(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
Arkansas pro Harvey Horne has experienced some success in his young career as a pro angler, including a win in the 2018 Bassmaster Central Open on the Arkansas River, but he still wants more. “The ultimate prize is that Bassmaster Classic trophy,” he said, and when he wins one, there’s no doubt a swing-head jig will be one of the building blocks of that victory.
It’s a lure that he uses in almost every tournament, whether deep or shallow, regardless of the season. It was his primary weapon in the season-opening Elite Series event of 2020 on the St. Johns River, where he finished 12th. He started off the day with a fluke-style bait on the back, then switched to a Big Bite Baits Fighting Frog. One of his favorite colors is black blue flake/sapphire laminate, even in the clear waters of Ozarks region lakes, where it resembles the local crawfish.
“Those fish hadn’t been used to seeing it, I guess,” he said of the Florida river fish. Another color that he relies on around the country and for all of the different species of bass is candy grass. He explained the Fighting Frog’s unique attributes. “It’s really thin from top to bottom but it’s also really wide, so it’s going to glide a little bit more than some of your other creature-style baits.” It also has a defined hook slot that allows for solid hook ups.
When pitching the swing-head, if he’s doing it from a distance he’ll often reel it back along the bottom, the same way he does when fishing offshore. That’s a technique he learned when paired as a co-angler with Tommy Biffle in the Opens.
“You wouldn’t think you would move it that fast, but you want to move it fast enough that it’s just kind of scooting along,” he said. The bites often come when you come into contact with something irregular, like a branch or limb.
Many novices with this technique claim that they have trouble keeping fish buttoned up on it. Horne has resolved that by employing a 7’3” Cashion medium-heavy casting rod with “a little more feel and a little bit softer tip.” He pairs it with a Daiwa Tatula reel with an 8:1 gear ratio. The bass will often swim at him after picking up the lure, and when that happens the speedy reel allows him to catch up to them and bury the hook. He spools it up with 22-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon. His hookset varies on how he’s fishing the lure and how far from the boat it is when the bass strikes. In a flipping or pitching scenario, he prefers a snap set, but when cranking it along the bottom “it’s going to be a hard sweep…kind of try to pull that bait into the roof of the mouth.”
If you want to learn some of the other aspects of Horne’s swing-head jig system, as well as the story of how the late Bryan Kerchal’s ups and downs inspired Horne’s career, check out his full video filmed at the 2020 Bassmaster Classic, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
