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When Casting the Danny Swimmer

9K views 18 replies 11 participants last post by  clopes 
#1 ·
I noticed that my swimmer gets tangled a lot on my leader. But at night its hard to tell whether its tangled or not causing me to waste a lot of time. I'll assume that my lure is moving properly on the retrieve and when it gets close its all tangled up.

Any reccos anyone? Is this a common issue??
 
#3 ·
In my 1st year here striper fishing I have caught 7 thus far and none have been hooked by the trailer hook. So I don't think taking the trailer hook off will change the lures catch ability but it may change the way it swims? Maybe better / worse?

But in any case I can feel the action of my plugs and typically when one is fouled on the leader it feels heavier...like a dead weight with no action so I reel that in fast. I also have a couple plugs that seem to foul more than others so I have been experimenting with changing the angle in which I cast them.
 
#6 ·
When I fish freshwater 90% of the time I use top water plugs. When I do get a tangle for whatever reason I fish it slower than normal. It is a reaction lure, fish it slow and you will still catch fish. A dying fish doesn't swim a straight line. Last night I was fishing and got 3 hook ups when fishing a tangled lure. Good luck..:gob_icon_cheers:
 
#7 ·
Rambov said:
I noticed that my swimmer gets tangled a lot on my leader. But at night its hard to tell whether its tangled or not causing me to waste a lot of time. I'll assume that my lure is moving properly on the retrieve and when it gets close its all tangled up.
Try using a snap swivel on the metal lip swimmers and dont fire it as hard as you can. Toss it with an overhead cast not a snap cast. Retrieve slow. You can feel whether you have tangled it on the front treble by the feel after swimming the plug properly a few times as opposed to dragging it.
 
#9 ·
Rambov said:
Thanks Guys how far should I really be casting the swimmer???
Danny's and many other wood plugs aren't really aerodynamic. They dont really cast that far, but with a good setup and braid and not too much head wind you should be able to get a decent cast. Sometimes you have to wade out a bit and cast other times the fish are in close.

Read this article by russ bassdozer you will enjoy it.
http://www.bassdozer.com/articles/surf_plugs.shtml

Excerp
Most often I would use it for close-in infighting tight in heavy cover - jetties, sand bars, weed beds, shellfish beds, rock beds, piling, piers, sunken barges, wrecks - anything and everything that could hold a bass by day. If I had confidence a bass was there, repeatedly waking Danny's Surface Swimmer as close as possible practically touching the cover would eventually raise a fin for me. Even after several dozen repeated casts over the same piece of cover, I had high confidence that the next cast could be the one when Danny's Surface Swimmer Jr. would raise a bass to the top. Whether the plug just became irritating after a while or what, it worked that way. Persistence on my part as a plugger was paramount to success with this plug for me. Almost every piece of cover could and would have bass sulking on it, and it was just a matter of not giving up casting too soon.
 
#11 ·
#15 ·
When i know its messed up, i reelin quick until it breaks the surface and give a quick jerk sending it flying and then pause for a fewseconds. this usually gets the leader out of the treble. i then continue reeling and see if its swimming correctly. and i slammed one doing this earlier in the season. it was pretty funny. it went from DAMN IT to YES very quickly
 
#18 ·
Most of my swimmers seem to be ok with fouling. If I do run into one that is a problem I will try feathering it. Thanks Sudsy.

I do do the jerk it when one is tangled. I don't try to fish it slow as one poster posted. Well to make it look like a wounded prey. As by doing this you now have your line wrapped around a hook and just asking for a break off if you get a large fish or even just one with sharp teeth. This has happened with a musky a while back and have vowed not to do it again. Also you have your leader chaffing against the hook.
 
#19 ·
I had the same issue but I ended up taking the front treble (I know what your thinking, that's where they hit it) but it also has a big treble in the middle of the plug and the single hook trailer at end...Also when you fish those things (at least for me) I always fish them ssssslllllllooooooowwww as hell and that seems to do the trick...Almost like a popper, and hardly ever under the surface...
 
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