On Monday, September 30th, I hosted a few dignitaries in the boat and it also included a camera guy for the TV. I took Larry Ladowski and Seth Meyer of Midwest Outdoors to Disney World, and its big smallmouths were not camera shy.

This segment is all about patterning and catching early fall smallmouths with paddletails, and converting trophies with bigger swimbaits.

We caught a lot of big fish on the day, including some very large ones (6) at 20.5 to 21-inches.

Big swimbaits are trending rapidly in present-day smallmouth fishing. Like many 6-inch and larger swimbaits, the Berkley Cull Shad does well selecting for specimens. It’ll draw the attention of big smallmouths that shorter length baits fail to accomplish.

As we swimbait fish for smallmouths atop flats and weedlines during the early fall period, smallmouths become notorious for boatside strikes and follows. During such wild engagement, many fish fail to convert. In these instances, tossing out a very large follow-up bait during next cast has often caught them during such clean-up efforts. So, a 6- or 7-inch swimbait is excellent in this regard.

It makes sense, as smallmouths are selective feeders. The largest specimens feed less but want to maximize their energy levels and get the most out of every meal.

I witnessed the potential of Berkley’s Cull Shad for the first time this past September. Hosting the Midwest Outdoors TV crew for our TV shoot, the Cull Shad captured several 18-to-21.5-inch fish, including Larry Ladowski’s personal best.

First, prior to launching, Larry brought a plastic grocery bag of unopened goodies. It looked like a haul of trick-or-treat candies. It contained several odd-looking packages of unopened baits. I recall him asking whether to bring any of them. 

The only thing that caught my attention in that bag was a perch pattern swimbait. I told him bring that 6-inch perch pattern swimbait, as this fishery was a perch forage mecca.

Larry started out HOT for the TV that morning, catching four quick good ones with a 4-inch Z-Man Diezel Minnow (the same thing that has been catching fish these last two months and was the basis of this show). Then we went cold for 2.5 hours. It wasn’t the spots, but the fish themselves were a little off.

Late that morning, we started finding life along some deep green weedlines, and all it took was for a few boatside follows.

I suggested to Larry he tie on his 6-inch Berkley Cull Shad. The idea here was we were on a deep weedline where some bonus big pike could be on the prowl too and also make for great TV. But another trick I have with big swimbaits is they can often help convert boatside chasing smallmouths.

The pike were MIA on this day, but Larry quickly started catching big smallmouths on this oversize snack. This bait converted all of those smallmouth boatside follows into smash and grabs. It was quite the turn of events, and spectacle to see. The scale (not mine) might have malfunctioned once or twice, but while handling them one or two of his fish felt to be in the range of 5.5 to 6 pounds.

As the afternoon progressed, I finally hit my fish and got some big ones too. 

Taking shallow water swimbait fishing to a new level, the Berkley Powerbait Cull Shad Swimbait combines big profile drawing power with Berkley’s proprietary Honeycomb Technology to increase durability without sacrificing action. Featuring a pre-rigged hassle-free harness and hook retention clip to keep the treble hook secured to the belly, the body and keeling harness design prevent blowouts and keep the Cull Shad running true even at fast retrieve speeds. Due to watching Larry blow a few hook sets, I would suggest modifying the hook to a 2/0 treble. Sharpening hook wouldn’t hurt either.

Available in realistic colors, and in a very appealing size profile to trophy smallmouths, the Berkley Cull Shad is going to become a frequent player in our boat. Since this event, I have stockpiled over a dozen Cull Shads in an assortment of colors.