The swim jig is my absolute favorite way to catch largemouths, and over the years it’s produced hundreds of big ones. I got into swim jigging by accident, and oddly it happened while smallmouth fishing. The year was 2010 - Hosting a friend on a short late summer trip in the Northwoods, we struggled to pattern the smallmouths that week. I remember it was hot, and several small weather changes affected the fishing. We went to a lake that was full of cribs. My strategy was to grind and deflect off them with crankbaits, while my partner’s strategy was dragging a 3/8-ounce Strike King KVD Swim Jig in Texas Craw rigged with a YUM Craw Papi along the bottom and edges of the structures. My partner proceeded to outfish me from the back of the boat, catching a half dozen big smallmouths off those cribs. I couldn’t believe the effectiveness of his lure concoction, and from that point forward the swim jig has been a part of my bass fishing playbook ever since. Several years have passed since that first experience, and nowadays the swim jig is a top year-round producer everywhere we fish them. I keep at least one tied on everywhere I go. The swim jig is an essent