Buddy Gross is a Bassmaster Elite Series tournament angler who had a big win an Eufaula in 2020. He joined The Bass University via live Zoom classes to share his tips and secrets for fishing a belly-weighted swimbait and a hollow body swimbait on a jighead. For over 50 minutes, Gross shares secret tips on the baits he uses, how he modifies and rigs them, his favorite colors, tackle and more. Watch this bass fishing class seminar if you're interested in: effectively fishing grass with a swimbait, fishing offshore structure & ledges with swimbaits, improving your hookup percentage on 5" or larger swimbaits, or if you just love fishing swimbaits and you want to learn secrets from Buddy's years of experience with these soft plastic baits.
- 0:18 How Buddy Gross got started fishing swimbaits
- 1:08 The 2 soft plastic swimbaits that Buddy Gross primarily fishes
- 2:25 Weedless rigging a swimbait with a belly-weighted Owner Beast Hook
- 4:46 The biggest secret to getting better hookups on belly-weighted hollow-bodied soft plastic swimbaits
- 9:01 Buddy Gross's secret money-making belly-weighted swimbait hook that's great for the shad spawn
- 10:38 Exposed hook hollow body swimbait rigging and fishing
- 12:36 Swimbait colors
- 13:23 When to fish a soft plastic swimbait on a lead jighead and how to contdown a lure
- 16:28 Scrounger heads
- 16:50 Pros and cons of fishing a jighead in a hollow body swimbait
- 19:24 Rattles in a swimbait and other rigging tips and modifications to set your swimbait apart from other anglers
- 24:20 Details on fishing a scrounger head
- 27:10 Why hook diameter is important
- 28:03 Are swimbaits replacing other reaction baits?
- 29:12 Water color considerations for choosing a swimbait
- 31:15 Buddy's opinion on line through swimbaits
- 32:38 When is the best time & conditions to build confidence in a swimbait?
- 34:39 Buddy's thoughts on glide baits
- 36:29 Size swimbait for catching Alabama spotted bass
- 38:01 Rod action and taper, hook diameter & fishing line
- 41:11 Ribbed-sided swimbaits compared to smooth-sided baits
- 42:12 Using a swimbait as a trailer
- 43:24 Using a fluorocarbon leader
- 44:13 Targeting smallmouth with swimbaits in Northern lakes
- 45:04 Gear ratio reels
- 47:13 Upsizing your swimbait to find bass
- 48:44 Using swimbaits to find staging bass
- 49:25 Tip for modifying belly-weighted hooks
- 50:12 One final thing that's great about swimbaits
