TACKLE
AND
TECH
they’re full of powerful, currentdwelling
bass that fight above their
weight class. Stefan actually lives on
one – the Wisconsin River.
While fishing for river smallies is a
ton of fun, he’s not wrecking them on a
wake bait.
“I don’t have nearly as much success
on current-based stuff because I
don’t think the bait runs right,” Stefan
adds. “It starts getting pulled by the
current.”
Tackle
In most situations, Stefan throws a
wake bait on a medium-heavy, 7-foot
MHX MB843 baitcasting rod with a
6.6:1 Abu Garcia Revo Premier reel
spooled with 30-pound-test braid with
a 12-pound-test Berkley Trilene XL
monofilament leader.
“The mono leader is important
because you get some separation from
the braid so the fish can’t see it as much,
but you also need it to float. You can’t
throw it on fluorocarbon,” Stefan says.
This tackle and technique have
many similarities to wake baiting on
clear spotted bass lakes in the South.
The main differences are that it lasts
all throughout the fishing season, and
instead of 2-pound spots plucking the
bait off the surface, there’s a chance
on every cast to have a 5-pound
smallmouth go killer whale on it with
the kind of aggressive strike we all
dream about.
WHOPPER WAKE BAITS WORK TOO
Jumbo wake baits are specialty baits, but that
doesn’t mean they don’t have tournament applications.
As one example, MLF Bass Pro Tour angler Brett
Hite has successfully integrated the Evergreen ND-180
wake bait into his tournament arsenal.
At 7 inches long with a beefy profile and jointed
wooden body, the ND-180 certainly looks big, but it
only weighs 2.2 ounces. That makes it light enough to
cast accurately and control around shallow targets,
where the clanking body segments help trigger bass
to strike.
“If you’re in a place that you know there are some
good ones, and they’re in that prespawn, spawn, postpawn
funk, where they’re just suspended way up in the water column or over grass, I’ve caught them
really good,” Hite says.
“Since that thing has so much buoyancy, you can reel it quite a bit faster than you can a Bomber
[Long A], and it just disperses a lot more water. What else is cool about it is you can twitch it kind of like
a Spook or Shower Blows, so you can get it to walk back and forth. I’ve had a lot of success with the ND
over grass or around bushes. I’ll wind it, and then I’ll stop it and twitch it a few times, and then wind it. Or
I’ve even caught ’em where you almost give it a big chug – wind it, wind it, wind it and then rip it. If
there’s one following it a lot of times that’s when they’ll eat it.”
Hite throws the ND-180 on a 7-foot, 8-inch, heavy-action Evergreen rod with a long handle and parabolic
action. He pairs it with either 65-pound-test Sunline braid or 20- or 22-pound-test Sunline Shooter
fluorocarbon, which he can get away with because the bait is so buoyant.
76
FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | JUNE-JULY 2020