Fishing The Bean

[RSM789]

My son gets odd lots of different tackle now & again with his business and the other day he gave me a pair of Yozuri snap bean lures.  With the water temps dropping & my curiosity aroused, I tied the larger of the two (1/16th oz.) on a ultra lite spinning rig with 4 lb. test and brought it with my gear when I went out this morning.  I only found fish in the deeper portions of the main lake (9 feet, the max depth is 11 ft.) and caught a few on a drop shot rig.  I ran the Yozuri in the water to see how deep it would dive & was surprised to see that it was a sinker, not a floater.  I thought what the heck, & tried to fire a cast...it went maybe 30 feet.  As I was counting it down, I just knew the lack of casting distance was going to prohibit me from catching anything, so as I made one turn of the reel handle...hold on, I got one.  A 14" bass grabbed the snap bean on the first cast.  Suddenly, I knew I had just been given the keys to the bass universe, this little bait was going to load the boat.  Of course, I didn't catch another fish on it the rest of the day, even when I was catching them on the drop shot.  Oh well, so much for the secret super bait...

 

Nonetheless, it was a fun little lure to mess with, but the lack of casting distance in my fairly clear lake is a problem.  I may mess around with it by either adding some splitshot  up the line for extra weight or tying it off 6" behind another crankbait, sort of a clear water umbrella rig.  The concern is being able to add casting distance without messing up its action.  The fish I caught with it completely choked the little bean, hooked him in the roof of the mouth all the way back to the gullet, so he hit it as food as opposed to a reaction swipe.

 

Any suggestions on how to better cast this bean for more distance?

[WIGuide]

The only things I can think of for adding distance would be a longer rod and lighter line. #4 is pretty small already but braid is lighter than mono or fluoro so I'd probably a very small braid.

[aavery2]

So how long is the rod you are using to cast these on. 

[RSM789]

It is a shorter (5' 6") ultralight rod that I have used on trout streams.  I could put the lighter line on one of my longer spinning (6' 6") rods, but they are all medium or medium heavy, so I don't know if the weight of the lure will allow the rod to load properly for the cast.

 

The darn thing is so light that it literally runs out of momentum on the cast.  As opposed to a normal cast that has a parabolic arc & you can feather down, casting the bean is like throwing a feather.  it initially zips off from the rod, but then it has no weight to fight the wind resistance & pull of the line off the reel, so it goes about 30 ft., slows to a near stop and then falls nearly straight down.

[HoosierHawgs]

Use the medium 6'6". I can cast lighter (1/16 or less, fine on a medium rod.