ima Skimmer ~ A Slimmer Topwater Walking Bait

Model: ima Skimmer
Type: Floating/Walking
Weight: 7/16 oz (13g)
Length: 4-1/4" (110mm)
Factory Hooks: Two #4 Owner St-36

The ima Skimmer is 4-1/2 inches long and weighs 7/16 oz with two sticky-sharp premium #4 Owner trebles.

Items in photo above not included with item for sale.

Slim Shape Appeal: The ima Skimmer is unique among hard plastic topwater stickbaits in that the Skimmer has the slender body shape of a 5" soft plastic stickbait. This slim profile has proven to be one of the most appealing bass lure shapes ever. There's a whole lot to be said simply for this slender profile and silhouette, and the Skimmer is one of the only topwater hardbaits that has it.

The ima Skimmer is hard plastic, but it helps to think of it like a soft stickbait on steroids, one that casts like an arrow, and cruises the surface like an explosive missile.

It has a lively, light action. It knifes across the surface, dancing, skating and swimming strongly like a svelte Olympic swimmer in top condition. You may want to simply get a strong, rhythmic side-to-side swimming motion going, where the Skimmer uses its entire body length to swim, sculling across the top with authority.

The Skimmer's movement is a skating, dancing, wriggling thing. When done right, it practically comes alive, and that's an action to concentrate on making - the movement and motion of the Skimmer's slender swimming body versus the splash and confusion of traditional stickbaits.

It's the strong swimming movement, not the splashing around, that's key to the Skimmer's slim shape appeal.

ima USA pro-staffer Michael Murphy says: "A lot of people put the Skimmer in the category of other walking baits. I think the Skimmer is much different. It's kind of in its own category. It looks like other walking baits, but it doesn't push water, it cuts through the water. To see the design of this bait, the body cross-section is a teardrop shape. And in fact the water will flow over its back and will create a swirl right behind it every time you jerk it, which a lot of baits won't do that. Other walking baits will push water and splash but the Skimmer is one that actually creates a swirl behind it. If you look at the Skimmer on videos or when you are first working it, you'll mistakenly think that fish are swirling at it - and that's what it does, it creates the idea, the impression that there's a fish trying to eat it. So a fish is more likely to become competitive when it thinks another fish is there (but really is not there). So it will see the surface swirl - and try to get the Skimmer before another fish gets it. That's the beauty of this bait - that boil, that swirl behind the Skimmer."

How to Bring Out the Best Action

Since the Skimmer is thinner, its action is cleaner and crisper than bulkier baits. However, a lot of hand-to-eye coordination is always required with any member of this class of surface-walking lures. There's an art to pulling these puppets to life on the end of your string. As always, practice makes perfect.

The way to work the rod will vary a little depending on the angle you cast it relative to the wind and based on the surface condition (smooth, rippled, choppy and so on). You need to vary the rod movement under different conditions based on what your eye sees in terms of lure action. In terms of where to keep your eyes, watch the head and eyes of the Skimmer.

Tune out the surface disturbance it's making. Don't even look at that. Focus in on the bait's body movements, and you're going to use what you see it doing in order to coordinate and adjust your hand movements with the rod. There's a certain sweet spot with the Skimmer that you'll recognize when you see it. The side-to-side movement suddenly isn't mechanical any more. It becomes more of a gasp or a flop or a jump to each side, and there's a certain slo-mo 'hang time' that seems to occur that visually lasts longer than it really is. Difficult to describe in writing, but you'll recognize it when you see it on the water.

ima USA pro-staffer Michael Murphy says: "A guy could get away with the same type rod for both the ima Skimmer topwater surface walking bait and the ima Flit jerkbait. And the way to work both is with the same walking motion. Keep the rod tip below waist high and just work the rod with the short twitching downward motion to where you can get both the Skimmer and Flit to have side-to-side darting actions on every downward rod stroke - known as 'walking the dog.' The only difference is, of course, the Skimmer dances on the surface whereas the Flit dives 6-8 feet, and as the water gets colder, add more pauses to your retrieve with the Flit jerkbait. Another difference is I use 12 lb mono for the Skimmer topwater which floats. When you go to fluorocarbon, it will sink and it will disrupt the action of the Skimmer. With the Flit jerkbait, yes, you can get away with 12 lb mono too - but I am a bigger fan of 10 lb test fluorocarbon which sinks. So when I go to a jerkbait, I lean more toward fluorocarbon just because of the sinking factor that helps me to obtain that deeper range, thereby getting down there a little closer to the fish."

Wild Boiling Action

The tail-weighting is another key to the Skimmer's appeal.

If you've seen mating dragonflies in early summer and the female dipping the tip of its tail depositing egg after egg under the surface, locked in synchronous flight with the male, the graceful tail action of the Skimmer is not unlike that.

Another way to think of the stir caused by the Skimmer's tail action is to compare it to one of those flat wood paint stirrer sticks they give you with a gallon of wall paint - the tail has the same stirring effect on the surface of the water.

A large part of the Skimmer's action is caused on the ending note of each zig or zag as the tail-weighted back end of the ima Skimmer dips and stirs the water causing a large boil to swell up behind it.

Every time that the Skimmer zigs or zags left or right, the final movement is the weighted tail stirs the surface into a widening boil, and the Skimmer slips out barely ahead of the boil, just like a desperate baitfish narrowly escaping a bass's lunge. Each wide and sudden boil stirs the surface in an instinctive and universal signal of a competitive feeding situation.

Competitive Feeding Signals Call Bass in From Afar

The Skimmer's action then becomes a non-stop series of ever-widening boils emanating behind it. It's like having a school of surface-feeding bass on the scene, all taking their best shot, boiling the surface behind the ima Skimmer's tail.

If there's ever anything that gets a non-committal bass to bite, it is other bass feeding in front of it - and that's the competitive feeding cue that the Skimmer's tail-stirring movement sends out to every bass within range of sensing the surface-feeding boils trailing out behind the Skimmer.

Stir Bass Into a Frenzy of Instant Excitement

Each wide and sudden boil stirring the surface is an instinctive and universal signal of competitive feeding action that calls bass in from far and wide to take advantage of the feeding frenzy that's going on behind the Skimmer.

Getting the Hang of Up-and-Down Action

There's also what I call a 'delay hang' that can be gotten on a slow retrieve. Once you master the side-to-side movement of the Skimmer described above, then just delay so the tail hangs down in between each zig and zag. By delay, you never quite stop the action, but barely stall it long enough to get an up and down bounce (the weighted tail dips down, the nose tips up) in between each side sweep. So you get side-to-side flopping plus up-and-down bouncing with this slower speed tactic. Think of an incapacitated baitfish trying to flee forward, but instead falling back. It's another one that's hard to describe in writing, but you have the info now to practice it, and the fish will let you know (and you'll recognize it yourself) when you get the hang of this 'delay hang' tactic.