Spinner baits?

Thanks Joe! As usual, you write very detailed and understandable
instructions! I will definately try some of those techniques...always
wondered what "slow rolling" meant .

I appreciate you sharing your expertise!

John B

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John, here is what comes to mind:

1. Buzzing -- Bend a willowleaf blade to increase the commotion it
causes on the surface. Curl the blade around your forefinger, or put two
kinks in it to create triangular panels, or just bend the back 25% of
the blade up at a 90-degree angle. Experiment to get the drag, flutter,
and action you like.
2. Bulge -- Retrieve the bait just below the surface, allowing the blade
to break the surface every now and then.
3. Steady -- Wind it in at a steady rate in the "twilight zone," keep
the lure in sight during the entire retrieve.
4. Bottom-bumping -- Count the lure down or retrieve slowly until you
feel it strike something. Try to make it bounce on submerged brush,
rocks, and vegetation throughout the retrieve.
5. Yo-yo'ing -- Lift the bait with your rod tip and then letting it
flutter back to the bottom on a semi-limp line as you take in slack with
your reel. Another way to yo-yo is to use horizontal branches or the
near edge of a hole in a vegetation mat. Bring the lure up to the branch
or obstruction and then raise and lower it eight or ten times by lifting
and dropping your rod tip.
6. Slow-rolling -- an extremely slow retrieve that keeps the bait in
contact with the bottom most of the time.
7. Dragging, which is particularly effective as a cold-water technique
around ambush points. A short-arm spinnerbait is best for this.
8. Flipping into standing timber, around dock structures, brush piles,
grass lines, and into pockets in floating vegetation mats. Best with
short-arm spinnerbaits.
9. Doodling -- Cast across a branch above the water, and then pull the
line up until the lure is right on the surface, and then start shaking
and vibrating it to create splash and flash right at the surface.
10. Burning -- Clip on undersized blades and retrieving the lure a foot
or so deep at an extremely high rate of speed.
11. Ripping -- Sweep your rod tip to the side to create a burst of
speed, and then slow it down as you reel to take up slack and rotate the
rod back toward the lure.
12. Skipping -- Not really a retrieve, but I know of one angler in
California who, apparently, is mastering the art of skipping his
spinnerbait back under docks and boat houses. I'm amazed that he can do
that. Don't attempt it unless you also want to practice the skill of
untangling birds' nests.
Joe
--
Secret Weapon Lures