Lew's Fishing and Strike King Pro Mark Rose takes us through his go-to heavy cover swimbaits featuring the NEW Strike King Weedless Squadron Head. #NEXTLEVEL
Swimbait fishing can be an exciting way to catch bass. However, you need to have the right equipment to entice the fish and keep the bait from getting hung up. Mark Rose is an expert in the swimbait field, and he was kind enough to take us through his choices when it comes to having a swimbait tied on.
Mark’s two favorite swimbaits are the Strike King Rage Swimmer, and the Shadalicious Swimbait. He will have these tied on no matter what kind of cover he is fishing. When it comes to open water fishing, Rose will pair the swimbaits with a regular Strike King Squadron Swimbait Head. “Many times, when I’m fishing out there, I’m just fishing wide open shell beds or drops,” states Mark. In areas like this, the fish will be suspended, or away from cover, so a regular head will get the job done. He opts for the Weedless Squadron Swimbait Head when the fish are around cover. Rose explains that “There’s times when I get out there and there’s stumps, there’s brush piles, things like that.” The weedless design of the new Squadron Head prevents it from getting hung up in places like this. When fishing around lighter cover Mark will trim the weed guard of his swimbait head to get better hook penetration on fish. If the cover is thick, then he will leave it as is to keep the bait from hanging up.
Rose fishes his swimbaits on his Lew’s Signature Series Swimbait Rod. He will have this rigged up with different sizes of fluorocarbon line depending on the cover he is around. When he is fishing ledges or other structure in open water then he goes for 15-to-17-pound line. The lighter line is less visible to the fish and should be used when you can get away with it. “I’ll go up to more like 20-pound line when I’m throwing the weedless version and I’m around a lot of heavy cover,” says Mark. The heavier line is less likely to break in thick cover.
Swimbaits are a great tool to have in the boat year-round. Next time you find yourself around cover, and are wanting to use a swimbait, check out the new Weedless Squadron Swimbait Head. It may lead to more or bigger fish being put in the livewell.
