Don’t Overlook Swimbaits for Winter Bass

Suspending jerkbaits and jig/minnow combinations have understandably surged in popularity over the past few years, fueled by extensive use by touring bass pros relying on these baits to coax strikes from fish they are watching on live sonar. Given the way lures trend, it’s easy to forget about offerings that still produce fish like they did when they were the hottest baits on tour.

Soft plastic swimbaits have recently fallen into the category of sometimes-overlooked fish producers. The same baits that were among the best bass lures out there when they were red-hot commodities remain outstanding fish catchers.

Elite Series pro Stetson Blaylock knows that. He has long contended that the YUM Money Minnow, which peaked in popularity more than 15 years ago but remains a favorite of anglers in the know, has the ideal action for cold-water bass fishing.

“It has a lot less ‘wag’ than a lot of other swimbaits out there,” Blaylock said.

Blaylock provided proof last week by using a Money Minnow as his primary lure for a second-place finish at the Elite Series opener at Lake Guntersville. The Benton, Arkansas pro, who is a past Elite Series winner and six-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier, amassed 86 pounds, 14 ounces over four days and missed taking home the blue trophy by less than two pounds.

He put on a show for bass fishing fans worldwide, catching several heavyweight bass, including a 7-pounder, on camera on Bassmaster’s live feed.

Blaylock primarily used a 5-inch Money Minnow in the color Crystal Smoke, rigged on a 3/8-ounce YUM Scottsboro Recon Jighead. He caught a few significant fish other baits, including a BOOYAH Hard Knocker. However, the Money Minnow was Blaylock’s money bait at Lake Guntersville.

“The 5-inch Money Minnow has a slow, subtle movement, with just enough head wobble to get them to commit in that really cold water like we had at Guntersville.

The tournament immediately followed the two hardest fronts of winter in the Deep South. During practice, anglers found the backs of many coves iced over, and rod eyes were freezing repeatedly during the first couple of competition days.

Blaylock located fish in ditches off a creek channel and used the Money Minnow to crawl past the grass on the edges of the ditches. One of the long-heralded virtues of the Money Minnow is that it swims properly at any speed. The 3/8-ounce head and big swimbait allowed for the slow steady swimming action that was necessary for coaxing bits in the very cold water.

Blaylock fished the same area during the second, third and fourth day of the tournament and wishes he had gone there on the first day.

“One mistake I made was I did not fish the area I caught them in the last three days on the first day,” he said. “If I would have done that, it would have been a little different outcome.”

The Money Minnow was one of the trendsetters when soft-plastic hollow-bodied swimbaits surged in popularity in the late 2000s, and since its development has remained one of the most popular and effective swimbaits of this style.

Important Money Minnow features include its softness, shimmery baitfish finish and big eyes, but the magic is in the subtle swimming action created by the hollow body and downturned paddle tail.

The Money Minnow is currently available in 3.5- and 5-inch sizes. The smaller one comes in seven colors; the larger in five: Pearl, Pearl/Black Back, Hitch, Tennessee Shad and Crystal Smoke.

Guide Jimmy Mason spends the bulk of his late winter/early spring days within sight of Wheeler or Wilson dams, fishing for big smallmouth bass. Swimbaits, including YUM Scottsboro Swimbaits and Money Minnows, are central to his approach, and the 5-inch Money Minnow is his go-to for the biggest fish.

“The 5-inch Money Minnow has caught myself and my clients more smallmouth over 6 pounds than any other,” Mason said. “My PB smallmouth is an 8-3, and it was on a 5-inch Money Minnow.”

Mason relies on steady retrieves with Money Minnows, trusting the lure’s natural action to prompt strikes. With the boat drifting, Mason has clients make long casts across the current and then reel steadily, moving the bait just fast enough to keep the action engaged and the offering from finding bottom. Both boat and bait are being carried by the current, so the line stays roughly perpendicular with the current’s direction.

Mason rigs his swimbaits on 1/2- to 1-ounce jigheads, according to the amount of current, with 1/2- and 3/4- ounce sizes getting the call most of the time.

Open-hook jighead rigging has emerged as the most popular way to rig a Money Minnow, with the head size varying substantially based on water depth, the amount of wind and current, and how quickly and angler wants to swim the bait.

A popular rigging style when Money Minnows first came out that remains extremely effective for certain situations is to use a weighted hook like the YUM Weighted Money Minnow Hook and to rig the bait weedless. The weight is on the hook shank, so it hangs below the bait’s belly and balances it for proper swimming action. The Money Minnow has a hook slot on the bottom that makes this type of rigging simple and allows for easy hooksets.

Rigging on a weighted hook comes into play for extra shallow presentations and for swimming a Money Minnow over or through the top of submerged vegetation that stretches close to the surface.

• YUM Money Minnow – hollow bodied, subtle tail action and slight roll, 3.5- and 5-inch sizes.
• YUM Pulse – slender & ribbed, rolls as tail kick shimmies entire bait, 3.5- and 4.5-inch sizes
• YUM Scottsboro Swimbait – highly natural shape and swimming action, molded to match hand-poured swimbaits, 3-, 3.5-, 4-, and 4.5-inch sizes.
• Great Lakes Finesse Dropkick Shad – ultimate finesse swimbait – 2.75 inches