Tough Spinnerbaiting

North Carolina's Guy Eaker has been fishing spinnerbaits longer than some of us have been breathing. And as is evident from his 2nd place finish at the Red River last week, he knows a thing or two that the rest of us -- and some of the pros -- don't. One such nugget of wisdom is how to downsize a spinnerbait to catch bass that are spooked for some reason.

Doctoring the Bait

Eaker fishes a Riverside Counter Attack spinnerbait. When the bite is tough, he goes down to a 1/4-ounce chartreuse/white bait with No. 3 and 4 Colorado blades.

The reason for the two Colorados is that they make the bait sound different. "They make more of a thumping noise and not a lot of what I call a "whumping" noise, like you get out of a willowleaf," Eaker says.

"When the and fish are spooky, those little Colorados don't put out as big a vibration as a willowleaf," he explains. "You can spook fish if the water's clear and you're making too much noise with your spinnerbait."

He also notes that fish can be spooked even in muddy water if the boat traffic is high and anglers are bashing through cover with their boats, as happened on the Red River last week.

Skirt and Grub

Whenever Eaker fishes a spinnerbait he trims the skirt down "so it looks more like shad." He removes 5-7 strings from the skirt and then trims it right behind the hook. If you don't do this, he says, "there's not enough action."

Eaker then adds a 3-inch pearl/silver flake Riverside grub to make the bait "look more like a minnow running through the water. The little tail also throws off vibration in the water, and sounds to the bass like something swimming. They can hear that tail moving."

"I've used this grub for years and years," he says. "People who don't use a trailer on a spinnerbait I think are making a mistake, especially when the fishing is tough."

Different Sound

Eaker likes the Counter Attack spinnerbait because, as its name suggests, the blades "counter-rotate" meaning they rotate in different directions. Most spinnerbaits have the blades rotating in the same direction.

"We tested these baits underwater and compared them to others," Eaker says. "Bass mostly hear the same (spinnerbait) sound all the time. But this bait has a completely different vibration, which gives me confidence in it because I fell like the fish have never heard it before."

Cast In Junk

Eaker designed the head of the bait to make it recover faster and truer when it pops off of a snag. "Most spinnerbait heads are round," he says, "so that when it hits a limb it falls over, catches the blades in the hook and hangs up. This just flips left or right at 45 degrees and keeps going."

That's important because Eaker says that one of the keys to catching spooky bass is to cast "way back in logs and other cover. I throw where others don't," he says.

For fishing spinnerbaits, Eaker likes to use an Abu Garcia Morrum reel, a 7- foot Fenwick medium-heavy rod and 20-pound Stren Easy Cast.