By Lawrence Taylor
I recently spent a couple days fishing with Mitch Looper, whose design influence created the BOOYAH Swim’N Jig and YUM Houdini Shad. I invited FLW Outdoors editor Jason Sealock down to Arkansas to join us. He’s been a friend of Looper’s for years and also enjoys spending time with the colorful big-bass expert.
“When’s the best time to throw a Swim’N Jig?” Sealock asked Looper as we put the boat in a small city lake in west-central Arkansas.
“April, May and early June are normally the best months,” Looper said. “But it’s a great big-bass bait anytime the fish are holding in shallow weeds. Conditions need to be right, but big bass will hit it anytime.”
Which was why we were tying on Swim’N Jigs on the first day of October – conditions were right. The wind had been strong for a day or two and was still a constant 7 to 10 mph with gusts up to 15 or so. Plus, we were just a couple of days away from a full moon, which Looper believes is a prime time for big bass. The lake we were on featured plenty of shallow flats covered in a variety of aquatic weeds and we had heavy morning cloud cover.
Looper’s ½-ounce Swim’N Jig was black/chartreuse with a 2.75-inch YUM Cajun Craw Money Craw trailer. I tied on a ½-ounce white Swim’N and Dinero Shad Money Craw trailer.
“By using two different looks we’re hitting the shad bite and the bluegill bite,” Looper said. “Mine looks like a bluegill and you’re covering the shad look. We’ll see if they prefer one over the other.”
I scored the first Swim’N Jig bass on the white jig as I quickly pulled it from the weeds to a small spot of open water on top of an old roadbed.
“Is that your first bass on a Swim’N Jig?” Looper asked.
I acknowledged that it was, but that I’d had blow-ups on the jig before but never connected. I’d caught bass swimming a jig in a more traditional manner in flooded, brushy shorelines, but Looper’s technique of working shoreline weeds by pulling the Swim’N Jig rapidly just under the surface had always been difficult. The sudden explosion of a big bass smashing the jig normally prompted me to pull the bait away from the fish.
“You need to just continue reeling until you feel the rod load up,” Looper said. “Don’t set the hook when you see the strike. Just keep reeling then when you feel the fish, set the hook. A lot of times they miss it on the first strike, or they’re trying to stun it. Just keep on doing what you were doing and they’ll get the jig.”
As if on cue, a bass smashed Looper’s jig as it worked through some sparse green weeds and he showed no response – just kept on reeling – until his rod bowed and he set the hook. We moved into the weeds and got a net under the fat 5-pounder.
By around 9 a.m. the Swim’N Jig bite was done. The day cleared and wind slowed and the bass pulled out of the weeds to deeper haunts along the channel edges. But Looper had proven his point. The Swim’N Jig is not just a springtime, prespawn bait.
“I had an editor come down in July one time wanting to do a story on the Swim’N Jig,” Looper said. “It was absolutely the wrong time, but we came out here to this lake to give it a shot. When we got here a big storm rolled in before we could get the boat in the water so we were sitting in the truck. We had a break in the lightening so I hopped out and made one cast from the bank and caught a 7 pounder. We took some pics and hopped back in the truck as the lightening returned. When we got another break, I jumped out and caught a 5 pounder. The Swim’N Jig is a good bait any time you get the right situation.”