Fishing tip of the week

Fishing Tip of the Week

Wednesday, 07 May 2025 07:52

Bladed Baits
by Mike Gerry

Every year when we hit that in-between time, when the water is warming quickly, and the bass are healing up from the spawn, fast moving baits have an advantage. You are you are forced to start creating a bite. Most of us don’t realize it but the blades on many of our baits help slow retrieve and give an advantage in many different ways.
The blade acts as a resistant force to the water slowing your bait down as you move it across the bottom of the river. The blade can also aid in keeping the bait off the bottom as the bigger the blade the longer it takes to get that bait to the bottom.
A presentation we all hear about. In colder water or warmer water conditions are slow rolling a big spinner bait.

The presentation just by name tells you that if you retrieve your spinner bait with a slow reeling action the bait stays up just slightly off the bottom, allowing you to attract fish with flashy blades yet move it enough to bring a reaction bite. This will cause the bottom to be kicked up and make noise from the movement and retrieve.

The industry over the last several years has improved these blade action baits by producing many different types of bladed baits like the fish head produced with a small willow leaf spin blade on it.
Many manufacturers have also produced swim jig heads with small blades allowing for some flash along with the action of the swim bait. If you combine the willow leaf blade along with the buoyancy of a swim bait then you’re creating a solid slow retrieve on a bait that already can be fished in slowly moving water and producing vibration along the way.

Take a slow retrieve and combine it with flash and movement just by adding bladed baits to your fishing arsenal in that changing water temperature allowing for some of the biggest fish catching you might see any time.
The bass are past the spawn. They’re e healing and looking for something to strike. Blades give them a target. Flash gives them something to react to. Sunlight forces competition and you reap the rewards

Captain Mike