What is the best set up for 5 inch swim baits?

Small bullet weight and a normal worm hook.

All depends how you want to fish it. And I'm assuming your talking about a 5" hollow body

I really like the Owner weighted hooks but EVERY time I rig a Flashy Swimmer, the blade assembly disappears after a few casts or on the first fish.

Best rod setup?

The two swimbaits I have are about 5 or 6 inches long and the are hard body. One of the is jointed and the other one is one solid piece.

Snoopy pole

I use a Skeet Reese Senko Rod with a Quantum Smoke real with a 6.1 ratio. The rod has a softer parabolic bend than other rods. Swim bait rods need a good back bone to throw them, but need a soft tip so they fish can inhale the bait. Also you really have to drop the rod tip when you get a strike. Much like a Frog. I also fish them using the Lucky Strike hook that has the belly weight. This gives the swim bait a very erratic side to side action. More importantly it allows the bait to fall with only a slight heads down when I stop the swim bait. It comes down like a real shad.

Frightening experience Saturday on Palestine.

I had caught a mess of big crappie in water 2 to 3 feet using a small roadrunner last Monday, just lowering it into the grass and cattails. With the winds blowing a steady 10 to 15 mph on Saturday afternoon, I got tired of fighting the wind and paddled up a creek. No luck throwing the swimbaits on owner weighted hooks. Thought it was making too much racket in shallows, didn't want to retie either of my heavier rigs so I tied on a flashy spinner with 5 inch swimbait on my crappie/senko rod.. 7'6 Loomis Pro Green rated to 12 lb test with 2500 sustain reel that I'd just beefed up the night before with 20 lb braid and 15 lb mono leader. Too make a long story short... I was just swinging the bait pendulum style and would quietly drop it in every opening I could fit it in, using about 10 feet of line, when I feel the thump.. Set hook with short quick snap and line still in my three fingers of left gloved hand. I got a beast. It moves slightly toward me for a second and then away, causing me to have more line in my hand, (my left hand is two feet from left hand retrieve handle) it crosses in front of me picking up speed, I let go of line to go for reel handle. It all happened fast but I just knew I was about to break that rod. It all happened fast..solid hookup, steady drag coming out through my hands, lay rod over for different angle, let go of line... and it wraps behind handle. Maximum load, fish coming up, pop...luckily it was just my leader. The fish never jumped, just bull dogged its way out.


caught 6 bass, big one of the day around 4 lbs.


Can't wait to get back out there.

Nice goin' Iconn! I caught a big Crappie last night on a standard sized Jackall Mikey, go figure...