Trailer Hook, Throat Hook, Spinnerbait

[1984isNOW]

Thanks @Captain Phil we get thick weeds in the summer so I'll keep that in mind, til then I'll dial it back just a bit. I really like the way a mod fast handles pretty much everything, I think MF will be my main action for a while in Med-H+ rods.

 

@Mike L I like the way you think bro, I actually pulled in a couple decent bass this season through some mixed vegetation - old lilies and some underwater weeds I can't quite see well enough to identify. I throw spinners on braid for that. 

 

@Bankc When you trailer hook a buzzbait do you also use a plastic trailer with it? I'd say try a trailer with your shakyhead, might mess with the action a little, might snag more, might pull in the fatty that just tasted the tip and didn't suck it all in. Peg a trailer hook and try it just above the plastic so it rides on top of it, try it pegged below and texpose it, try it totally threaded on and exposed. You might say the action will be all wrong... I say what makes it "right" - we all know bass like the same old thing and something different, they hit the same lures being thrown for a century and the new weird things people try. Sometimes the obscure techniques work and sometimes they don't, but you might as well try and see what happens.

 

We all know if you rigged up some joke of a worm/paddle tail/craw pig pile and then caught a 6 pounder on it you would be trying that ugly wonky action thing every outing to see if it happens again. 

[Darth-Baiter]

no stinger hooks for me.  i can live with losing a few.

[1984isNOW]

13 minutes ago, Darth-Baiter said:

no stinger hooks for me.  i can live with losing a few.

Why not?

[Darth-Baiter]

Just now, PUTitinYOURmouthFISH said:

Why not?

i almost gutted a bass with a stinger on a swimbait.  took me and a friend to try to unhook that thing.  not super sure it lived.    both hooks were almost coming at the fish in opposing directions.  or it seemed like it.   he came in from the gills, i came in from top.

 

 

[Captain Phil]

7 hours ago, Mike L said:

At little off subject but don’t be afraid to use a spinner bait when pitching in holes and target shooting to specific spots as you would any plastic.

 

I once fished with a guy who fished a spinnerbait this way.  He would drop the lure into the same holes where I would drop a soft plastic bait.  The fish hit the lure as it helicoptered down.   Up until then, the only time I fished similarly was when fishing a single Colorado blade spinnerbait down the sides of a canal.  This technique is deadly in South Florida canals and the Okeechobee rim ditch.  I believe a spinnerbait is one of the most versatile bass baits we have.

[gim]

3 hours ago, Captain Phil said:

He would drop the lure into the same holes where I would drop a soft plastic bait.  The fish hit the lure as it helicoptered down.

 

I won a derby last September doing just this exact tactic.  There was a very established weed line and the fish were sitting right on the edge.  As I would reel over the emergent weeds and to the edge, I would drop the spinnerbait down a couple feet, and then start reeling it again.  I didn't catch any giants that day, but I was the only boat to weigh a limit.  4 of the 5 keepers we caught that day were produced with this "helicopter drop" on the edge of a weed line with a spinnerbait.

[1984isNOW]

Okay so which brands do y'all use, do you tweak them at all, and how many/what style of blades?

 

@Darth-Baiter Which lure/size was it and how was the stinger set up?

[gim]

32 minutes ago, PUTitinYOURmouthFISH said:

Okay so which brands do y'all use, do you tweak them at all, and how many/what style of blades?

This has been brought up a lot lately.  I think there was just a thread not long ago that was titled the "king of the spinnerbaits" or something like that.

 

Anyways, I like the Terminators.  Especially the original titanium arm versions, primarily because of the durability.  They hold up much better against the assault of northern pike here.  Unfortunately they are discontinued because Rapala bought them out years ago.  Black skirt and gold or silver blades have been a consistent producer for me the past 2 seasons.