Hard Swimbaits – Very Cool!

So what if I told you there is a lure out there that produces pike all season long?   What if I told you it was super easy to fish?  What if I told you most of the strikes come from the surface or the top 12 inches of water creating fireworks right on the surface of the water?  I bet you’d be all in to add one of those to your pike arsenal!

Well such a lure exists and I absolutely love this bait.  It works on cold neutral minded fish.  It works in warmer bays.  It really works all the time.  (Yeah, there is a downside.)  I’ll get to that in a minute, but let’s just take in the glory of the Savage Gear 4 Play Swim and Jerk Hard Swimbait.

What you are looking at is the first generation of this bait on the right which is a bit smaller and not quite as sturdy as the second generation on the left.  They updated the lure within the first few years of release to deal with that downside I mentioned.  These lures are like finely tuned instruments and as we all know pike aren’t exactly the softest gentlest creatures around.  The downside was that these things didn’t hold up very well.  If you landed a decent pike in the net and it spun it would bend the steel connectors in the lure and cause the lure to not run straight.  Worst yet it was very difficult to bend the lure straight again.  Below are a couple of lures that have seen a few battles and don’t run quite as straight as they used to.

Thankful we have the V2 of the 4 Play.  It is much tougher and holds up much better to our toothy friends.

These things are super easy to fish.

Cast.

Pause for a bit of sink / Reel slow / Pause / Repeat

Or

Reel slow / Jerk.  Reel Slow

Or burn it right under the surface

No matter how / when / where you fish for Pike, make sure you grab one of these for your box.  If you want to catch one of these: