Well I suppose I'd ask the same question, if we down here on the left coast's taint had the option between the two. But for we Oregon anglers, who only hear about this 'live bait' jazz, swimbaits are as good as it gets.
There are many ways to effectively fish them. ALWAYS have a few rods rigged, especially if trolling conventional clones/feathers/jet heads. As soon as those rods hook up, drop heavy headed (2+ oz) swimbaits into your prop wash, right off the lines of the hooked up rods. Free spool them down as you wait the 6-10 sec for more troll rods to hook up, then as you take the boat out of gear and work those rods, engage reels on the swim baits and place them in the holders, and let them bob with the swell as you bring troll fish in. They'll light up!
Casting to jumpers: Whippy-er rods, as the one Todd mentioned earlier, with lighter, smaller heads/bodies, so you can flat out huck them a ways. 4" bodies, in clear/silver flake, black back white body, blue back white body, on 3/4 - 1.5 oz heads with red eyes.
Trolling: Starting late Aug last year, we had much higher numbers trolling 2 -3 oz heads on 5-6" bodies in standard troll patterns (only slower, 4-5kts) than we did running clones, etc.
As mentioned earlier, most bites are on the drop, and in the words of my old man, on his first swimbait hook up " ' Sum beeeeeeeech!" as he nearly lost the rod. I like to bomb a couple mega casts and instantly engage the reel, placing them up in the rocket launchers, after we've stopped to deal with troll caught fish. As these cast swimmers sink, you'll suddenly go from 4 fish on, to 6+.
As for other options, the crippled herring mentioned above are slick, but check out "Spinnow"s, the 2.5 oz size. They run on a heavy wire spinner shaft, and 'spin' as they drop, and on fast retrieves(fast jigging). Just be sure to swap out the factory trebles.
A solid swimbait hookup is "Tunabites" by MarkMc off Ifish. Makes them in his free time, and has built a huge following. He has spent a LOT of time perfecting the plastics, colors, etc. I guess that is to be expected from an HP engineer.
I'll try to get some pics of heads and bodies up later...
Pics up (I hope they work)
Various Tunabite bodies, from the big dogs (6") to the late season special (4")
Here are some various heads I Poured up to match them, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 oz, 3d recessed eyes
And here are the Spinnows, after an Owner mod.
Aug 26th this year on the GOLDRUSH again. Can't really go with anyone else(wouldn't want to anyway) as my cousin owns and operates it. Hope we hit it right this year!!
