I was on the Mississippi River near Elk River, Minn., and prepared for the first cast of what promised to be an eventful day of fishing. I went through my mental files, searching for a bait that would be the perfect one to entice the river smallmouth fish.
I passed over the
crankbaits , pawed through some spinnerbaits and chose a 6-inch YUM Dinger . Watermelon Seed, to be exact.
I rigged the Dinger just off-center, letting both ends hang freely -- Wacky Style. I tossed it out and let it drift. The unweighted Dinger sank slowly and then hit the seam where the slack water met swifter current.
Bam!
I set the hook into a ferocious Mississippi River smallmouth. A few seconds later, I landed the 18-inch fish.
That smallmouth proved to be just the first of a dozen or so that succumbed to the
Dinger . When we approached a grassy area, I kept the Dinger weightless, but rigged it Texas-style.
I used it kind of like a jerkbait. Twitch-twich-pause. I let it fall into individual grass pockets, then jerked it back to life.
My fishing partner said the fish were hitting his jig ever-so-slightly. Sometimes the bite was nothing more than an odd pressure on the line.
I paused my Dinger and it fell slowly into an opening.
Wham!
I set the hook again and wrestled a smallie out of the grass. This one was a little smaller, but acrobatic, nonetheless. It danced on the surface as I wrestled it to the boat.
These fish weren't being gentle with the
YUM Dinger . There were no dainty bites. This was all-out annihilation of a bait.
Lake Tenkiller, Okla., is another favorite spot of mine for smallmouth on the YUM Dinger. In this case, the
Dinger of choice is a 4-inch model in Ozark Smoke .
Ozark Smoke is basically a smoke tube with purple flake. The key to this bait's success is the purple color. A fishing friend of mine, who happens to be a fishing genius and lure designer, said that purple is a universal color present in smallmouth forage. Basically, smallmouth can't resist it.
We take the
4-inch Dinger and toss it up next to docks on spinning equipment. We Texas rig it weightless or with the tiniest of split shot just above the nose. Let it fall on slack line and watch for a pause in the fall or any line movement. When you see anything irregular, set the hook.
This method on that particular body of water doesn't always produce large fish, but the numbers it is capable of delivering is astounding.
The Dinger is no secret bait. There's a reason for that. It catches fish. Any place, any time.
* * *
I recently fished with a friend on a small lake he said was dubbed "the Secret Lake." This was a public body of water he said had been known to give up truly large fish.
My friend was giving me a history of the lake and sharing some stories about fish that had been pulled from the waters. He told me he had invited an old friend along for this fishing adventure.
His old friend turned out to be a
Heddon Moss Boss .
The
Moss Boss is a spoon-shaped lure designed to glide easily over heavy cover. We were fishing lily pads and grass, and he slowly retrieved the Black Shad Moss Boss back to the boat. It left a giant wake in its path. And fish hammered the bait.
The water would literally explode and he'd set the hook on fish after fish.
My friend said the key to the Moss Boss is you can let it flutter into subtle openings into the cover and then pull it back to the surface again.
After he landed four good-sized fish, I gave in and asked for a Moss Boss.
"There's one in the bottom of the boat there," he said. "But it's broken. A giant erupted on it a few days ago and just destroyed it."
Then he laughed, cast his
Moss Boss and set the hook again
See you on the water!
Chad Gay