Who is using swim baits in the north country? How big of swim baits are you using? What colors are you using? What are you fishing for? How are you fishing them?

I think that is enough questions about swim baits :)

I have not used them in the past but plan on using them this year. Here at home I like the Northland Mimic Minnow and the swim bait made by Zoom. The Zman baits are good as well but a jig head with sharp barbs should be used otherwise the bait tends to slide down on the hook shank.

As far as size goes I say go big. 5 inches and up.
~JOE~

I have had good luck with the Mimic minnow. Cast out and return to you slowly. Bass love them.

When looking at brands, look for a big thumpy tail...it appeals to both the Walleye and Bass lateral line(I would mention a pike, but a kitchen sink would attract them!). I'm a fan of Big Hammer, but there are several brands that are similar. Also, this is a lure that demands tightlining and control, therefore a big jighead is called for. Matching a 1 to 1.5oz. jighead to a 6in. soft plastic is right in line. So, I match a 4in. to 6-6.5in. body with 3/4oz. to 1.5oz. shadhead...depending on depth, speed of target area. It might require a 1oz. jighead with a 4in. body to work 15,16,18ft.

Cast across a weedy flat, which can range from 3-4 to 12-14ft. When the weeds get to 6-12in. to 3-4ft. they can hide both predators and prey. While casually reeling in through and barely above the tops can be productive, an aggressive reel-kill-rip out of the weeds will probably get the most and largest bites. Try not to drop to the bottom on rocky flats, just donating to hang-up gods. In the fall, with dying weeds, look for predators hanging near large clumps and ambushing prey migrating to winter areas(travel corridors).

Probably need to stick 'em with a rod that has some real meat...a MH and a levelwind...could go to a M if using braid.

Perfect place(for me): middle latter Sept., weeds starting to die back, drifting thru a 7,8,10-11ft. weedy flat, cabbage weeds were grown to the surface, but only a scattered few clumps that tall now. Rippin' it off the bottom, reeling mod. for 8-10 turns, let drop to the bottom. rrRRRippin' it back off the bottom. In June, when the weeds are 1,2,3ft. tall, same technique.

As far as color, choose your own poison. You are mimicing a large baitfish(minnow, cisco, walleye), so dark on top, lite belly...nuthin' new. You laker guys might want something with a little blue-purple. Sharp hooks to ya, dude!

I use 'em for pike,walleye, and lake trout. They work. Like Bassnet says, you need some backbone--MH?-- to "send 'em the news." It seems like the chewy plastic impedes hooksets, especially with bigger baits.

Another vote for northland minnow. Bass are loving them this spring.

I use them a lot, they are amazingly effective when fish are active, not so much when in negative mood. I use them from 2.5-6 but you could go much larger for pike. You need to try different colors, but Fire tiger is a good all around multi-species color. White has been really good also, as has been blue and purple. The great thing about them is their ability to catch really big fish, as well as them being very good for all of the big 4 species. For 4-6 inch baits use 1/2 to 1 oz heads, even larger if fishing deep. These are NOT finesse baits and you don't work them slow or try to add too much action. They seem to fool fish all on their own.Reel fairly fast and let drop occasionally or use a steady slight pumping action.Rigging them horizontal instead of vertical can be awesome at times. Read everything you can find on In Fisherman from Doug Stange about swim baits as he is the swim bait guru.Truly a trophy fish lure. Bassnet gave good info. Play around with them, as good of a fisherman as you are I think you will figure them out and like them.Add one more weapon to the arsenal:)

Yea, I'm not saying anything new...I'm just following Doug Stange's lead. Guru is right!!
Another real jackpot for this lure application is UNDERNEATH schooling fish. Here(Okla.), we are 'et up with White Bass, a schooling fish usually characterized by enormous schools, open water, and busting schools on the surface. In most of our lakes, they have stocked hybrid Striper/White Bass mixes, a sterile variety that probably tops out in the mid 20's. The hybrids will mix in with the White Bass, not often attacking Shad on the surface, but hanging out 5-20ft. beneath the surface melee, picking off cripples. Rigging a swimbait sideways, and working underneath 5-20ft., the lure can be reeled slowly or in a yo-yo manner. Sometimes quality LMB will follow the schools, especially if the "attack" location is near their home "ambush" area.

I have a few Storm Swim Shads packed for the trip. I think they are 5 inches long and they have the built in jig head. I can't remember how heavy they are, but do remember them being pretty heavy the last time I tried them. I bought these some years ago, took them to Quetico, made some casts, didn't get any hits and quit using them. These Shads are a pearl color, which should be good.

Earlier this year I saw some fish busting minnows along the river shoreline and I looked in my tiny hip pack tackle box and found a 3 inch swimbait someone gave me to try out. So I threw it into the fray. Turns out these fish were suckers when I snagged one in the side. But I turned around and casted it out in the current and hooked a smallie right away. The next day I bought some 3 inch Berkley swimbaits and went to the river and hit up a hole. First cast a 17 incher. Then I caught a 17.5 and 18 incher on the lure and decided that maybe I have been missing out on something. I haven't been using them much lately because the Zulu bite is hot and heavy right now.

So long story longer.....I think I will try swimbaits again with a little more confidence this time.

Mike try those Mimic Minnows on your river outings. Smallmouth love em. I also agree with using the Big Hammer baits as well.
~JOE~

I have been catching everything with this.

Huge fan of swimbaits. I prefer YUM Money Minnow, hologram shad, with a 1/2oz jig head. Berkley Ripple Shads are becoming a favorite as well. I use it similar to slow cranking in a spinnerbait. They catch anything that swims...

This isn't really a swimbait but I thought I would drop it in here for consideration. This is marketed to the salt water crowd as a Sea Trout lure but there can be no doubt of its effectiveness on Bass, pike and walleye. Its a new Z-man product similar to the very effective Bass Assassin type soft plastic lure.

New Z-man

A guy could rig these with a simple hook but I believe the way to go would be the Z-man jig heads which are made for the aforementioned plastics. If you have never used a jig head with a large eye incorporated into the design you are in for a treat.......very, very effective. Northland tackle makes a jig head with the eye built in but the hooks are so cheesy as to be counter productive. These Z-man jig heads are premium.......I will definitely be getting some of these.

Z-man jig heads

I'm heading into the BW next week and plan on setting up a swimbait for locating schools of fish as we row along the shoreline. I do this quite often setup on a carolina rig but with a light weight so i'm not dragging bottom a lot. I usually look for the baits that have the slit in the under belly then use an offset shank hook to keep the bait from sliding down the hook and reentering the hook through the back of the bait so the hook is hidden in the slit of the belly. This helps for better hook sets having the slit in the body because it allows the bait to bend out of the way of the tip of the hook but while trolling having that hook in that slit reduces the amount of snags.

I picked up some of these jigs from Cabelas.
http://www.cabelas.com/product/CABELAS-MUSHROOM-JIG-PK/1926071.uts?searchPath=%2Fbrowse.cmd%3FcategoryId%3D734095080%26CQ_search%3Dbed%252520jigs%26CQ_st%3Db

KVD perfect shad and banjo minnow are my favs but I'm running out of banjos and cannot find any. My money bait.

We just worked Swim baits all week from malberg to amber to fisher and even beaver
100+bass 3-4 lbs tops
50 plus northern, some nice ones, 11lbs tops
10 walleye, yes on swim baits
a rock bass
we are bosses though, with my wife in particular
the rest of the people we saw didnt catch much
that's too bad.