Spinnerbait mystery

[N Florida Mike]

I hadnt fished a spinnerbait much in my many years of bass fishing . I would just get a fish here and there. This spring I determined to think out of the box more. So I bought a small single bladed strike king spinnerbait with a white/ yellow skirt. I suprised myself by catching app. 30 fish on it in 3-4 trips. All school size though. So Im thinking Breakthrough !!! on a new bait.

The mystery is I have not caught a fish or had a strike on it since fishing the same waters since may or so. The lake is big enough for it not to be that fish are used to it yet. The bait looks and runs the same ( to me ) as before.It went from full throttle bites to nothing.

What gives ?

[Stalking bass]

From my experiance there are so many factors that determine what the bass will eat. Wind direction, water level, water color and moon phase. Also changing forage. Are they eating frogs, crawfish or shad? Was there a hatch of some sort? I try very hard to look at the details of why. But it should work again. We have used the same lure year after year on the same lake around the same time depending on water temps. And it consistently works every year.

[MIbassyaker]

Spinnerbait success for me has always been about time and place. That's true of all presentations, but it seems even more so for spinnerbaits than most. Spring & Fall, shallow scattered cover, moderate water clarity but not too much, some sun but not too much, some wind....I feel like I can catch some fish on a worm almost anywhere, almost all the time. But with a spinnerbait, I'll either catch a lot more, or a lot fewer, depending on timing, location, and conditions, and the game is to figure out when those factors have aligned the right way vs. when they have not.

[J Francho]

A spinnerbait is often my first bait I throw in a new area.  It goes anywhere, at any depth, and gets through just about all types of cover, save really thick weeds.  I don't get fancy with colors or blade types, usually white and chartreuse with a small Colorado blade, and bigger willow, or tandem willow.  I've caught so many fish on them.  Even when I don't, I get all kinds of info on the terrain and cover, that I can choose the right "drop bait" when I really want to slow down and dissect the spot.

[Fishing_FF]

3 hours ago, J Francho said:

A spinnerbait is often my first bait I throw in a new area.  It goes anywhere, at any depth, and gets through just about all types of cover, save really thick weeds.  I don't get fancy with colors or blade types, usually white and chartreuse with a small Colorado blade, and bigger willow, or tandem willow.  I've caught so many fish on them.  Even when I don't, I get all kinds of info on the terrain and cover, that I can choose the right "drop bait" when I really want to slow down and dissect the spot.

 

This is a lot like my color and blade choice. I have a white with a pair of silver blades and a chartreuse with a pair of gold blades. I have two set of these spinnerbaits, one with a mix Colorado/Indiana blades and one with a pair of tandem Willow blades. I use a Keitech 4.8 Swing Impact FAT Swimbait as a trailer, in a white or black that can be tipped with chartreuse if needed. 

 

I attempt to locate where the fish would most likely be first (using Linder's L from the F+L+P=S formula), starting with a white/white combo and then change the trailer to black if nothing. If that doesn't work, I go to chartreuse/white then again changing the trailer to black. One of these usually help me locate the fish and how they are hunting (chasing, ambush, stalking) to present another lure that will hopefully bring me a larger fish.

 

Blade selection for me is based on water clarity and bottom conditions. Clearer water or heavy grasses I go with the Willow, and darker water where flash is less a factor and more sound is needed, I go with the Colorado/Indiana combo. 

 

I haven't thrown spinnerbaits in the spring, but this time of year with colder and/or windy days, I'm more apt to start with a spinnerbait to search an area, kind of like using a crankbait in the summer for searching a lake. 

 

Hope this helps. 

[Ratherbfishing]

What you've described is what makes fishing so fun and, sometimes, so aggravating.

 

My guess (strictly a guess) is that the fish have moved (up or down in the water column or to new locations altogether) but you haven't.  You MIGHT be fishing too much from memory (successes back in May).  I don't think there is anything wrong at all with fishing from memory so long as it continues to work  Tournament bass fishermen who establish a good pattern during practice days don't suddenly change tactics once the tournament begins-UNLESS it stops working.  Then their knowledge of what the next logical steps should be kicks in and they adjust accordingly (until, hopefully, they find a new pattern).  The most versatile fishermen will try to find SEVERAL workable patterns. It is rather unlikely that the fish you found in May will be in those same exact spots in July, September, or now.  It's less about the lure and more about the location (most of the time).

[N Florida Mike]

1 hour ago, Ratherbfishing said:

What you've described is what makes fishing so fun and, sometimes, so aggravating.

