By Kevin Dahlke
Waters are reaching warmer temperatures, finally, and that means the spawning beds are vacated and the shallow waters look like land mines have been set off. These times of the season can be a bit tougher for finding actively biting fish, as they are in the transition mode from spring to summer.
Waters we were recently fishing, the deeper waters of the lake, are very structure-less, to say the least, and cruising the shorelines, there is high evidence that the spawn is recently over. So with the post-spawn happening, what baits would you use for seeking out some of these fish.
We tried a variety of baits and presentations for the few days that we were fishing in a row and the Northland Reed-Runner Tandem Spinnerbait seem to prove itself over and over again with a number of the largemouth and smallmouth bass that were caught. If the bass are feeding on top of the water, using a topwater bait, like the Buzzard Buzzer is a great way to get these active bass to bite, and it is an exciting way to fish for bass as well.
We were finding that on some of the other baits, if and when the fish would hit, they were striking the baits short. So seeing that, we would add a stinger hook to the spinnerbait to improve the hookup ratios. One thing with adding the stinger hook, after sliding that hook onto the baits hook, then add a small piece of surgical tubing, so that the hook stays put on the shank of the main hook, otherwise, you will lose that extra hook.
We were looking for actively feeding fish and cruising the shorelines in our search, not all of these fish will move away to deeper waters. So by targeting the rocks, weeds, and overhanging trees, this proved for locating some bites and the Reed-Runner was definitely something they were looking for.
Key presentations were fishing steeper dropping shorelines and casting the bait right up to the water’s edge, reeling the bait at a slower rate and this was getting it down to a deeper depth. Fish that were caught were right on the wood or rock and at times, they would follow the bait back to the boat and hit just before coming out of the water.
Different times of the year always dictate different approaches for finding the fish that we catch. Certain baits need to be fished slowly and others at a quicker pace. The Reed-Runner allows you to cover water and in turn, put the bait in front of more fish for more opportunities at catching success.