I use swin baits up here in WI all the time for Pike, they work great! I've had real good success catchin northerns and bass on them. I like the baits by Storm. A bunch of their baits are already rigged up with hooks, just tie 'em on and start casting. Just my .02, but I think they had the better colors for my neck of the woods as well, I really like the white/light silver color. It closely resembles the shiners and shad that I use for bait in different areas (shiners on inland lakes, shad in Lake MI) White is just a very good color in most of the bodies of water I fish.

I prefer fishing them kinda fast, using them to cover alot of water real quick, I'll slow down the retrieve about 15 feet from shore and do a figure eight with the bait just before I pull it out of the water. Another thing I've found that worked surprisingly well was jigging it kinda like using a finese worm. It sounds kinda wierd, I know. But I caught a fish on accident like this just after getting the baits. And I have since gone back and done it some more like that and caught more fish.