FishCity.tv Urban Fishing by Taro Murata

Every now and then a new special bait comes along. This past year I have had the privilege of using a bait that was not yet on the market. This bait I speak of is called the X-Zone “Swammer”. It comes from the swimbait family but it has a special unique quality that makes it stand out in the crowd. It has a sublte uncanny life like wiggle that all fish cannot resist in even the toughest of days. I also was allowed into the creator Mark Kulik’s workshop where I got to see the thought process and the great attention to detail that goes into each bait. I predict it is one of those baits that will be rigged on almost every serious anglers boat in the near future. I would go even go as far as saying it has the revolutionary quality of that of a Senko, Tube or Slammer.

I am a full time guide from April until December and since last November 2010 until now my clients and I have been catching almost everything that swims on it. The bait was originally designed for Bass but it seems to be the best multi-species bait going at the moment. While using the Swammer we have caught Steelhead, Brown Trout, Largemouth, Crappie, White Bass, Carp, Smallmouth, Lake Trout, Pike, Musky, Walleye and Whitefish so far. Many anglers I know have been smashing numerous Whitefish and Lake Trout through the ice on it. They too are so excited and make bold statements like how this bait is changing their life as ice anglers. I quickly reply and say “it is changing my life too”, its like their is a “Swammer” brotherhood going on and we all preach its greatness, lol!

Mark Kulik has designed three sizes to cover different moods and species of fish. I saw him test these in the lake in front of his house. I have to say I have never seen a swimbaits swim so well. The Big Swammer otherwise know as the Mega Swammer moves excellent even when rigged weightless. You can burn this bait or fish it dead slow weightless and it still works equally as well. Almost all swimbaits on the market roll when rigged weightless and pushed to these limits but not this one, truly insane! I heard that some really big time Elite Series champions got there hands on some. I heard that one of these “Big Timers” say that it was the best swimbait they had ever seen and that they wished they had a whole suitcase full of them. Sorry I can’t mention their names due to possible sponsor conflicts.

I know all of this sounds like one big ol’ commercial but look at the pics of some of the fish my clients and I are catching on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/taro.murata , these bait are so user friendly and effective, they are a guides dream!!!! I probably have gone though 600 or so of these baits since last Nov. We have caught fish through the ice on them, trolling them, strolling them, skipping them, pitching them on pegged Ultra Tungsten weights, dragging, casting and reeling them, drop shotting them, dunking them, burning them, rigging them Texasposed on weighted Owner Beast hooks—the point is these things are so unbelievably versatile they have changed the way I will fish forever. For example instead of fan casting a spinnerbait in front of docks while the other guy pitches to the docks try fan casting a Texas rigged Swammer on a Owner beast hook. My clients caught ton of fish covering large amounts of open water with a Swammer rigged like this. My clients are catching giant fish other anglers are completely missing. because of the Swammer The bait allows to cover water in a super finesse way, I honestly believe we would have never caught as many these big open water fish as we did if we used something as mechanical looking as a spinnerbait.

There have been many special days using this bait but one day that stands out to me is a day with my clients Dave and Josh Tong when they smashed 49 giant Smallies in between 3.5-5.5 pounds on Lake Simcoe on a tough day when guys were struggling out there for one or two bites. I believe we had have struggled too but luckily my buddy Mark gave me a bag to try out. The fish were super lethargic and it was at the end of Nov. when the fish were almost in a hibernating mood but I thought I would give Mark Kulik’s new creation a try. Boy was I lucky I did, this bait woke up these lethargic fish and made them clobber it. All we did was drag them on 3/8-1/2 football heads and bang!! Too easy!!! Like I said at the beginning of this article the Swammer has the subtle natural wobble that fish just cannot resist, I stated it again because I think this is very important to understand that sometimes it is this super subtle wiggle that just makes fish hammer them over and over again. The best past example of a bait that had this type of versatility and subtle type of triggering mechanism was the Senko and its subtle wiggle on the fall. And now the Swammer!!!!!

“Get Fish Or Die Tryin’!”™

Taro Murata