Shallow
Water Spinnerbaits
Massimo Zanetti
Massimo was a member of the "Kick'n Bass
Pro-Staff," our first international Pro.
All Rights Reserved By Author
I love to fish for shallow water bass. I love
to see open-jaws fish coming to my lure but I don't like sight-fishing and gin clear
water. I haven't lot of patience to finesse a plastic lure for more than five minutes in a
bush or yo-yoing it to the nose of a bedding bass. Here is why spinnerbait is my
"bread and butter lure" when it cames to made a quick limit or when I need to
avoid to getting skunked in tournament fishing. I like action, I don't want to fall asleep
while bass fishing.
The spinnerbait box
Sometimes, fellow tourney's bassers take a look to my spinnerbait box and with surprise
note that it contains no more than 25 - 30 bladed baits. I don't need to carry in my boat
lot of lures because my way of fishing requires few, tested, artificials to score big on
the water. During a tournament I have no time to test lures or to change thousand of it in
a couple of hours: I must catch a limit, quickly. So, I carry with me basically four
skirts colors involving chartreuse, white, silver and gold patterns. Speaking about
weight, for shallow water bassin' I have lures on the 3/8 - ¾ oz. range, mostly mounting
big willow leaf blades, both single and tandem. I like willow leaf blade because it comes
silently through the water and give off a tremendous amount of flash respect to Colorado
or Indiana blade. Chartreuse and golden skirted lures mount gold blades while white and
silver skirts requires silver blades. My bird-dog spinnerbait is a ½ oz. model,
white/chartreuse with a #7 gold willow leaf blade. However I carry some blades and skirts
in my tacklebox, so I could assemble the right lure when I need it. As I have said in my
previous articles, I hate to put trailer hooks on my lures so, to avoid short-biters, I
trim the skirts to the bend of the spinnerbait hook: this trick usually works for me.
The right tackle
The rod I use to fish shallow water spinnerbaits is a 6' graphite rod medium/heavy action.
I prefer a longest rod to the 5 ½ pistol grip most of the people use for this technique
because I got more power to force the fish out of an obstacle. With such rod I have the
same casting accuracy I got with the 5 ½ model and I pitch the lures easily and with lot
of accuracy. Fishing for shallow water bass, you have to consider the great amount of
obstacles you normally encounter. Using a fiberglass or a composite rod, you haven't the
same sensitivity using a graphite rod: that's why I use a graphite rod to detect even the
subtle strike of the bass.
Speaking about line, I use a 17 lbs. clear or green monos. With a strong tackle you need a
good, abrasion resistant, monofilament: big bass makes no compromises when hooked in heavy
cover. You must pull her out and quickly, without giving her the inch she need to turn
around a tree branch and say hello!
A good 5:1 reel complete my tackle for shallow water spinnerbaiting. I prefer a reel with
not so fast retrieve rate because is usually more powerful than 6:1 or 7:1 models. With a
big tandem willow leaf spinnerbait, you don't need to turn the reel handle at the speed of
light to keep your lure on the surface. Another thing: I feel comfortable using a reel
with low profile, that just fits in my hand.
Techniques
To select the right technique to use with shallow water spinnerbait, you must consider one
important thing: water color. The clearer the water, the longer the cast. Here is why I
prefer water with some colors in it. With such conditions I can stay closer to the area I
know bass lives, gaining more casting precision and accuracy. My favorite technique is a
fast and furious pitchin', a sort of run and gun with no compromises. I fire the bait to
the obstacles with fast underhand pitches and retrieve it on the surface, letting the big
blade creates a wake. My style of fishing "oblige" me to look for active bass.
In six or eight tournament hours I fish several miles of shoreline and usually I catch
bass. Only in particular conditions (e.g.: the coldest winter days or the hottest summer
days) I rely to other techniques and retrieves.
I've seen, during my tournaments' years, that lot of people avoid to fish bare banks with
few or no evident obstacles. Sometimes, places like these just mentioned, have an
incredible big bass population. This is because big fish tend to congregate to a small
stump or little weed patches, if these are the only cover they could find in a bare
shoreline. Spinnerbait is the best weapon to catch these big un's. Paralleling the bank,
you must saturate it with lot of casts. This is the only way to catch both the roaming
bass and the ones close to the rare obstacles. This technique has always paid well for me.
I
usually tie on my line a small ¼ oz. lure with a single Colorado blade. Pichin'
spinnerbaits is another great way to catch bass when they're tight to dense cover. Sure,
it's slower than the precedent run and gun but it's rewarding. For pitchin' in dense
obstacles I tie on my line an heavy ¾ oz. spinnerbait, because I want to keep my lure in
the cover during the retrieve.
Be aware that in clear water you must downsizing your lure (e.g.: from ½ oz. to 3/8 oz.),
to offer the bass a smaller profile, while in murky water you must fish big and heavy
spinnerbaits to let the bass know that's meal-time. It is really important to keep your
spinnerbait in contact with the obstacles, bump it in every cover available and fit your
speed retrieve to the metabolism of the fish. If bass is no lethargic, a shallow,
mid-speed retrieve is the best to have reaction-strikes from the fish.
Massimo's email address in Italy is:
accven@iperv.it
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