It’s taken a while for North Carolina fishermen to become part of the swimbait craze. Maybe it was their introduction.
Ten to 15 years ago, fishermen in California, Florida and Japan seemed to be zeroing in on the world-record largemouth bass using huge, jointed swimbaits about the size of a mature bluegill fitted with treble hooks. One Japanese angler tied George W. Perry’s 22-pound, 4-ounce mark in 2009.
But the big swimbaits were bulky, tough to cast, espensive and easily lost on the rock and wooden cover along the bottom of North Carolina lakes. So they never caught on.
Except with Josh Hooks of New Hill, who fishes Shearon Harris Lake regularly.
“I like swimbaits,” said Josh Hooks, a regular at Shearon Harris.
However, Hooks wasn’t talking about a bream-sized bait, but what in the South would be called a jig and paddletail about 4- to 4 1/2-inches long.
“Freeman Tackle makes a 3/4-ounce jighead I like; it’s got a black-and-yellow head, a realistic black eye and has a nice wobble,” he said. “I use a Berkley Hollow Belly 4- to 4 1/2-inch swim bait in natural color.”
This swimbait, which has a splash of yellow on its flanks, mimics a gizzard shad. More importantly, the football-shape leadhead design pivots enough so when it comes fluttering through the water, it resembles a wounded baitfish.
“It rolls on its side, too,” he said. “I put it on the bottom and reel it fast, then I let it fall. Sometimes when the bite’s slow, you have to wait, then hop it. They’ll hit it then.”
Hooks said he first saw the swimbait used at Kentucky Lake during a tournament when he was a member of N.C. State’s BassPack.
He uses a fast-retrieve Pinnacle baitcasting reel and prefers Segar AbrazX 15- to 17-pound fluorocarbon line — heavy duty because of the chain pickerel in Shearon Harris that can grow to 30 inches long.
“I get my 7 1/2-foot rods, good stiff ones, from my college roommate, Chad Bazen,” Hooks said. “He lives in Long Beach and mostly makes (king mackerel) rods: Bazen Custom Rods. But he also makes rods for drum and flounder, and they work for bass.”
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