he keeps his spinnerbait close to the water’s surface and
feathers the spool before touchdown to avoid a splash. A
short 6-foot, 9-inch G. loomis sbr 812 spinnerbait rod
makes roll-casting easier.
reducing the distance from target is helpful for accu-
racy, too, but there’s a tricky balance involved.
“i personally don’t like to be really far away from my
targets,” boyd says. “sometimes i find myself getting a lit-
tle too close and maybe spooking the fish. but from fish-
ing the [ohio] river, i’ve learned that when you’re fishing
that type of cover your chance of getting the fish out and
in the livewell is a whole lot better when you’re close.”
target tactics
the no. 1 rule for throwing a spinnerbait around
flooded cover is to keep the bait as close to the wood as
possible.
“if you can hit some limbs on the way that’s even bet-
ter,” says boyd. “it’s similar to how you fish a crankbait.
you want it deflecting to draw that bite.”
second best to actually deflecting off the wood is to
impart an “artificial deflection” by popping the rod tip to
cause the blades to flare.
“sometimes that fish sees the spinnerbait go by at the
same old steady retrieve, and it doesn’t draw that reac-
tion bite from him. when you pop the spinnerbait, a lot
of times that’ll get him to come out and eat it.”
boyd also caters his presentation to the specific cover
type in front of him.
Laydowns – on the approach, boyd makes a cast or
two across the end of a laydown until his boat advances
far enough that he can close the angle and cast right
along each side of the trunk.
“if i have a bunch of laydowns to fish then i’ll make
one cast to each side of the laydown and go to the next
one. if it’s a really isolated deal and i think there’s a fish
on that piece of cover i’ll make multiple casts to each side
of that laydown.”
Bushes and standing trees – boyd first casts across the
front of a bush or tree on his approach. once past it, he
turns and slings a cast back behind the tree. effectively, he’s
able to fish both sides on one pass without slowing down.
get creative
efficiency, accuracy and persistence lead to results in
the “bass woods.” the best way to improve is to spend
more time doing it and learning to pattern bass on a lake-
wide scale and within a particular section of cover. then
you have to master the skill of casting a spinnerbait
where other anglers can’t. boyd can pull off tricky maneu-
vers like hooking his line under a limb to direct the bait
farther back into cover, or backhanding a roll-cast.
the end result – hopefully – is a classic bass lure right
in the home of a big largemouth.
choosing spinnerbaits
boyd admits he “uses lots of different spinnerbaits.”
At cumberland, he fished a 1/2-ounce war eagle with a
white and chartreuse skirt, a chartreuse back blade and
a white front blade. he sort of “stumbled” on that partic-
ular pattern in practice when he made a few experimen-
tal casts with the painted blades and wound up catching
a 6-pounder. these days, most of his spinnerbaits are
made by indiana-based red dirt bait co., which builds
spinnerbaits with “tunable” titanium wire that boyd says
lasts longer than stainless but can still be tuned to run
straight.
For flooded cover, he breaks down spinnerbait selec-
tion based on several key features
Blade style – boyd’s go-to in high water is a double-
colorado. the size and lift afforded by the blades let
him bring the bait by a piece of cover very slowly. if he
wants to fish deeper but keep it slow, he’ll swap to a
big single colorado. in clear water he opts for a dou-
ble-willow arrangement, which allows him to increase
retrieve speed.
Blade colors – Gold in dirty water, silver in clear is
boyd’s best strategy. he also experiments with one of
each color on tandem spinnerbaits. painted blades are
reserved for heavy fishing pressure or muddy water, but
they don’t get a lot of use by the indiana pro.
skirt color – boyd keeps it simple: white in clear
water and chartreuse or another bright color in stained
water.
Head size – on the ohio river, where 12-inchers earn
checks, boyd likes a 3/8-ounce spinnerbait. otherwise,
he usually opts for a 1/2-ounce bait.
spring 2019 i fLWfisHing.com
Red Dirt Bait Co. spinnerbaits
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