Swim bait rod help

I am like 4/30 on my last swim bait fish . I am throwing a 4.75 swimbait and I keep losing the fish . I am using a medium heavy carrot stixx with 20 fluro. Not sure why I keep missing the fish . I am using a 5/0 owner hook . What rod do y’all use ?

I use a St Croix Bass X 7’1” Medium Heavy Fast for paddletail swimbaits. It works perfectly for me and has a great feel for a $99 rod. Tip is just soft enough keep pulling the bait away from the fish but plenty of backbone to set the hook.

The rod seems fine. Sounds like a hook or hook set issue to me. i’m assuming you are talking about a 4.75” keitech type bait. Are you weedless or exposed? If you are weedless are you letting them eat the bait first? What kind of hookset?

That swim bait yes

Going weedless

The ones I do catch I give it a second then slam the hookset

The ones I missed the hookset haven’t been great .


I just feel like a better rod maybe will help me hookup more ?

If the 4.75 swimbait you are using doesn’t have a hook slot, make one with a knife
Make sure the hook has a gap double the width of the swimbait
Some brands of fluoro are quite stretchy—some fluoros are stretchier than mono

Try a heavy action rod and see if that helps. I would choose a 7ft 3in. rod that is 3/8-1 1/4 lure rating.

Best advice that will be given on this thread.

I would be willing to bet your rod is the least of the problem. Most swim bait hook up issues are with the hook, weight, keeper, and bait thickness.

I like to fish a 6" Boom Boom. This year I ended up making a custom weighted hook starting with a 10/0 Owner Beast. The biggest problem I was having was the bait getting wadded up in the hook gap and not sliding up the hook and line due to the belly weight acting as a stopper. I think I have solved that problem with my hook/weight design but only time will tell.

Had an Elite Pro tell me to use a c-rig style hook set. Helped me tremendously.

I've been having tremendous success with a Curado 7'5" MHXF rod and copolymer line.
The rod has the backbone to set the hook, and the copoly has the stretch to prevent them from throwing the hook.

I use a sweeping hookset to pull the weedless hook into the roof of their mouths.

A slightly heavier rod and maybe letting them eat it for a 1-2 second count instead of just a 1 second count could help. Don't just jerk on the rod immediately when you feel the bite, unless the bait absolutely gets slammed.