Use Blade Baits for Multi-Species Fishing Success

Blade baits offer outstanding versatility and produce many kinds of fish. Learn how two expert anglers use these lures for gamefish species ranging from white bass to lake trout.

“We’ll see what this one is!” Capt. Frank Campbell said with a smile as he set the hook yet again. We were fishing the Lower Niagara River, a genuinely elite multi-species angling destination, and Campbell was fishing with a Heddon Sonar, which is one of his favorite “catches everything” lures.

Not long into the fight, Campbell correctly guessed brown trout based on the specific location and how it was fighting. It could have been a lot of things, though. That day, alone, we caught six species of fish ranging from yellow perch to lake trout on Sonars.

For Campbell, the Sonar is an important tool for work, whether he is guiding or leading a media outing as Director of Outdoor Promotions for Niagara Falls USA. It’s also central to play, whether he’s fishing near home or making his annual walleye trek to smaller waters in Canada.

Blade Bait Versatility

The Heddon Sonar falls into a category of metal baits generally known as blade baits. These lures are flat sided, with a baitfish profile, and weighted for balance and to drop quickly. Most vibrate when they are lifted or pulled and wobble on the fall. Flash, vibration and a small baitfish profile that suggests an easy meal all contribute to their effectiveness.

Jimmy Mason, who guides on the Tennessee River lakes in Alabama (Guntersville, Wheeler, Wilson and Pickwick) commonly uses two blade baits – the Heddon Sonar and the Cotton Cordell Gay Blade – during the summer. The baits have a similar appeal, the Gay Blade offers an extra compact profile and even tighter wiggle than the Sonar.

Mason especially likes blade bait fishing when he has youngsters and new anglers aboard because it is easy fishing and typically produces fast action for multiple species, including white bass, hybrids and black bass.

The versatility of a blade bait takes on a couple of different forms. Most obviously, it will produce anything that ever eats a small baitfish, which encompasses most sportfish. However, Sonars and Gay Blades are also exceptionally versatile in the ways they can be fish. Although most often worked near the bottom with lifts and drops, they also can be cast long distance and swam through schooling fish or counted down and swim or worked with lifts and drops partway down for suspended fish.

Wherever a blade bait is worked in the water column it offers a tight action that keeps the profile looking small but puts out a lot of vibration to call in fish and prompt strikes.

Blade Bait Presentations

Campbell mostly works near the bottom with a Heddon Sonar. Specific presentations vary by location and by how the fish are situated. If they are spread on a flat or a slope out from the bank, he will cast, allow the bait to sink to the bottom and then work the bait by snapping the rod tip up and following it back down his rod tip. Lengths of rod lifts and whether he lifts the rod once or a series of two or three snaps before each drop varies from day to day and is a patterning game. He experiments and pays attention to what the fish reveal.

Because Campbell spends much of his fishing time on the Lower Niagara, where current is a major factor and drifting is often the best strategy finding fish, he’ll have clients drop Sonars straight the bottom and work them with lifts and drops, letting the bait find bottom again on every drop. This is basically vertical jigging; However, the current usually causes the line to be angled instead of straight down, and the lure is really working along the bottom as the boat drifts – as opposed to working a single spot. For lake fishing, if fish are on a specific spot on a hump or other feature, he might turn to straight vertical fishing.

Mason uses blade baits a few different ways. Vertical fishing makes things extra easy. The white bass and other game fish sometimes gang up on deep structure, and Mason can position the boat directly over them. Anglers aboard simply drop their baits the bottom and lift, drop and hang on tight. The fish often hook themselves with jarring strikes!

If the structure isn’t deep enough to position the boat directly over or the fish are spread across bottom structure, Mason will set up adjacent to the structure and cast to it, let the lure sink, and work the structure with lifts and drops.

Blade baits aren’t only for working the bottom for Mason, though. A Gay Blade is among his favorite lures to cast to schooling fish because it mimics a small shad fleeing attack and it is easy to cast long distances. For schoolers, the presentation is simple. Cast to the breaking fish and crank steadily.

Blade Bait Options

The Sonar comes in 2- and 2 1/2-inch sizes, which weigh 1/4 and 1/2 ounce, respectively. Campbell uses both. At times he chooses the larger one specifically because he needs more weight to work the zone because of depth or current. At other times, something about forage or conditions might favor one size. Usually, this is another thing he will let the fish decide. If two anglers aboard his boat are fishing Sonars, he’ll have one start with the smaller one and the other with the larger one.

The Sonar comes in 10 standard colors and three Flash Colors. A Rattling Flash version in the larger size adds the element of sound and is available in all three Flash Colors. Campbell uses most of the colors at times. Gold Shiner, Gold Flash and colors that feature lime or chartreuse rank among his favorites.

The Gay Blade comes in 1 1/2- and 2-inch sizes, which weigh 1/4 and 3/8 ounce, respectively. Both are available in four classic color patterns: Chrome/Black Back, Chrome/Blue Back, Smoky Joe and Chartreuse.