Product Review - XZone Swammer

When it comes to smallmouth fishing on my home water I'm usually dropshotting deep rock piles, shoals and breaklines. When hitting the shallows my comfort zone is burning a spinnerbait or a rattletrap. Swimbaits have never really been "my thing". I have thrown a few variations over the years from multiple companies but I had not tried the XZone Swammer yet. So I gave them a shot yesterday on the St. Lawrence River. I used it in a variety of depths including some pretty deep presentations using weighed hooks to target suspended fish. I threw the Road Kill Special color on a mustad keeper hook with 14lb Berkley Vanish Flurocarbon line on a baitcaster and also tried it on a spinning reel to see how the bait felt on each style. The bait itself runs true every cast and has some great action. While the feel of the bait is soft it also has great durability as after I had a few smallmouth CRUSH it the Swammer held up on the assaults. I used the same swimbait all day long, never needing to replace. Which brings me to the next point. The smallmouth hammer this thing. While the majority of fish I am usually targeting are in deeper water, the smalllmouth that were suspending near these areas were all over the Swammer. It allowed me to keep the bait deeper over these areas of 30 ft where a spinnerbait is more difficult to keep suspended due to the heavy currents your dealing with. All in all I finished the day with some solid fish including a few mega chunks in the pictures and more confidence in throwing a swimbait. While a swimbait may not be my go to style of presentation I will most certainly remember to grab an XZone Swammer when working the shallows or targeting those suspended smallies over deep water. Break out of your comfort zone and try something different on the water, you may be rewarded.