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I’ve been writing the Hunt for Giant Bass column since 2003 and during that time, most of the content has come from southern California anglers except for a night-fishing article featuring Rob Belloni and Cris Van Clef and Mark Medec’s Magnum Spot article. In order to spread the wealth and learn more tactics used in places other than the southland, we venture back up to northern California to talk with Don Moorman, a relative newcomer to the swimbait craze, and see how he went from novice to expert in less than three years. What follows will not only help those who are a little intimidated by the big bait but will also help seasoned veterans too.

In less than 3 years of throwing swimbaits, Moorman has accumulated a list of double-digit fish that would impress most anyone. Since he began his relationship with these oversized lures, he’s boated 25 fish between 8 and 10 pounds, 21 over the 10-pound mark and 4 fish over thirteen. He also has six 5-fish limits in excess of 40 pounds including one 53-pound limit. Here’s how he did it.

Rude Awakening

“I got into the swimbait craze while still naïve to it,” Moorman said. “So many people, including myself, thought it was a southern California only thing. Then, one day I was fishing a Don Pedro tournament and Rob Belloni and Cris Van Clef came to the scale with 37 pounds of fish and that opened my eyes. I knew they got them on swimbaits.

“After that tournament, I went home and just thought about what they had done. At that point, I decided to commit to it.

“My first swimbait fish was a 5-pounder on a River 2 Sea bottom bouncer,” he said. “I ended up getting a few more fish including my first 10 on that bait – then, I started fishing the Huddleston and I was ruined. I was getting a lot of 5s and 7s but the followers I had opened my eyes."

“At that point, I wanted to figure everything about these baits out. I went to the message boards but the info I was looking for was hard to come by. So, I just started fishing them on my own, trying to learn as much about the baits and how the fish react to them. I owe my success to Rob and Cris for kicking my butt, opening my eyes and making me do it on my own.

“People don’t realize how much more you learn when you do things on your own,” he said. “You can get info from people all day long and still not learn. It’s when you have to figure everything out by yourself when you really learn about a bait or a technique, and that doesn’t apply only to swimbaits.”

Rigging Techniques

Like most anglers, Moorman has come up with some ingenious rigging techniques on his own and has adapted some other to his swimbaits. Here are some of his tried and true techniques.

Head-Hooked Huddleston

“I started rigging my Huddlestons this way one day when I was bed fishing,” he said. “I noticed that when the fish ate the bait on the bed, it’d hit the head and move the bait off. No matter what I did, it was tough to hook them. So, I cut the stock hook off the bait, ran a size 4 split ring through the line tie and attached a 1/0 standard round bend Gamakatsu treble to the split ring. Then, I cut the hook right behind the barb and bent the remaining wire into a semi loop.

“Once I have the hooked cut and bent, I use my thumb to press the plastic right in front of the dorsal fin towards the head of the bait and then I insert the cut hook point into the bait and release my thumb. When the plastic is released, it grabs the loop and pulls the hook tight against the split ring.

“Rigged this way, I can catch anywhere from one to a number of fish without it ripping the plastic. But, if it rips the plastic, I use a little super glue to mend the tear.

He also uses this technique when casting.

“A lot of times when you’re casting and you get bumps, the fish is hitting the head and not getting hooked,” he said. “If this is the case, I always look at the bait to see where the fish has eaten it. When a fish hits a plastic swimbait, they always leave a signature and a lot of the time, they’ve hit the head. This is when I’ll rig a new bait like I described above. Especially if there are teeth marks at the head.

Fin Additions

Moorman has also gone as far as to add fins to baits that are finless.

“I started adding fins to baits because of the Spro BBZ,” he said. “What I found is that if you add fins to a bait that doesn’t come with them it makes the bait act more fluent in the water.

“For example, you can completely change the action of a 22nd Century Triple Trout by adding fins to it. A good example of this is the 10-inch bait. If you add fins the bait will rise quicker in the water column. Add fins only to the head and you’ll get rid of the head rock.”

He uses off the shelf fins for the most part. “The fins I use are either from Spro (BBZ fins) or River 2 Sea. They’re readily available and easy to use with standard super glue.

He also makes his own fins for wake baits. “What I found with wake baits is I can get them to push more water by adding fins to them,” he said. “But these fins I make out of hobbyist cutting board that you can find at a hobby store like Michael’s. It’s a pliable plastic that comes in green and has ruled marks on it. It’s very tough and doesn’t break when the bait hits the water like plexiglass or lexan will.

“I just cut out the fins in the shape I want and attach them with superglue. Like I said, it makes the bait wake a lot more, especially if I am working the bait really slow. My favorite bait to do this with is a 3:16 Lure Company 1-up.”

The Double Rig

Moorman took an old Fluke trick and tweaked it to work with smaller swimbaits.

“The double rig I came up with from the double fluke rig,” he said. “The purpose of the double Fluke rig wasn’t just to look like two fish but to hopefully catch two fish. It helps catch convert followers. I throw it through the summer when the fish are keying in on the shad. It has turned into a great summer pattern for me because of this.

“The problem is you cannot set the hook on the second fish and this is where people will have difficulty at first. The trick is to just continue to reel and let the fish set the hook itself.

The rig is made by using two swivels and a dropper,” he said. “Take the line coming off the rod tip and run it through the eye of a good swivel. Then, tie another swivel to the line and attach a leader to both swivels. The longer leader needs to be attached to the swivel going to the reel. I want an inch or two of spacing between the two so the fish can see its two baits.

“This rig is best used with shad-style swimbaits like the River 2 Sea Bottom Bouncer or a weighted BassTrix,” he said. But, you must weight them differently so one is heavier than the other to keep them separated or run two different sized baits. When I do this, I always run the bigger heavier bait on the longer line.

Conclusions

“I hope some of these techniques work for you on the water this coming year,” he said. “But, what I really hope you come away from this article with is the fact that you have to go out and experiment on your own with swimbaits. Learn how each bait works on its own and how the fish react to them. Then develop your own techniques and never be afraid to try new things.

“If it wasn’t for Rob and Cris, I’d probably be doing what everyone else is doing and not having near the success I am having. Just invest the time and sooner or later, you’ll gain the confidence that I have gained in the last three years.”