Best Paddle Tail Swimbait Rod

BSG reported catching Smallmouth Bass using the Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) technique and St. Croix Victory Spinning Rods on Mille Lacs Lake. Additional comments from this report: "Fished all new water today and found the same stuff working all over the lake. Boulders on flats held fish, transitions held a few wolf packs, and when it slicked off on this day i was able to catch a few fish on a popper as well. Okishira screw head with a swimbait was the best producer again, having to fish it really slow and count it down out deep was the ticket today. The victory 7'3" rod is pretty good stick for this setup can whip it a mile and it has some great backbone for the big ones."

Nate Nipper reported catching Smallmouth Bass using the Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) technique and St. Croix Victory Spinning Rods on Mille Lacs Lake. Additional comments from this report: "Keyed in on sharper breaks on the flats in 14-17 feet of water. Cover water with the Smallie Smasher and Keitech and then when you run into a couple, slow down with the Hail Mary Ned and pick off a couple extra big ones."

Aaron reported catching White Bass using the Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) technique and St. Croix Victory Spinning Rods on Petenwell Lake. Additional comments from this report: "Hit the white bass run and had a blast catching a wide variety of the scrappy fighters. Fish were congregating in about 6 feet of water or less, around flats preparing to spawn. Fish were hitting just about any bait you wanted to throw but the 3" size swimbait was the most consistent. Often a second fish would chase in the hooked fish. Great opportunity to get the family involved in some fish catching!"

Trevor Lo reported catching Smallmouth Bass using the Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) technique and Daiwa Tatula Elite AGS Spinning Rods on Mille Lacs Lake. Additional comments from this report: "Focused primarily on transitions between gravel and cobblestone under 8 feet of water. Lots of fish cruising around getting ready to spawn, with the males being shallower than the females. The larger females seemed to still be staging out a bit deeper waiting to push up. Finding transition lines and casting parallel to them was the key to getting bites. When we were hooked up, there were generally more fish that also followed up to the boat. The cleaner the rocks were, the better."

Big Tom reported catching Smallmouth Bass using the Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) technique and Daiwa Tatula Elite AGS Spinning Rods on Hagerman Lake. Additional comments from this report: "Cold front conditions with 30mph wind gusts...Prespawn small mouth were on rock/rubble/sand edges...very clear water @62 degrees. small Dark Sleepers and tubes on contour breaks...X rap over shallow rock flats were key."

MDOoutdoors reported catching Northern Pike using the Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) technique and Daiwa Tatula Elite AGS Spinning Rods on Eagle Lake. Additional comments from this report: "A 1/8th ounce moon eye jig paired with a largo shad in any baitfish looking color will outfish live minnows and catch just about anything on eagle lake. This 36 inch pike had my moon eye jig all the way down its mouth but luckily the 10lb shimano mastiff has enough abrasion resistance to hold up against those nasty sharp teeth!"

FFBTV reported catching Largemouth Bass using the Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) technique and Dobyns Rods Champion XP Spinning Rods on Joe Pool Lake. Additional comments from this report: "Hopped out on Joe Pool Lake today and had a great day! Caught Fish on the top end of the rocky ledges bringing a 6th Sense Divine Swimbait 2.7 Ghost Ice Minnow Color mimicking the small forage they are feeding on. Caught a few on the Drop Shot in about 8-10ft of water near the Dam as well. We also hooked into another good Largemouth on a Strike King White Spinnerbait 1/2 oz on bringing it over the top of a Brush Pile. Rod used for the 2.7 Divine Swimbait is the Dobyns Champion XP 703sf. "

Billy Kohls reported catching Largemouth Bass using the Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) technique and Dobyns Rods Champion XP Spinning Rods on Smith Mountain Lake. Additional comments from this report: "Largemouth and Smallmouth bass are starting to move out of the creak channels and out onto main lake points and deeper docks. The mid section down to the dam is a great place to fish this time of year with the river channel close by. On cloudy and windy days a 2.8, 3.3 and 3.8 Kaitech swimbaits on very sizes of 1/4oz up to 3/8oz Guppy Head and Dobyns Swimbait Heads work well. Throwing them on spinning rods with lighter line with get you more and bigger bites. A Dobyns Champion XP 703SF is a perfect rod for all of those sizes. On sunny post front or sunny afternoons its time to start dragging around jigs and large profile plastics. A Dobyns football head jig in 1/2-3/4oz is perfect to keep bottom contact. Texas rigging a Zoom Ole Monster is key for a big bite or Carolina rigging a creature bait on a 1oz with a leader will get you those post spawn summer time female fish. Check out the Man Bear Pig from Reaction Innovations. Another technique that is over looked this time of year is the bream eating fish that are up shallow. This will almost exclusively be largemouth and it is not for targeting numbers but rather single giant fish. This requires time on the water to find those honeycomb bream beds in the backs of pockets. Find the bream beds and fish whatever targets are close by like laydowns or docks. This bite seems to be best during the hottest part of the day. Use a prop bait or popper for topwater or a senko or flipping bait like a missile baits D bomb or Spicy Beaver. Lastly is focusing on the finesse side of deep fishing. A Dropshot is hard to beat this time of year. A 6” roboworm is my go to 90% of the time on a Dropshot and in the summer it really shines. Focus on deep dock post on the main lake on the sunny side. Be careful of the heavy boat traffic. If you use a Gamakatsu re-barb hook you can also target heavy brush piles to big bass. "

Dominic Altavilla reported catching Smallmouth Bass using the Soft Body Swimbaits (Small/Medium) technique and Dobyns Rods Champion XP Spinning Rods on Lake Ontario. Additional comments from this report: "Lots of fish in the 10’-15’ range wherever there was chunk rock or boulders. Quite a few had crawfish in their throats but they still ate the swimbaits."