Tito- water less than 12 ft use the 1/2 oz owner ultrahead saltwater bullet head or kalins bullet jig heads.Owners are $$ but they are the best. Cast out, let it go to the bottom, when it hits bottom snap up on rod to hop the lure up off the bottom. Start retrieve. Do stop go retreives, stop every 10-15 ft or so. Just do a quick stop- gives the swimbait a little dip, then continue. If you hit weeds rip it out hard. If the bottom is super weedy and your getting hung up start your retreive right when the lure hits the water to keep it up out of the weeds.Senorita for the berkely flatback shad is the best color up north and pretty much anywhere in the midwest. Pearl blue is second, herring is third best color. Leader- I use 15lb seaguars Tatsu flourocarbon but will go up to 20-25lb regular seaguars flourocarbon leaders if the big girls start breaking off. If the pike are are really big and crazy steel will work also- they dont care about the swivel they just want to eat these swimbaits. My mainline in 40lb powerpro with a small spro barrel swivel- num 7 or 8. Abu garcia Gen 3 STX 8:0 HS baitcaster on St. Croix Avid 7ft HF- great combo BTW..
The berkley flatbacks shads are discontinued but you can still find them online. The MC 5inch swimbaits are the closest thing and the closest color to Senorita is Halloween, they have other good colors that will work that are pretty close to Pearl Blue. the storm wildeye swim shads in 4-6 inch are great also. The 6 inch is big and heavy and wont fish well that shallow. The 4 or 5inch will be great. I would throw the 5 inch- its a big enough lure where you can fish it deep up to 30 feet but small enough where you can fish it as shallow as 4 feet..