and more vibration,” he explained. “Or you can
sleek it down and put on smaller blades, change
blade colors, mix a gold with a silver blade. I can
change blades and have a whole different bait with
different color and different action in two minutes!”
The South Carolina native is a DIY guy, an
angler who likes to tinker with baits and shape
them to conditions or even whim. Most of his
catches come on hand-poured 3/8-, 1/2- and
3/4-ounce lures, but he also carries a oneounce spinnerbait with modified blades that
enables him to hunt 30-foot ledges with the
efficiency generally reserved for a crankbait
expert heaving his favorite long-lipped lure.
Among the most common adjustments Ashley
makes in spring is employing the “slow-roll”
spinnerbait retrieve – a technique that he
refers to as a “lost art.” The technique calls for
fishing the lure slowly and close to bottom,
sometimes through cover – more like a jig than
a reaction lure. A tandem blade spinnerbait
adds flash and water displacement, enabling
fish to zero in on the bait from a greater
distance than they might with a jig.
Many bass anglers find it too tough to maintain
blade rotation at “crawl” speed. Not Ashley!
“Slow-rolling a spinnerbait all boils down blade
separation,” Ashley explained. “I use beads to
separate the blades. I don’t want my front blade
to touch or overlap the back blade at all. When
the front blade is turning, I don’t want it to take
water off the back blade. I still want that back
blade to rotate at all times. Blade separation
enables you to slow roll a spinnerbait even when
you are fishing deep structure!”
A Western Spin
Derek Yamamoto employs the spinnerbait
to cover water quickly on big clear waters of
the West from his home water of Lake Mead
to Lake Havasu, Mojave and countless other
waters in the Southwest.
“I love to fish the spinnerbait in spring,” said
Yamamoto, business director of Advantage
Bait Company and son of famous lure maker
and innovator Gary Yamamoto, as well as a
veteran of the Bassmaster and FLW pro bass
wars. “As the water warms in early season, the
biggest fish provide the most action first, so
you have a good chance of getting big fish...The
spinnerbait is a big bait, and it attracts big fish.”
Yamamoto insists upon a spinnerbait that he can
rely on to run straight and spin true regardless
of whether he is burning a bait in warm clear
water or slow-rolling it in dingy depths.
That was a primary reason that he was
attracted to the Advantage Spinnerbait,
created by company owner Jason Schwartz.
Yamamoto noted that the lure seemed to
draw bass from long distances thanks to
the Extreme Flash Technology (EFT) behind
its patented blades. When conditions call
for a slower – or even extreme “slow roll” –
presentation, the Advantage spinnerbait’s
sleeve separation of the tandem blades enable
it to still maintain continuous blade rotation.
“In spring I use the spinnerbait a lot as a search bait,
so I mostly use a steady retrieve,” said Yamamoto.
“But if I know or suspect a fish is holding near a bush,
a rock or grass, I will try to cast past the object and
slow it down as it nears the cover. I may even add a
little rod tip action to get the skirt to puff out. Fish
react when they see something different like that
occur. Any rod or reel action can be worthwhile. Let
the fish tell you how much action you need.”
On the big clear waters of the West, bass spread
out widely as they near the spawn, Yamamoto
noted. Though he might find them anywhere,
he keys on smaller pockets and objects that
provide cover from at least one side.
“Bass like something to hide behind,” he said. “I
always look for bushes, rocks, and small rock piles
on the inside of any point going into a bay... Finding
good spring bas ́