Every now and again, I dip into the ol' tackle box and pull out a trusty beetle spin. These in-line spinners have long turned up a variety of fish, including crappies, sunfish, bass, northerns and carp. Today, I turned to a white-body beetle spin with a centered, red dot. This color combination has broken the skunk of a slow bass fishing outing more than once, and I've always had luck picking up panfish with this lure. Well, the white spinner turned out golden again as Free Press Staff Writer Tanner Kent and I picked off seven good crappies, a few more too small to keep, a sunfish and a couple of small, male bass. One of the crappies weighed in at 1 pound, and a couple others weren't far behind. A sastifying day, nonetheless.
A note on the bass: I am a strong advocate for not fishing for bass out of season. There are several reasons for not doing so, but all those reasons come back to one basic fact — to protect the fish. The two male bass I caught were small, and I imagine most people catching those bass would just toss them back in and not think twice about what they did. But I urge anyone who accidentally catches a bass to handle it with care and get it back in the water as soon as possible. People always say we should protect the spawning females while on the bed, and this is very true, but protecting those small males is equally important, because the small males are the ones that fend off predators and protect the eggs on the bed. Catching those bass puts the bed in danger because the bass take a while to get back to the bed, or the bass may never make it back to the bed.
Love the beetlespin. And it's gotta be a white soft-body with the single, red dot on the back. (Although Doug and I did get a few on transparent green bodies too.)
ReplyDeleteAnd as an interesting note to dovetail with your thoughts about spawning bass (with which I completely agree), here is the link to a research study on the effects of angling on bass populations. Sounds like these folks found that vulnerability to angling is actually part of a genetic formula. The study began in the 1970s and lasted several generations.
Now I know why the hundreds of dollars of I purchased in Helicopter Lures, Banjo Minnows and Flying Lures are gathering dust in the attic ... the fish have out-evolved the lure evolution.
Or something ...
Anyway, here's the link:
http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/news/stories/news4747.html
That's good information, Tanner. I agree, bass have evolved ... personal evidence of this can be found when I look back at my honey hole from last season, which isn't very large in size but holds plenty of bass. The colors that worked early last season, had little effect by the fall, and in some cases the lure type (i.e. spinnerbait, buzzbait) completely went cold. Part of this can be chalked up to seasonal bass patterns, but I just plain think the fish got smart to me.
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