Fishing Forum

Ok guys, question....any tips or best practices for rigging up a Berkeley Power Bait Swim shad to make it weedless.

http://www.basspro.com/Berkley-PowerBait...L_HOMEPAGE

Hit the lake on Sunday and wanted to try something new so I ran this bait exclusively all day. I did pretty good, pulled in a mixed bad of stripers and LMB, 24 in all with steady action all day. Where i ran into an issue, one of my honey holes out at mead has a lot of vegetation (above and below the surface). Luckily this set up runs the hook out of the top so it limits the hook ups on bushes but i still lost several of them due to snags 10-12 ft down and a couple due to not paying attention to what i was doing.

With the versatility of this lure and they way i was getting hammered by the fish i would love to be able to lay this into some dense vegetation and work it through without losing as many lures. Any thoughts? One thing for sure is i have to up my line, i was using 10lb big game mono, i opted for this because i expected a lot of snags and didnt want to lose all my good line. I am considering going to a strong braid but the only hesitation i have there is i was fishing with a friend that had braid and i was out catching him 5 to 1 using the same tackle and casting into the same areas. The fish were definitely picky about the line, that or i am just an awesome fisherman lol

Curious if anyone has tried something to help in this.
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These roboworm ez shad swimbaits are hollow belly and the lead weighted hook sits tight to the top while the lead rides in the belly. I really like them. Almost totally weedless.

[url "http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Roboworm_EZ_Shad_Swimbait_5_3pk/descpage-REZS.html"]http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Roboworm_EZ_Shad_Swimbait_5_3pk/descpage-REZS.html[/url]

The berkleys swim shad would be hard to make weedless using the jig head thats inside of them. Its a weird flat shape and if you change the position of how it sits mid body then you will really mess up the action. I have taken them out and rigged them like a fluke before. You could also take out the jig head and use one of these weighted hooks to make it weedless.

[url "http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Swimbait_Hooks/catpage-TTWHK.html"]http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Swimbait_Hooks/catpage-TTWHK.html[/url]
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[cool]FYI The guys at BPS said they will not carry them anymore. They are going to sell their brand of this swimbait. I'm going to get some maybe this week. They look the same and with the same colors. Got the new catalog and they are in it.
I wish I knew of a way to make them weedless also. Maybe thin stainless wire. They are an awesome bait and have caught me alot of fish.
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I second vegaskid, I would find a hollow belly swimbait with the same style/size tail and pattern as this--I LOVE that swimbait btw, but also ran into the same prob. Unfortunately, it's just not made for the shorelines at mead--I've lost so many of them out there, some trees/bushes just won't give them up, even with heavy braid
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