 

My guess (strictly a guess) is that the fish have moved (up or down in the water column or to new locations altogether) but you haven't.  You MIGHT be fishing too much from memory (successes back in May).  I don't think there is anything wrong at all with fishing from memory so long as it continues to work  Tournament bass fishermen who establish a good pattern during practice days don't suddenly change tactics once the tournament begins-UNLESS it stops working.  Then their knowledge of what the next logical steps should be kicks in and they adjust accordingly (until, hopefully, they find a new pattern).  The most versatile fishermen will try to find SEVERAL workable patterns. It is rather unlikely that the fish you found in May will be in those same exact spots in July, September, or now.  It's less about the lure and more about the location (most of the time).

But I am catching fish in the same part of the lake just not on the spinnerbait. Its a shallow , weedy , and small lake ,so the fish are easy to find. They have been all over the worms since September. Not one peck or even a follow on the spinnerbait. I try fast ,slow ,medium retrieves ,stop and go with 0 success. Wondering if the skirt is getting too torn up. I changed it though before the last trip and still nothing. 

The water clarity doesnt fluctuate much. It stays fairly clear ( 3-4 feet visibility or more ). This S. bait has 1 small colorado blade. I fished another one thats bigger with 2 small willow blades when they were still biting the other one , and never got bit once.

By way of extra info., the topwater bite on this lake is poor. Hard baits produce next to nothing. Cant use cranks, too weedy and shallow. But soft plastics- whole different story ?.

[Ratherbfishing]

1 minute ago, N Florida Mike said:

But I am catching fish in the same part of the lake just not on the spinnerbait. Its a shallow , weedy , and small lake ,so the fish are easy to find. They have been all over the worms since September. Not one peck or even a follow on the spinnerbait. I try fast ,slow ,medium retrieves ,stop and go with 0 success. Wondering if the skirt is getting too torn up. I changed it though before the last trip and still nothing. 

The water clarity doesnt fluctuate much. It stays fairly clear ( 3-4 feet visibility or more ). This S. bait has 1 small colorado blade. I fished another one thats bigger with 2 small willow blades when they were still biting the other one , and never got bit once.

By way of extra info., the topwater bite on this lake is poor. Hard baits produce next to nothing. Cant use cranks, too weedy and shallow. But soft plastics- whole different story ?.

Fish are funny.  I'm half convinced they hold a town meeting every morning to decide what baits they prefer and, sometimes, what color they want them in.

 

I fish two ponds which are right next to one another.  Well, one is about a hundred yards away.  So not far.  They are not, by most accounts, much different than one another.  Anyway, one is an excellent buzzbait pond and the other-only so so-at best.  Who knows WHY fish do what they do?

[scaleface]

When the fish quit hitting spinnerbaits I usually go with a shad , bluegill or clear/flake skirt and a single small willowleaf . 

 

[smalljaw67]

The spinnerbait is my favorite bait, you can fish it a lot of different ways. That said, you may just be fishing it in a manner in which the fish aren't reacting to it or the fish aren't active enough to chase. Before putting the bait down for something else there are 5 things you can do to find out if the fish are active enough for a spinnerbait. The first is to change the retrieve speed, either slow it down and slow roll it on or near the bottom, or speed it up to fish in the middle of the water column, or burn it just under the surface, if fish are active one of those retrieves will draw a strike. The second thing is to change color , I won a small tournament using a spinnerbait that was different that what everyone else was using. The third thing is to change the size of the bait, going up or down in size can make a big difference as well as sometimes if there is an abundant type of forage the fish can get locked on to a certain size, it may be small Alewife minnows or bigger bluegill but you need to keep that in mind. The fourth thing is using different blade configurations, if a single willow isn't working then maybe a Colorado or Indiana may be better or a double willow. The fifth thing would be to use a trailer, I don't use trailers very often on spinnerbaits but there are times when it really helps.  Those are just some general things you can try to change with the lure itself but remember, sometimes the conditions just don't make for good spinnerbait fishing. For me the optimum time for spinnerbaits are when you have a little overcast with a light wind, enough that it puts a chop on the water surface. Wind really does seem to make for good spinnerbait fishing even in bright sun but there are a lot of variables that can be good or bad for that lure. Things like water temperature, water clarity, light levels (sunny-overcast, early-late in day), and forage all play roles in what lures work and which don't, so what you do is try changing the bait up along with using multiple retrieves and if it all fails try using a slower presentation because there will be times the fish will not chase a moving bait and a slower presentation is needed.

[N Florida Mike]

Thanks everyone. Sounds like a lot if variables. I'll try different style spnnerbaits, retrieves,and conditions until I have success again.