I want to start throwing a fluke. Some people use a swivel and some don't. What are the pros and cons? Or do you have to use a swivel?

I personally don't use a swivel. I haven't had a problem with line twist and I believe that's why People use them so I don't use one. If I want some differnt action or some weight I'll use a split shot 8-12" up the line. You can fish a fluke and senko basically the same way. I do a twitch twitch pause sometimes fast sometimes slow. Try differnt retrieves for differnt situations.

I always use one about a foot above the fluke when I throw it weightless. Supposedly prevents line twist. But I mainly like that little bit of weight it adds.

1/32 bullet pinch weight at the nose. If they are really on this bait I will put a swivel about 10" up the line to stop line twist.

What's the best type of hook to use on a fluke?

4/0 wide gap

+1

If you fish it weigh-less, a swivel is just the right amount of weight on a day the wind isn't pushing you across the lake. The only con to the swivel is the number of knots between you and the fish.

I use Owner Screw Locks... 1/0 for Fluke Jr and 4/0 for a standard fluke.

Fluke Jrs are deadly on top of the water. Rig it weightless and skim it just under the surface in a twitch, twitch, twitch, pause motion, and if you can, get it to pop out of the water like a fleeing bait fish. The Bass will come up and either engulf it just like a top water, or they will slap it in an effort to stun it, then loop around and pick it up as it falls... That is important to remember because you don't wanna forget to kill your bait if something blows up on it and misses it.

Regular sized flukes are a little tougher to fish that way, as you have to work em pretty darn fast to keep em from sinking (since they are heavier.) But you can fish them with the same 3 twitch, pause movement, and you will definitely get something sooner or later.

Best colors for me have been the whites, clears, and smokes. and get ya some spike it and dip the tail! My personal best here in TX is on a fluke using that exact technique I described for you

Have fun learning this bait, you are gonna love it once you figure out what works best for you!

I use a swivel just for some added weight, if its windy ill stick a lead nail in the fluke. You would be surprised how far this setup cast into some strong wind. Have caught a lot of fish doing this

4/0 ewe nothing else... but i fish mine a little diff then most lol

Anyone tried the fluke "stick" ?
cross between the fluke and a Senko.

I have not used, or needed a swivel. I use a few diferent presentations, but the bigger fish are usually caught on the fall. Parrallell to the bank is awesome. If you put the hook through and force an upwards bow in the fluke, you can make it pop out of the water. This is a faster presentation. You can just drag it along the bottem with 10 to 15 second pauses, the cold water prsentation. Double drop shot is awesome too. I put about 2 and 1/2 foot from the weight, and just more than the body length between the two. Cast towards shallow water, and the flukes just flutter around by each other. Fish will take them both in. You can keep them in one place for a while too. This will twist up on cast though, but not so often it sucks. I have good luck in deep water with the belly weited hooks, but the flukes get worn out rigging them up. I love the fluke. If you can fish with slack on the line, you will catch fish. If you cannot fish with slack in the line, you will only be getting aggressive fish.

One of my buddies uses them and swears by them. Says it has really good action and he's caught a lot of fish on it.

I have caught more fish on a Fluke than any other bait. With that said, sometimes fish are slow to bight so I play around with rigging it different ways. Fall speed, retrieve speed. I mostly fish it weightless, twitch/twitch, stop and so on. last week the fish stopped biting so I switched it up a little. I stuck a nail weight in the head just under the hook and started to slow retrieve it. No twitch, no stop. Just a steady retrieve and the fish could not resist it. Real fun bait to use.