Improve Your Spinnerbait Catch Ratio
One of the most productive fishing lures back then and still today is the spinnerbait. A gnarly looking “V” bent piece of wire with a weighted head, skirted hook, and rotating blade(s). It is not hard to realize that this thing looks like nothing that swims in the water. Even though we always like to match the hatch and throw something as real as possible (hence the national swimbait craze) there are ways to enhance your resemblance by doing a variety of things. The biggest being your blade selection. While I am not going to focus on that, it is definitely a consideration in choosing the best available spinnerbait to throw in a particular body of water. What I want to give you are a couple of quick tips to help you improve your hook-up ratio once you get the bass to turn on it.
What causes a bass or any fish for that matter to turn on a spinnerbait? Reaction. The bass is sitting in a piece of cover waiting for something to swim by and then all of the sudden your spinnerbait swims by or unexpectedly helicopters in front of their face and they react on it by inhaling it. Sometimes more than others. Just like with any other lures, bass will sometimes short strike a lure, maybe just grab it by the tails and then swim with it, or just not get a good bite at it. This can be for a variety of reason such as: frontal conditions have slowed them down, it wasn’t what they really wanted, color selection, they didn’t get a good look at it, whatever. There will be times when you will miss fish on a spinnerbait and here are two tips to help you improve your hook-up ratio.
Trim the Skirt : I usually do this when I want to present a smaller bait or am fishing in tight areas. Sometimes you even have to downsize to get the big boys to bite. I will simply trim the skirt back just enough so that the bend of the hook is at an even length with the skirt. This will help do a few things. When the bass do short strike the bait by grabbing the tails of the bait, they are more likely to get a mouthful of hook as well because the shank of the hook is closer to the end of the skirt. It will also give the skirt more flare when you snap or jerk it. All of this in addition to down sizing and you will have a compact little spinnerbait ready to handle some big fish.
Add a Trailer Hook: I will sometimes do this in addition to trimming the skirt back as well because it will not really add bulk to your bait but definitely improves your chances. Eitherway, whenever I am presenting a regular size to large sized spinner bait, I am adding a trailer hook. This is especially true if I am fishing in or around heavy cover such as grass or laydowns. It is simply an extension of the main hook that will reach out to the end of the skirt and sometimes beyond. I can’t recall how many times I have been fishing when the bass are only smacking or swiping at the bait and I caught them because they grabbed the trailer hook when they swiped. Although, if you aren’t getting any that are really eating the bait, you may want to consider making some changes to your blades or baits all together, but while searching them out, you are more than likely going to catch that one or two that would have otherwise missed it.
Hopefully these two tips will help you land more and better fish. Thanks and continue to ‘Get Reel’!
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Miscellaneous, Tips/Tactics
0 opinions for Improve Your Spinnerbait Catch Ratio
No one has left a comment yet. You know what this means, right? You could be first!
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: