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There’s usually more than one way to do darn near anything.
Fishermen are prone to forget that. Suppose you go out and have a particularly good day throwing one lure in just one way. What are you going to do the next time you’re on the water? Odds are you’ll do exactly the same thing you did last time.
Now there’s nothing wrong with that approach, but only up to a point. It makes no sense at all to go on blindly heaving the same hunk of hardware in exactly the same fashion if the fish you’re after don’t give some indication it’s what they want. But I’ve done that more often than I care to admit. If you’ll think about it, and be honest while you’re at it, I’ll bet you have too.
This comes to mind because of a recent conversation with a pro bass angler named Grant Olquin. Grant, from San Ramon, California, told me about a technique he has used successfully with the Mack’s Lure Stan’s Spin spinnerbait.
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There he is! Grant Olquin, of San Ramon, California, gets the lip grip on a bass. Look close and you can see the Stan's Spin spinnerbait that the fish grabbed still pinned to its mug. |
“I used the Stan’s Spin silver shad spinnerbait in a Western Outdoor News bass tournament earlier this year on Lake Shasta,” Grant says. “I used the bait mostly while fishing timber in deep water. I caught spotted bass by just letting the lure flutter down through the branches.”
Go back and read that last sentence. Grant wasn’t just heaving the Stan’s Spin out there next to cover and reeling it in again. As a matter of fact, he tells me he didn’t really make what you’d term a standard cast at all. Instead he flipped the spinnerbait into the timber, then let it drop straight down. His hits came as the lure fell.
What Grant did was take advantage of one of the main differences between the Stan’s Spin and most other spinnerbaits. The Pro Model Stan’s Spin, you see, has a Mylar blade behind the metal blade up front. That lightweight Mylar blade turns with the slightest water resistance.
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| Here's the silver shad Stan's Spin that Grant Olguin used so effectively on Lake Shasta. He's also scored well with this lure on the California Delta. |
If you’ve got a Stan’s Spin, tie it on next time you’re out and drop it into clear water alongside your boat. Let it fall on a slack line and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The Mylar blade whirls like the prop on a helicopter as it flutters its way down through the cover.
But while I said it looks like a miniature helicopter, Grant Olguin will tell you it looks even more like something else. And the “something else” this talented California angler has in mind is the how and why of how he knocked those bass in Lake Shasta for a loop.
“To me” Grant says, “the Stan’s Spin resembles a dying baitfish as it flutters down through the cover. That’s why it’s such a great ‘fall’ bait. Just cast and let it drop. That’s what I did with on Lake Shasta.”
Most of the fish Olguin caught at Lake Shasta using the technique I’ve detailed were spotted bass. “The spots I caught on the Stan’s Spin averaged about 2 ½-pounds,” he says, “and that’s larger than average for Shasta.”
Spotted bass weren’t the only species that liked the looks of the Mack’s Lure Stan’s Spin that day at Shasta. Grant will tell you he also caught a number of trout on the same bait. “I had a German brown that weighed 5-pounds,” he says, “and a rainbow of about the same size. I was shocked!”
Grant had an amateur fishing companion along in that WON Bass Tournament on Lake Shasta. “My partner asked if I’d loan him one of my Stan’s Spins,” he recalls, “but I only had one myself at the time.”
As I’ve said many times before in these Mack’s Lure columns, don’t get stuck using any one lure in the same fashion hour after hour if the fish fail to respond. Vary your routine until the fish you’re after start telling you what it is they’ll eat.
That’s what Grant Olgquin did with the Stan’s Spin in that Lake Shasta Tournament. In my next column we’ll take a closer look at some of the other places this California tournament pro is using his Stan’s Spin spinnerbait to advantage.
-To Be Continued-
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