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Video: How to Fish a Finesse Swimbait on a Jighead

Angler holding large fish on boat; hat reads "CATCH FISH NOT FEELINGS"

Oliver NgyOliver Ngy is a self-taught angler from Southern California. He learned the values of commitment and dedication at an early age, and has since become a familiar face in the bass scene. He's renowned for catching monster fish of many species with a specialty in double-digit largemouth and 5-plus-pound smallmouth bass. Oliver is currently competing nationally in the Bassmaster Open Tour while exploring multi species fishing opportunities along the way. He has appeared on every season of MeatEater's fishing show, Das Boat.Nov 9, 2021

This is one of the most effective lures for locating and targetingsmallmouth—and just about any other predatory fish. A simple paddletailswimbaiton a jighead produces a beautiful action all on its own, making it super easy to fish.

Possibly the greatest value of this rig is its ability to cover a lot of water quickly and efficiently as you try to decode where the fish are congregating. That’s assisted by a longer rod to make longer casts. I’m using a 7-foot 2-inch medium-actionspinning rodin this video loaded with low-stretch braid to aflouroleader.

You might think that you can just jab this bait on the jighead, but you'd be wrong. Line up your incision to be perfectly straight and compare the shank length to the bait in order that the hook emerges at the right spot and the plastic doesn’t get bent. Do it wrong and your rig will spin and look like garbage. A great hack I recently shared on theBent Podcastinvolves dabbing someZap-a-Gap glueon the hook shank right before threading on the plastic so that tail-grabbers don’t yank it off. Works like a charm.

This presentation is super popular for a reason. You basically just fire it out and swim it back horizontally, adding a twitch here and there. It’s deadly onsmallies,largemouth,walleye, and a host of other fish in both fresh and saltwater.