Today I bought the Storm: Live Kickin' Shad. I haven't used any swimbaits, other than paddle-tails, and no clue as to the best way to fish them. I figured on a slow-and-steady or stop-and-dart retrieve. Does anyone have any experience with swimbaits? Am I close on retrieval styles? Are there any other retrievals that you can recommend? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated.

Hey Red...take a look through the forums...under BASS or LURES and BAITS...there are a few threads where we have discussed techniques for swimbaits. One thing that comes to mind, hook ups are a lot better when rigged on a jig head instead of those weighted swimbait hooks. As far as retrieve, yeah, a stop and dart thing is effective. Good luck!

I like the action of the SPRO swim bait and have it in all three styles; shallow, slow sinking and sinking. I have been attempting to find the correct way to retrieve them as well. I have watched videos of pros using this type bait and the slow deliberate approach seems to be what does the trick. That being said, I have yet to catch a fish with them! But I have only used them on rocky shorelines. My next step is to try them on the edges of weed beds...I really love the action as it is the most fish-like that I have seen.

Iits hard to fish wrong , steady retrieve, stop go, rip it let it fall . let the conditions dictate to the best way to fish it . Think of what a minnow may do .