they didn’t want the wacky or Texas rig. Finally, a lightbulb went off in my head and I remembered the little 2.8 paddle tail swimbaits.
First I rigged it on a wide gap hook weedless, but the soft Keitech kept slipping off of the hook after the first few casts and this go frustrating. So did dropping my phone in the river so that I had to turn it off for most of the trip.
The Rig for the Paddle Tail Swimbait
Finally, I put one on a little 1/8 oz ball head jig and was off to the races. In the next two hours of fishing, I caught over 30 bass. I actually lost my ball head and ended up fishing it on a 1/16 oz darter head, but the results were similar.
How to Fish the Paddle Tail
I would cast it out right on the bank where the bass were corralling baitfish and keep my rod tip up as I had a medium-speed reel back to me. The paddle tail swimbait seems to work best when fished at a consistent speed to me in most situations.
The speed you fish will depend on the depth, the water temp, and what the bass want. Sometimes you will burn it back and sometimes you will crawl it on the bottom, but this time it was fished on a light head just about a foot below the surface.
The reason that the little 2.8 paddle tail was the ticket is that the baitfish were small. We are in the late fall and in the fall the bass seem to want bait that matches the size of what they are eating more than other times.
That is another key for the paddle tail swimbait is that when the fish are keyed in on a certain size of baitfish, you can match the size if you keep a variety of paddle tail swimbaits on hand. When the fish are finicky, the smaller finesse-sized swimbaits can be magical at all times of the year, but specifically when they mimic the target baitfish size.
Where I was fishing I was casting to the bank or past the blowups and just reeling the swimbait back at a consistent speed. No pops or jerks needed.
Swimbait Tip for Bait Balls
When you can see bass are blowing up, or feeding on baitfish, it is best to cast past them if you can and bring the swimbait back through where they are ambushing the baitfish.
Let the bass tell you whether they want it fished fast on top, through the middle of the bait, or down below the bait. Sometimes the biggest fish lurk below the bait for an easy meal.
In the end, it depends on the mood of the fish. The coolest thing about paddle-tail swimbaits is that they work. Bass feed on bait and they look like bait. They have that great swimming action that really fires up the bass.
Another quick tip is that if the bass are too distracted by the bait and you aren’t doing as well as you think you should, try rigging your swimbait on an underspin jighead so that you can stand out and add a little more flash to attract the fish.
Like I said above, there are so many ways that you can fish a paddle tail swimbait, from a drop shot, to a jig trailer, to a spinnerbait trailer, they flat-out work.
So go grab a couple packs and sizes of paddle tail swimbaits and some matching jigheads and give them a go next time you are out on the water.
To your paddle tail swimbait success,
Jonathan Burke
LiveBassFishing.com
Gear Used for this Tactic
I was throwing my small swimbaits on light gear. I was fishing a Shimano BFS reel with 8 lb fluoro on a 7′ medium Shimano Clarus rod that is super soft and fairly parabolic. This allowed me to cast these small baits over the bait while staying far enough back not to spook the fish.
You can do the same on a spinning rod and reel setup, but I just prefer casting gear and the BFS setup gets the job done.