Thousands learn Magic Swimmer's Secret before Lake Amistad Win

Thousands of anglers who attended the Bassmaster Classic Outdoor Show last February in Greenville, S.C., might not have realized it at that time, but they were treated to a fishing lesson that many of the country's top pros are probably now wishing they had seen as well.

Over the course of the show's three days, lure designer Patrick Sebile and professional bass angler Jason Williamson demonstrated over and over again how to fish the Sebile jointed hard swimbait, the Magic Swimmer. That same Magic Swimmer played a role not just in Willamson's fifth place finish at the recent BASS Elite Series tournament on Texas' Lake Amistad, but also in Todd Faircloth's win of the event.

Faircloth made long casts with the Magic Swimmer and held his rod tip high to "wake" the bait while moving quickly across large flats during practice to get the giant Texas largemouths to show themselves. "Sometimes they'd come up and take it, other times they'd just give it a good look," Faircloth explained. "It wasn't always the bait I caught my fish on, but it sure told me where I should be spending most of my time to catch the winning weight."

Although the tournament was shortened by one day due to high winds, Faircloth's three-day winning weight was still an impressive 76 pounds 15 ounces for 15 fish.

At the start of the final day, it was Williamson who was in the lead following a previous day catch of five fish weighing a total of 29 pounds 13 ounces. He was focusing on channel-swing points that had 50-60 feet of water nearby, and relied on wind or cloud cover for his best success.

"I couldn't believe it when the final day was sunny and calm, my fish just weren't as cooperative under those conditions," he said. "It had been so phenomenal. If lots of cover, I'd throw more weedless baits. When in the more open water, I'd throw my Magic Swimmer and use a retrieve exactly like Patrick Sebile and I demonstrated so many times in Sebile's casting tank at the Classic show. It's a deadly technique that can't be done with any other kind of swimbait."

He described the technique as involving a slow-rolling retrieve much like that often used for fishing spinnerbaits in deep water. With the rod tip pointed down and reeling slowly, he would then give the bait a sharp jerk followed immediately by pushing the rod forward to put slack in the line. He explained that the jerk and slack technique causes the bait to turn 180 degrees and "look right at the fish that's eyeing it." He says it's often too much for a bass to resist.

For the technique, Williamson prefers to use 15-17 pound test fluorocarbon and sometimes will add adhesive-type "weights" to the bait's underside to help it get down a little quicker.

Willamson further explained that the Magic Swimmer's shape and three-joint design gives it the most realistic swimming action of anything he's ever seen. "It can be 'waked' on top, slow-rolled into the depths or 'burned' somewhere in between using a high-speed retrieve, but however you fish it, it always runs true. That's a big deal," he added.

Both Williamson and Faircloth used Magic Swimmer model 165 SK, weighing approximately 1.6 ounces and measuring nearly 6 inches in length. SK stands for the "slow sinking" property built into all four models of Magic Swimmers. Williamson's color of choice for Amistad was Perch, while Faircloth went with Natural Shiner and Rainbow Trout. The Magic Swimmer comes in as many as 13 colors, depending on model. The 165 SK retails for around $20.

Bass from the Rising Sun

As you can remember, Todd Faircloth won last week the Bassmaster event in Lake Amistad ; he was using Magic Swimmer 165 as a key to find the big bass in this well known lunker lake. Also another SEBILE USA pro staff was n°5, Jason Williamson - that shows that when luck is not enough, you better tie a SEBILE lure on !

But this time my info comes from the rising sun country : one of the Japanese's largest ever bass, a 7560 grams (around 17lb), was just caught with a Magic Swimmer. This settle the new record for the Nanairo area.

So even in this country, SEBILE lures are anything but average : they outperform and out catch, especially coming from a foreign company in a very competitive country. We are also excited to know that many larges seabass are caught on SEBILE lures, and even a Japanese catfish close to the All Tackle record set in Japan (this one was caught on a Flatt Shad 77sk) !

Have a great time fishing with our innovative, unique and catchy creations !

Very best regards,

Patrick Sébile

Todd Faircloth Wins at Amistad

Faircloth alternated between a six-inch Yamamoto Senko and a swimbait all week. Another key for Faircloth was the Sebile Magic Swimmer 165 SK in which he used to locate the bigger fish.

Having already won once on the Elite Series, Todd Faircloth knew what it would take to come from the 10th-place position he started the day in and claim top honors…and he didn’t like his chances. “I know how quickly things can go down here at this lake, but I still never expected to win when the day started,” an emotional Faircloth explained.

“The Lord just really blessed me this week. I still can’t really believe it.”

As a result of no wind and bright skies, Faircloth explained that his morning didn’t amount to much. “The water had just slicked off bad, and was just super slow,” he said. “Every once in a while the breeze would pick up and it would create a little bit of ripple on the water and I’d pick one up.”

With time running out, Faircloth told his cameraman that he had one option left – go to the most reliable spot he could think of and hope for the best. “I pulled up on a tree that I caught 36 pounds from last year with less than an hour to go and caught two of my biggest bass of the day from it,” he said. “I told my camera man that I was saving my magic tree until the last minute.”

With a shortened workweek, Faircloth explained that the off day allowed him to refocus after the battering week before at Falcon. “The day off worked out good for me,” he confessed. “I just took some downtime because I was just wore out. It allowed me to refocus and look forward to the three days I had in front of me.”

Faircloth scored the win by alternating between a six-inch Yamamoto Senko and a swimbait all week. “I located a lot of these fish on a wake bait,” he said. “You could wake that bait on the surface and the fish would show themselves. But we had clouds during practice, so everything I weighed came on either the Senko or the swimbait.”

The win secured, Faircloth was able to use hindsight a little and admitted that without an early gamble, he wouldn’t have been able to put all the pieces together. “I was catching a lot of fish during practice, but wasn’t getting a lot of big bites,” the Skeeter pro said.

“The first day of the tournament I caught a limit pretty quick, and decided to pick up the swimbait and just swing for the fences. I actually had the opportunity Saturday to have a 30-pound bag, but you’re going to lose a fish or two on the swimbait – that’s just part of it.”

Key to the Win: “The spots that I had found reloaded every day, and didn’t seem to matter if the wind was blowing or not.”