YUM Reveals New Scottsboro Swimbait Lineup

A partnership between YUM Bait Company and Scottsboro Tackle Company delivers widespread availability of one of the most popular swimbait shapes ever created.

Scottsboro Tackle Company had a problem. A good problem, but a problem, nevertheless. Their exceptionally natural hand-poured swimbaits became so sought after among bass fishermen that they couldn’t produce the most popular sizes nearly fast enough! Scottsboro contacted YUM with a proposal of YUM producing injection molded swimbaits, using Scottsboro’s exact shape, to deliver outstanding swimbaits for bass to far more anglers and at a reduced cost.

The result was the creation of the YUM Scottsboro Swimbait, which is available now in four sizes and 10 colors, with two sizes featured in YUM Scottsboro Flash Mob Jr. Kits.

Even with YUM’s injection molding process, filling the extreme demand during the prime swimbait season remains challenging. However, swimbaits are being made around the clock to fulfill needs for fishermen across the nation. So, if the size and color you seek is sold out, whether on Lurenet or at your favorite tackle shop, keep watching!

Using YUM Scottsboro Swimbaits for bass has year-round applications, and in truth these baits will be heavily utilized for catching many other species, including walleyes, inland striped bass, and inshore saltwater species. For now, we’ll focus on using the swimbaits for bass fishing during late winter and early spring.

Lure Specs

Developed in Scottsboro, Alabama, which overlooks Lake Guntersville, the Scottsboro Swimbait mimics a shad fabulously and is engineered to create the just the right amount of tail movement and a slight roll as it comes through the water. The body shape is also sufficiently slender to suggest an easy meal.

If you’ve walked the swimbait aisle in a major tackle shop, you know there are many options, including quite a few with somewhat similar appearances. Certain swimbaits stand out, though, and outproduce others when put to the test on the lake, and that’s when word starts spreading, causing demand to surge.

The YUM Scottsboro Swimbait comes in four sizes: 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 inches. All sizes use the same shape and proportions and deliver the action and natural color of a hand-poured swimbait, but with added toughness and more widespread availability. All four sizes are available in 10 colors: Sight Minnow, Sexy Shad, Rainbow Shad, Baby Bluegill, Tennessee Shad, Sunny Bluegill, Silver Flash Shad, Blue Pearl, Electric Blue Chartreuse and Black Back Shad.

YUM Scottsboro Flash Mob Jr Kits, which include a Willow leaf Flash Mob Jr., five 1/8-ounce jigheads with 3/O hooks and five YUM Scottsboro Swimbaits, are available with 3.0- and 3.5-inch baits and in the Sight Minnow, Sexy Shad, Rainbow Shad and Baby Bluegill colors.

When to Use It

As already noted, the YUM Scottsboro swimbait has diverse, year-round applications. If bass are relating to shad or herring and visibility is even decent, it’s a probably good option.

Winter is prime time for fishing a YUM Scottsboro swimbait on a Flash Mob Jr. because the bass suspend and feed on heavily congregated shad. That’s an all-day application, and it’s a good bet throughout the cool months. Fishing a Flash Mob Jr. generally remains a consistently good option until around the time of the spawn.

The YUM Scottsboro Swimbait is not only for YUMbrella rigs, though. Even in cold water, it also works marvelously as a single bait, fished on a jighead for pre-spawn bass that are suspended over points just out from spawning grounds. As spring progresses and the bass move shallower, it’s ideal for rigging weedless and swimming through shallow cover.

Where to Fish

During late winter, Tennessee River guide Jimmy Mason fucus heavily on main-river structures, including channel edges, ends of islands and bars along the river.

Watch your electronics for concentrations of shad because the bass will be where the bait is. Pay particular attention to the depth of the bait. Whatever level holds the most bait is likely to be the primary zone to work a Flash Mob Jr. to catch suspended bass.

As winter gives way to early spring, begin looking at points at the mouths of creeks and just inside the creeks, and at channel edges at the lower ends of creeks. Search gradually farther up creeks as the season progresses, paying particular attention to points on either side of any potentially good spawning pocket.

Any string of sunny days that foreshadow the full onset of spring will warm flats and draw bass up to feed prior to the spawn. Rig a YUM Scottsboro swimbait on a light Texas rig and swim it close to sparse grass, buck brush, dock supports, laydowns or other shallow cover.

Why a YUM Scottsboro Swimbait

The question of “why” is really two questions that have related answers.

Why this bait produces so well and stands out from other swimbaits seemingly has to do with the EXACT shape that creates a natural profile and ideal swimming action. Only bass could fully answer that question, but there is something about the action and appearance that seems to perfectly bridge the thump needed to draw in fish and prompt strikes and the subtlety and realism required to convince fish to bite, even in clear water and when surrounded by countless real shad.

Why the YUM Scottsboro Swimbait was created goes back to the first question and answer. Bass fishermen quickly learned that bass could not resist Scottsboro swimbaits, causing excessive demand and leading to YUM’s injection molded swimbait, which matches the original Scottsboro design.

The sizes and colors produced by YUM were selected based on the most popular sizes and colors of the hand-poured Scottsboro swimbaits and input from YUM pro staffers.

How to Fish

Beginning with Flash Mob Jr. rigging, it is somewhat of a cast and crank presentation. Rod angle and retrieve speed are critical, though. If you’re casting over deep water to suspended fish, often you need to let the bait sink several seconds before beginning your retrieve and then keep the pace steady, so the rig stays in that zone.

Mason commonly positions the boat over deep water but casts to much shallower water, over the structure. He starts reeling immediately, with the rod held high, to keep the rig from snagging and then “parachutes” it down with slower retrieve until he reaches the prime depth and then reeling steadily.

Fishing YUM Scottsboro Swimbaits on a single jighead is often a similar slow roll – just a much lighter rig and fished on much lighter tackle. Mason favors a spinning rod for this approach because it’s easier to get long casts, even in wind, and to get the bait down to where the fish are holding.

For most presentations with these baits, “less is more,” in terms of rod movement. A YUM Scottsboro Swimbait’s built-in action is highly natural and enticing, so it’s typically best to let the swimbait do the work for you. That said, an occasionally slight hesitation or very light twitch of the rod tip can alter the bait’s steady movement just enough to trigger a strike from a bass that has been following.