The market is now flooded with swimbaits. But rather than buy 50 different swimbaits, we’ve recently been narrowing down our selections to a few styles and bodies that work well in a variety of applications. This past spring we got turned on to the Swing Impact FAT from Keitech. The reason we really love the bait is because we’ve got bass on them in literally 5 different applications and rigs.
Key features that make this a good swimbait:
- Heavy salt content
- Ridged body style
- Oval /triangle hybrid shape
- Narrow tail neck section
- Very good colors
The good and bad of salt
The Swing Impact FAT swimbait comes in 4 sizes, including: 2.8-inch, 3.8-inch, 4.8-inch and 5.8-inch models. The interesting thing about these swimbaits right out of the package is the weight of each bait. Immediately you feel like you can sling one a mile with or without a weighted head just because of the heavy salt content.
The one thing with heavy salt is that baits tend to rip easier because the plastic is not solid all the way through, and that was the case with these swimbaits. Because of this we secured the swimbaits to jig heads and hooks with super glue and used a plastic repair glue to keep them working longer for us. We caught a lot of bass on one swimbait, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Action and profile matter
However the action on these swimbaits elicited a lot of vicious strikes in a variety of applications. The action comes from a combination of the shape, ringed ridges around the body, tail kick and then the heavy salt that helps to keel the bait correctly. When rigged on a swimbait head, a big hook with weighted belly, or on an umbrella rig the bait swims with a big tail kick and pronounced roll that puts a lot of pressure waves into the water.
I took a lot of fish from clear water to moderately stained water. I even threw the smaller ones on the back of a swim jig and caught several fish on those.
The bait has a slight groove in its back and an EWG fits nicely there. The middle section of the bait is fairly hollow and thin so it’s easy to rig and get a good hookset on fish. But we actually preferred the swimbait on a jighead. We’ve been using the big version on a 3/4 ounce swimbait head with good success on deep fish. We even recommend it as a Chatterbait trailer.
Tail kick and bling
The bait actually has an almost triangle shape which appears to be key to the great action. The neck section of the tail is thin and it gives the tail a great kick and thump. You can feel the bait kick on a long cast to deep water.
They did a great job on the colors of the baits. They have very natural hues and good transitions with flake to add a little flare to the baits. The result is a very natural presentation in the water that the bass can’t seem to resist.
The baits come 4 to 8 to a pack depending on the size. They are available at Tackle Warehouse and other retailers locally as well. They are a little more at $7.49 a pack. But they catch fish so that’s a decision left up to each angler. I have stocked up on them since starting to fish them. It’s one of the few small jighead swimbaits I rely on regularly along with Zoom Swimming Flukes, Big Bite Baits Cane Thumpers, Berkley Split Bellies, and AA Worms Shad Tails to cover the bases.
