Ed Proulx tossed a baby BaitSmith Bass and caught this 8 1/2-pounder. Try to "match the hatch" by determining what bass are feeding on. It could be shad, bluegills, trout or even baby bass. Photo by Andrew Parsons.

I'll admit it -- I was a swimbait skeptic. Not that I didn't think they'd catch fish. I just didn't think I'd get enough bites on them to make the effort worthwhile. A couple of incidents over the last few years, though, changed all that.

The first happened in a 2004 pro-am tournament when my boater, Brian Barthman, proceeded to stick one bass after another on a 6-inch 3:16 Mission Fish. That day opened my eyes to how many quality bites these lures could garner under the right conditions.

My second revelation occurred three years later. I was fishing a team tournament with a friend, Russ Stansbury. A fellow angler introduced him to a new 6-inch swimbait known as a Baitsmith. On the tourney's first day, Stansbury caught a goggle-eyed 9.48-pounder.

But it was Day 2, however, that sealed the deal. On his third cast that morning, Russ caught an 11 1/2-pounder on the Baitsmith. Around noon, he stuck a 14.59-pounder on the same lure. We ended the day with 44.31 pounds, won the tournament and set the record for the heaviest five-fish limit ever weighed in during a Clear Lake event.

Along with his three kickers, Russ caught several more in the 5- to 6-pound range, reinforcing the fact that these baits can produce the fish of a lifetime but also numbers of solid bass as well. I had seen the light.

Obviously, I'm not the only one who has been won over to small swimbaits. Downsized versions have exploded in popularity over the last several years. Tournament anglers increasingly rely on them for quality, and those out for fun discover how productive they really can be.

We interviewed some of the leaders of this small-swimbait revolution. We compiled their views on why these lures are so effective and learned how even casual anglers can work them into their arsenals.

Lure designer Matt Servant, pro Bill Siemantel of "The Big Bass Zone," Baitsmith co-founder Eric Smith, and trophy hunter Matt Allen offer their thoughts on how to use these baits to increase the number of quality bass you're catching. And, in case you were wondering, these lures are also deadly on those sometimes-elusive post-spawners, particularly the larger females that have recently left their nests.

LITTLE BIG BAITS
Bill Siemantel is a highly successful tournament angler and big-bass specialist. He said that average anglers have been discouraged from trying swimbaits because of popular misconceptions.

"Fishermen have been misled to think you need Florida-strain largemouths and stocked trout for swimbaits to work," he said.

In Siemantel's view, that's far from the truth. He advises that even trophy-seekers shouldn't limit themselves to humongous offerings.

"Bass eat bluegills and other bass," he said. And for those still leery of throwing downsized models, Siemantel offers this thought: "The worst thing that's going to happen is you're going to end up seeing the biggest fish in the lake following your lure."

Matt Servant is well known in big-bait circles for his lifelike creations -- his best known being the Matt Lures Bluegill. In his opinion, many anglers underestimate the productivity of swimbaits, especially smaller ones, in terms of the number of bites they can attract.

"A good, small swimbait can work better than a crankbait or spinnerbait," he said. He also notes that swimbaits of reduced size can have productive windows that last all day, whereas big baits often have much smaller ones.

These baits have also been dogged by the persistent myth that they were designed exclusively for the low-percentage, high-reward big bass.

Eric Smith lives in Idaho, where forage typically runs 3 to 5 inches in length. That's one of the reasons he developed the Baitsmith.

"If I was to pick one size of lure, it would be in the 5- to 6-inch range," he said. "You get more bites throughout the day on the smaller lures. You'll still get the big bites, but you won't get worn out like you will from throwing the bigger baits."

Matt Allen has 35 bass of over 10 pounds to his credit, including a behemoth of 17 pounds, 2 ounces. He attributes the growing popularity of smaller swimbaits to a couple of factors.

"Competitive anglers understand that swimbaits are catching the quality fish you need to win tournaments," he said.