Bite on a spinnerbait! Man what a hard pulling fish! That fish liked to pull me out of the
boat. If I can ever get him up here. Now there's a nice one on a spinnerbait. Look how big, fat,
and healthy that fish is. That fish is probably five pounds or maybe a little over. But look
how good it is eating.
We started out this morning and we were throwing a topwater bait. We had some bites on topwater,
but the sun is kind of getting up and as you can we're starting to get a little breeze.
When we first got here this morning it was dead flat calm, kind of warm and humid, and
we had a few topwater bites. But really the topwater water bite wasn't real good. As I
mentioned we had a little breeze picking up and a little chop on the surface, which is
usually when a spinnerbait gets good is when you get a little bit of disturbance on the
surface, a little wind, and a little cloud cover. I picked this spinnerbait up, threw
it out there, and caught that big fish. For some reason some days fish like to come up
to the surface and bite on top, and some days they want more of a sub-surface bait. I picked
up this little Picasso Inviz Wire Spinnerbait. This is a new bait that just came out. It's
got a brown heat-treated wire, it's 27/1000, it's got a special loop, and it's got a lot
of vibration. One thing about this bait is it has a light wire. It has a lot more vibration,
but also when you get a light wire spinnerbait like this you have to tune it. That fish right
there bent it up. Always when you get your spinnerbait always look at the head and the
hook. As you can see I've got the wire and what I want is this top wire to be perfectly straight
so I may need to tweak it just a little bit to the side. I want all this in line and I want this top wire to cover
the hook because that's what is going to make it weedless. Whenever you're throwing a spinner
bait and whatever it is, (this is a light wire spinnerbait and it bends a little easier)
always be sure to keep your spinnerbaits tuned. That will help you not get hung up as much.
Let's see if we can pick a spinnerbait up and see if we can catch a few more fish.
There's one right there! Oh gosh my hand slipped off the reel handle! Oh man they hit this
thing. This hit this spinnerbait so hard and I wasn't prepared for that bite. There all of
a sudden we picked a spinnerbait up. Something that runs just a little bit under the surface,
and we picked up two fish. So always kind of pay attention to what the fish are telling
you. That's one thing about this heat-treated wire; it's pretty tough.
Let me try that again. I did everything wrong. My hand slipped off the reel handle but I
still managed to keep up with that fish even though it was a little difficult.
One thing I did notice is the size of the shad are about the size of the blades on that
spinnerbait. Which a lot of times that's what you want to try to do. You want to match the
size of the bait to your blades. If they're small you'll want to throw a smaller bladed
spinnerbait. If on some lakes you have big gizzard shad and things of that nature
you want to throw bigger bladed spinnerbaits. Number 6's or maybe even number 7's like they
do a lot of times down in Florida.
I still can't get over that one fish and how hard it hit that spinnerbait. That was just
an unbelievable I didn't catch him he caught me kind of deal!
There's one right there! That's the second fish off that brush pile. I just caught that
one just a second ago off of it and that's the second fish. Now that's another good tip
I think a lot of time we kind of get in a hurry and I know this is something I'm guilty
of it too at times. But whenever you come to like a big brush pile or a lay down tree
and you throw in there and catch one. A lot of times if that piece of cover was good enough
for one fish, a lot of times it can be good enough for two or three fish. So don't be
afraid to make multiple casts. That's something else that I can tell you I've learned from
spinnerbait fishing through the years is a lot of times people are real bad about pulling
up to a lay down, a stump, or a stick, and making a cast on the left and right side and
then move on to the next one. Sometimes if those fish aren't real aggressive I know I
fished a tournament years ago fishing flood bushes where I would throw six times to each
side of the bush: six times to the left side and six times to the right side. Sometimes
the fish would bite on the first cast, and sometimes it was the sixth. A lot of times
when you've got a big brushy lay down tree or piece of cover what you have to think is
that fish may not be sitting right on the edge. He might be deep inside the heart of
that tree of that lay down. The first cast you may get his attention, the second cast
he may go "hmmm what was that", and the third cast he may start to move out to the edge
of that tree. So a lot of times by making multiple casts with a spinnerbait, a square
bill crankbait, or even a worm or a jig. Sometimes when you come to a good piece of cover the more
cast you make a lot of the time you reposition the fish. In other words he may not be on
the edge of it, he may be in the center of it and maybe by that sixth cast you've got
his attention and he's come out to the edge of the tree to bite.
I'm going to try to start on the end, but I threw over it. There's one! It's not a bass
though is it? It's a little bass and I watched him come up there and eat my spinnerbait.
Okay now there's one bass. That's a pretty big log and I tried to throw to throw on this
far end first because whenever you come up a lot of times you could have two, three,
or four fish. So you don't want to throw dead across it and drag that fish out and mess
up that whole piece of cover. We're going to make another cast across the end. Of course
I really could get in there a little tighter. We're going to see if we can catch one off
the other end. We may and we may not. But that's one thing I like to try to do is I
approach cover and try to do it in a system where I might be able to catch multiple fish
off of a piece of cover. Ultimately the best cast would be to get over and throw all the
way down that log. But sometimes you always want to start on the outer edges before you
throw to the center first. That way you might not mess up if you throw right to the center
first and drag a fish out it may scare another fish that was on the edge. So that's another
thing that I like to always systematically think about it and try to give myself the
opportunity to catch more than one fish off a piece of cover. See now our wind has picked
back up and we're getting a pretty good ripple, which is a good thing.
So many beautiful targets to throw to and you know I'm starting to get the feeling that
I need to be throwing out in the shad. You know?
That's a good one! Good lord look at this bass! Man I've got like a four or five pounder
that has short lined me. Oh man check this bass out right here. You talk about a nice
one.
Now that was about my fifth cast that I made through that tree right there. Now if you
look I felt him bump it on the fifth cast and I'm pretty sure I got him through the
nose. Now that took five casts through that tree before I ever caught that bass. As you
can see that's a nice one right there! I'm going to let him go. Once again ever since
we picked up this Picasso Spinnerbait with this new heat-treated 27/1000 wire we've caught
two fish and we've almost put a limit in the boat. But it took five throws through that
piece of cover before I ever got that fish to bite. That's one thing I've noticed now
that don't know what it is. The fish are biting, but it's taking a little bit more to encourage
them. They're not always biting on the first cast. We fished through this pocket early
this morning and had one or two bites. So I think I'm going to fish back through it
with a spinnerbait and see if we can't pick up a few more fish. Plus we've also seen some
in here schooling, which is another good reason to fish back through here.
I think angling pressure has an effect on multiple casts. Sometimes it's just like if
someone keeps coming up to you and keeps poking you in the chest. Eventually you're going
to get you know. On the first poke they might get a reaction from you, but on
the fifth or sixth poke they're going to finally make you angry. I think that's a lot of the
ways with making multiple casts to pieces of cover. Whether it be a spinnerbait, a square
bill, a plastic worm, a jig, or whatever it might be. I think the more casts you make
that eventually you'll either aggravate him or trigger his instinct to finally feed. I
think sometimes it's angling pressure and sometimes it's just the mood of the fish.
Sometimes they're just not in an aggressive mood. I think after it comes through 4-5-6-
8 times they decide, "hey I'm going to take advantage of this." Because you know bass
are opportunists.