S.S. if you want to see the kind of damage an Inline Spinner can do, just wait 'til the end of March Beginning of April. I'd be happy to take you out and show you how to use them. We'll experiment with a couple of other good spring lures so we have something to compare the results with.
When the conditions are right (which is often in the early spring) the in-line will put many other lures to shame...
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Robo,
I agree that you
must have confidence in
any you throw to get really good results (senko's excluded). It also comes down to how you work the lure and "where" you are fishing.
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Just something to share with everyone:
There is something very basic that I learned from reading the Linder's Books very early on:
"Bass either want a vertical or a horizontal presentations during a given activity period"
This is perhaps the single most important tip I ever learned. Everything I do stems off of that basic principal. When I get out on the water and locate fish, the very next thing I do is to show the bass two presentations "1 vertical, 1 horizontal". One will always outperform the other and when identified, you just eliminated 50% of your lure choices. Let's say during that activity period, they reacted to your horizontal offering, now you only need to focus on the lures that you have are predominately worked in a horizontal manor.
I like fishing "combo-lures"... a combo-lures is a lure that can be worked both vertically and horizontally. Some examples are:
Rattle Traps
Jigs (any soft plastic on a jig head or a traditional Jig & pig)
Sinking minnow or sinking swimbaits.
In practical use, let's say you are using weighted swimbait (one that will also sink) during your retrieve you can keep the bait coming horizontally, or stop reeling and allow the bait to fall (vertical presentation). Let's say you notice that your first strike occurred only when you stopped and let the lure sink, you should try and duplicate that presentation. Make another cast and this time make several pauses on your retrieve and allow more time for the swimbait to fall vertically. If you are able to trigger more strikes, you now know that the bass are looking for a "vertical" presentation. Let's say that you are getting some strikes on the fall, but not really connecting with the bass that strike, you already have one piece of the puzzle solved (they want a vertical presentation) so now you can try using a different lure with a vertical presentation. Personally when faced with short strikes, I like to immediately "down-size" the lure I am using. You might choose to throw a smaller grub on a jig head (let's say a 3" grub on a 1/4 ounce ball head jig. Cast it out and let it sink to the bottom. Pay attention to where you get your strikes. Near the top? on the way down? at the bottom? This will let you know where preferred feeding-zone is. You will quickly start to see better and better results as you figure out more of these details. This is called fine-tuning a presentation. You might be wondering "how am I supposed to know where the bass hit in the water column?", when you make a cast with the grub, start counting as soon as it hits the water surface (1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi) See how long it takes for the grub to hit bottom. If it takes a "10 Mississippi count" to hit bottom, now you have a baseline to work from. Just break it into thirds and put the left over in the middle column. Meaning Top= 1,2,3 Middle=4,5,6,7 bottom=8,9,10
Now when did the strike occur (on what count)? Let’s say you got a strike on “3 Mississippi”, try and fine-tune your presentation by making another cast and only let the bait fall for a “4 or 5 count”. If you continue to get strikes during the first “5 count” you now know that the bass are using the “TOP COLUMN” for the active feeding-zone. So you can simply fan cast around and only let the grub fall for a five count, then reel it back in and cast again… no sense letting it go all the way to the bottom if you do not have to.
As you start to imagine trying this, you’ll probably have a lot of “what ifs” come to mind. Like, “what if the bass hits after the grub is sitting on the bottom after the 10 count is over”, or “how long should I let the grub sit on the bottom before working back in”, or “should I work it back in”. What I can offer is simply “experiment”… but pay close attention to when the strike occurs.
The better you get at this, the more and bigger bass you will catch.
I know it may sound complicated at first (to a novice), but it is really very simple. Frank Lapinski from our NY Prostaff wrote a very good three part article that can help explain this in more detail, here's the link to "part 2, Bass talk, are you listening?":
Bass Talk, Are You Listening? The main thing you should take away from this post is: Are the bass looking for a Vertical or Horizontal presentation? When you can identify that piece of the puzzle quickly, the rest will into place easier. At the very least if you only get the “Vertical/Horizontal” preference determined, you’ll be 50% more productive while you are out fishing.
I really do hope that this helps some of you guys/gals… I wanted to share this because it really improved my fishing personally and I am confident that it will do the same for you, if you are willing to give it a try.
Share what you learn... it's good Karma! lol
Brendan
)...let it fall and helicopter (colorado blades work best) or slow roll it deep and tick along the bottom...even during the retrieve you can speed it up let it fall...jig it to pulsate the skirt, etc
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