UFO 6” Gill Swimbait – Abducting Bass Night and Day (continued)

Operation: It didn’t take very long for me abduct my first largemouth with the UFO. I headed straight for an area that I knew was inhabited by a lot of bluegill and within the first ten casts as I was waking the bait I experienced a fierce blow-up and landed a fish just over four pounds. Not a bad way to break in the new bait!

My first fish on a UFO came less than an hour. This would be the first of many this season as I experienced what the bait is capable of both night and day

Castability: Weighing in at over 2.5oz. the UFO Gill wake is easy to cast and due to the large free swinging rear hinge design will fold over and not flail around in the air. Once the bait hits the water it floats quickly up to the surface and you can then choose a variety of ways to put it to work. I found there are four ways that I like to fish this bait.

In comparison to the 6" Gill the Mothership is truly a big bait and weighs over 7.5 ounces

Ease of Actuation: The first and most common way to fish the UFO Gill is to employ a straight moderate speed retrieve. Fished with a 6:1 or 7:1 speed reel the bait will come back with a relatively tight swimming action, moving a lot of water due to the height of the bait and free swinging tail. The bill drives the bait’s action and generates a surprising amount of head movement. Worked in this way the bait will also exhibit a high-pitched clicking sound as the joint sections make contact. This signature sound is exhibited by the Mothership, only louder.

A XXH swimbait rod is necessary to cast the Mothership. In comparison the 6" Gill can be fished with much lighter setups

The second way to fish the UFO Gill is as a twitch bait. The Gill rests in place without rolling over and can be twitched to maintain the bait in a strike zone and mimic a struggling gill. I have found this technique very effective in shallow water, alongside structure, or over vegetation.

A look at the UFO Gill next to another one of my top producing swimbaits, the Lanciotti Psycho Gill. The Psycho is available in both two and three piece versions (Psycho with in-house Joey paint shown)

A third way to fish the UFO is to attempt to walk it, but this bait is best retrieved and paused versus employing a traditional rod twitching walk. While it is arguably possible to walk this bait this is probably better described as a start and stop retrieve.

Compared to the Psycho the UFO 6" Gill is both taller and flatter (Psycho with BNA paint shown)

The fourth way that I like to fish the UFO Gill wake is an employ a fast retrieve, and by fast I mean burning the bait. Unlike many other wakes that wash out or roll UFO swimbaits seem to love speed. This ability to be fished very quickly is one of the reasons why the UFO is so versatile. When the fish are aggressive I found that there was no limit to how fast I could move the UFO Gill. Even when cranking down on an 8:1 ratio reel I found that bass could still catch up to the gill and readily commit to this bait.

Comparing the UFO with another popular garage built custom, the Throwback Wakewalker. Both of these baits are capable of pushing a lot of water when waked

Over the next few months, I had the pleasure of learning more about how to fish the UFO from the maker himself. Eric and I fished together on my boat, and I learned more about his design, and how he personally likes to fish. Unlike myself whom routinely has a deck covered with different setups Eric is committed to fishing swimbaits, and usually his own. Often, he would only bring two LDC rods, one with a Mothership and another with a 6” Gill and would sometimes swap out other patterns or prototypes that he was working on.

Fishing with Eric I learned more about the origins and designs of the Mothership and 6" Gill. The Ship is his confidence bait

We fished during warm days and cool nights, including one evening where we both almost froze. Through this variety of conditions, I was impressed by how versatile the Gill Wake was.

While the 6" Gill may look like a large gill by itself it attracts fish of all sizes. Sometimes I wonder what dinks are thinking when they attempt to take on baits of this size

While the Mothership is an absolute blast to fish with, and the average fish that you will catch on the Ship will be larger, you will catch many more fish on the 6” gill. The much smaller, and lighter, bait is far less imposing for both anglers and fish and does an excellent job matching the hatch.

While the Mothership will naturally cull in most cases the 6" Gill gets a lot of action and is very capable of delivering quality fish

One of my most memorable moments fishing together with Eric was when we were fishing at night and had already caught quite a few fish on the surface. Watching the fish rise up on Livescope never gets old. Eric had one of his new prototype glide baits on and I spotted a fish on the scope moving through some deeper water. I asked Eric if he still had that glide tied on, pointing out the direction of where the fish was so that he could cast towards it. Instead, he simply handed me his setup and said “go for it!” I made one cast and as the bait came into view on Livescope I saw the fish rise and start to follow, I varied the retrieve and it committed. Going one for one with a cast to land had me believing in the new bait and Eric in the game changer that is Livescope.

The drawing power of the UFO 6" is excellent, and there are a lot of ways to effectively retrieve this bait. It is also one of the very best when it comes to high speed burn retrieves and will not wash out

While the UFO Mothership and 6” Gill will likely always be signature baits for the brand, Eric is constantly working on new bait designs and has already shown previews of some new glides that he will be making available soon.

Eric catches a stud spot with the 6" Gill Sunkist pattern

While I cannot wait for these new baits, I’ve also been busy trying to procure more UFOs this season and had the opportunity to also borrow a few 6” Gills from friends to compare the different versions. The wake is probably my favorite to fish during the warmer months when fish are on top and the lipless and crankdown versions provide more versatility when fish are suspended or not as eagerly feeding on top.

The Legal Dope Tum is another very fun bait to throw that features a similarly tall back but much wider body (Tum with BNA paint shown)