by Matt Straw
When the subject turns to smallmouth bass, blades pop up. Spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and in-line spinners all have adherents in the smallmouth world, and some use them exclusively, like Kevin Turner and his side nudge, Carl Zavorka.
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| Carl Zavorka: "White works wherever smallies swim." |
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Turner makes Turner Marine River Pro Jet Boats. Carl hangs around, kibitzes, and makes coffee runs unless the St. Louis Blues are playing on TV. No matter how many times the Red Wings bust their chops, he'll be there, staring at the screen. Turner and he can both afford to watch the Blues lose to the Wings because they don't have to think about tackle or prepare for fishing trips. They fish exclusively for bass, mostly for smallmouths. And all they use, wherever they go, all year, are Kay Key spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. Any color will do, so long as it's white.
Oh, Turner throws the occasional 4-inch pumpkinseed grub on a 1/8-ounce jighead. Otherwise, he lives by the blade and dies by the blade. The duo travel up from Missouri to Minnesota to fish for smallmouths in the Mississippi River several times a year. Preparation for each trip takes maybe ten minutes. They hook up the boat, toss in a dozen spinnerbaits, four or five buzzbaits, four or five rods, and they're off. That's pretty much how they prepare for tournaments, too.
Their River Pro inboard jet has no depthfinders, no GPS, no temperature gauges, no rod holders, and has a tiller-style trolling motor with barely enough thrust to pull them upstream. They can go anywhere in that boat. I've watched them climb over fallen trees that spanned the meander they were following. Maps? They need a road map to find a new landing on the river now and then. Otherwise--nah. No maps.
When Turner fishes the river, he puts down the trolling motor and control drifts down one side or the other (sometimes both) one cast length from the bank, and peppers every log, boulder, eddy, and pocket with a spinnerbait. Of course, Carl already covered each spot with a buzzbait from the back of the boat (control drifting is one of the few games in fishing that provides the guy in back with an advantage). And down they go, mile-after-mile, chucking the same baits the same way, over and over and over. How'd you like to go head to head with them over a juicy wager? Licking your chops? Don't. It's like playing a numbers game with savants. You can fish ahead of them or behind them with livebait, crankbaits, topwaters--you name it. The weather can be cold, dark, and windy or hot, clear, and still. Doesn't matter. These guys vacuum smallmouths out of the river like a tornado. They may live by the blade and die by the blade--but it's mostly live, because a revolving blade is as close as it gets to a universal problem solvent for various species, situations, and conditions in the fishing world.
When it comes to turning blades, people become addicted, like Kevin and Carl. And like so many steelhead fishermen who put in 150 days per year on the river throwing nothing but in-line spinners. It's like the muskie heads who have 200 bucktails and two jerkbaits, or like "Buzzbait Bob," a friend of mine who buzzes up largemouths all summer and who never has owned a tackle box. Spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and straight-shaft spinners can deliver nonstop smallmouth action. But blades can deliver big zeroes, too. If you're here for blade rehab, you've come to the right place.
Blades Redux
A blade is a blade is a blade. Unless it's really small. Or really big. Or painted. Or bent, fluted, drilled, cupped, rounded, squared, taped, dented, flattened, or plastic. Then it's a modified blade that makes a different noise, vibration, or flash. Each modification has its time, place, and adherents.
Naturally, different blades do different things on a spinnerbait. A Colorado blade is the widest and roundest blade used on spinnerbaits. It creates the most resistance, making it easier to keep high in the water column at slow speeds while producing the most thump. But it's difficult to burn. A willow leaf blade is long, narrow, and pointed. It creates the least resistance, so it's easier to burn at high speeds; it produces a more subtle vibration and probes much deeper than a Colorado at low speeds. Indiana blades are a compromise between the two.
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| Kevin Turner and Carl Zavorka (background) work their bladebait magic. |
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Many experts agree that a 3/8-ounce single Indiana or Colorado blade is best for smallmouths much of the time. Exceptions include deep patterns in reservoirs and lakes, where a heavy (up to 2 ounce), single-blade willow leaf is more efficient. Small, tandem willows sometimes work better when smallmouths track schools of smaller minnows. And smallmouths on a shallow reef in wind sometimes can't resist a 1/2-ounce tandem willow leaf with small blades and lead added to the shank of the hook, burned as fast as a 6:1 reel can crank. (A tail-weighted spinnerbait, when burned and stalled, falls back to the fish tail first. Stall it just as it clears structure.)
Personally, my favorite spinnerbait for smallmouths is a 3/8-ounce Terminator with a single Oklahoma blade (a modified Colorado style) with a pearl-crystal-pink skirt and head. Big single blades deliver serious thump. Active smallmouths are curious creatures. If they feel or hear a thumping blade, they'll be along shortly.
For Turner, a spinnerbait is the right first choice, second choice, and last choice all day long, almost every day. By contrast, a spinnerbait is a tool I look to when smallmouths are: (1) scattered along the bank in high water in a river or stream; (2) holding tight to wood or weedcover; (3) going nuts along a rocky shoreline where the wind is blowing in and murking up the water; or (4) suspending above structure in a reservoir. At those times, a spinnerbait is the first thing out of my box. But I'm ready and willing to try a spinnerbait in almost any conditions where I find smallmouths I can't trigger on other things. Revolving blades have a way of making fish bite when they don't want to. Sometimes.
And sometimes, big spinnerbaits catch big smallmouths. David Lane of Baxter, Tennessee, used a 5/8-ounce Kay Key Aggravator last March to land a 9-pound giant on Center Hill Lake--one of the three biggest caught anywhere in the last decade. The wind was blowing into the bank where Lane was fishing, and the water was murky--a classic spinnerbait scenario for trophy smalljaws. Some reservoir fishermen have turned to the 2-ounce Ledgebuster when big smallmouths hold tight to deep structure. Where smallmouths over 7 pounds are possible, big blades (up to a #7) turn big fish. Sometimes.
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