When you first begin hurling swimbaits around it’s not uncommon for your first instinct to tell you that your SB isn’t tracking deep enough.
As they graciously glide and swim only a few feet under the surface you subconsciously think they are not in the right strike zone. Your mind is screaming ‘get the bait deeper’!!
Quickfire, you turn to the internet to source the perfect chin weight to clip to the front of your bait and have it nose dive to the depths.
Now, although chin weights are a great way to increase the running depth of your SB, it can be a balancing act finding the correct size and style.
You don’t want to add a house brick to your bait and have it plummet to the bottom quicker than the Panthers on the NRL ladder in 2019.
Now, in summer in particular, when cod frequent the deer sections of lakes and rivers chin weights can be a huge advantage – without question. However, in the frigid conditions of winter when more big cod get drawn to the shallow margins of our inland waterways a weightless bait is best.
That’s why in winter we like to take the ‘less is more’ approach, opting to spend longer waiting for the bait to sink, whilst maintaining a ‘slack contact’ and adding the occasional subtle flick to the hooped line.
This imparts a lifelike action on the bait opposed to it quickly sinking, motionless to the bottom. This extra sink time also give the fish longer to see the bait and allows us to work every depth of the water column more effectively.
If you do want to fish deeper water on the cast, it’s probably more effective to look at baits like a Bassman 1oz Mumbler or Jackall Dunkle soft plastic. These things were born to be on the bottom and do some of their best work a foot from the lake floor.
Now, we are painting an overly negative picture on adding weight to your bait, which is not totally true. There are times we want to get a little deeper and small amounts of weight, like ½ to ¾ ounces, can be a huge asset.
In this instance, if you do want to add a small amount of weight to your swimbait check out the below links for some handy hints.
In terms of brands, the Mustard Fastach weight is a brilliant option to conveniently add weight on the run to your swimbait with a chin attachment point. It’s so easy even Norbs can do it.