There’s not a time of the year that a swimbait isn’t an effective lure. The only thing that really changes is how and where you fish it. One of my favorites is the Strike King Shadalicious in any size. You can fish it fast on an umbrella rig to really thump it along, rig it with a hook and belly weight to fish in grass, or anything in between as far as depth and retrieve speed. Last year on the second day at Kentucky Lake, I used one on a deep ledge to catch about 20 pounds of bass. They wanted the Shadalicious moving really slow. I would cast it out on a 3/4-ounce head, let it hit bottom and then just crawl it along. The real trick was that I skinned off the outer membrane of the Shadalicious to make it more flexible and have the kind of action I needed even at that really slow speed. To skin it, just get a nick going in the head of the bait, and then peel it like a banana. Another benefit of skinning a Shadalicious is that taking the membrane off reduces the shine of the bait, and sometimes the fish seem to want it more subtle like that. This is something I try any time fish aren’t in the mood to chase down a bait, regardless of the season or the depth.