By Troy Seal
When the middle of summer arrives, I start dreaming about cool nights and frost in the mornings. Nothing stirs my spirit like the fall season. I was born on the first full day of fall, September 23rd. It doesn’t matter if anybody in my family buys me anything for my birthday, I get exactly what I want, the good Lord gives me the file season every year right on time.
It’s not the file hunting season alone. It’s not the crisp cool weather alone. It’s the thoughts of wing shooting and the cool weather and squirrel hunting and fall smile mouth on a blade or is Hank Parker calls it a spinner bug. Just like there’s a thousand ways to die there’s a thousand ways to catch smallmouth and one of my favorites If not my very favorite is at night in the file on a short arm spinnerbait with a Colorado blade on it. It’s a great technique to catch bigger than average fish plus you catch the really aggressive fish that fight like a mad bull. There are some nights you will go through several spinnerbaits because the wire gets so twisted that it can’t be reshaped properly, they will knock the blades off of them and you usually lose a few also because usually you’re fishing Rocky structure.
There are several techniques that include boat control as a high priority. Growing up in East Tennessee if you fish from early age, spinnerbaiting at night was just something you did, something that was passed down. East Tennessee highland reservoirs are the same types of reservoirs in Eastern Kentucky, where this technique was born and where it is still a tradition.
When I was in my early twenties I fished with one of my best friends over 200 days a year. Much of that was spinnerbaiting and throwing a deep diving crankbait at night in the late summer and into the fall. It’s kind of a transition time, it’s not bad in the early season but it gets better as you get into fall in the night start getting kind of cold. Main lake humps, channel bends, main lake points and secondary points are all great places. Every lake is a little different in many of you probably have your types of structures that you use at certain times of the year. I would recommend on some of those places that you throw a spinnerbait at night in the fall.
As I said earlier, there are several techniques you can use with the spinnerbait: you can yo-yo the spinnerbait, you can slow roll the spinnerbait, you can lift and drop the spinnerbait, or you can wind several turns and stop and let it flutter back to the bottom. My favorite spinner bait that I use is a half-ounce spinner bait that I mold myself. It has a short arm but not as short as many short arms, like a Zorro, which is an old school spinnerbait that many large smallmouths, largemouth, and spots also have become victims of.
I usually use a number four blade, which is not super big. A lot of people think you need a big Colorado blade at night, and some nights they prefer a four and a half size blade or even a five but day in and day out a number for Hildebrandt blade has been my most productive. It may seem that color would be irrelevant at night but trust me it is not. Brown and orange, black and red or black and blue or purple are great colors. Most of us use some type of crawl trailer or a twin tail grub on the spinnerbait a salt chunk from zoom is a pretty good trailer too.
Back to the retrieves, the retrieve that I use most is a slow roll with a stop to maintain bottom contact or to not let the spinnerbait get too high in the water column unless they are suspended which at that time a crankbait is usually a little better for suspended fish but sometimes they prefer a spinnerbait so never counted out. Much of the time earlier in this season we will catch them in 25 ft of water or so 25 ft seems to be the magic number many nights. But some nights they’ll be in 10 ft of water. The pattern can last for four or six weeks or more if the weather is fairly stable in the winter draw down isn’t too drastic. If I’m fishing humps, I just circle the hump in my boat and fish it from every conceivable angle until I start getting bites, and then I’ll usually spot lock or anchor and kind of pick apart the spots that are on the spot. If I’m fishing secondary and main lake points and they’re deeper most of the time, I’ll set the boat up in shallow water very skinny water and cast out deep that way it’s easier to maintain bottom contact, cranking two or three to maybe five cranks and then stopping it and let it fall on a tight line so it pendulums and you maintain fill of the blade.
Some nights just a perfectly solid steady retrieve is what it takes others it takes a stop and go or even maybe just a long file if you find fish on a bluff bank or towards the ends of a bluff bank on transitions. On 45° banks a one or two crank retrieve then pause, can be the ticket. It seems like that’s where you catch the biggest fish sometimes and they will hit it from a run as if they’re trying to break your arm.
Later in the year it gets cool at night, so a jacket and maybe even insulated bibs are a good idea. The heavy clothes are not only for the run, but it’s been warm, and you’re not acclimated to it frosting at night. It’s some of the coldest nights I’ve ever spent on the water. It rivals duck season. Not only do your clothes need to be a little different than regular nighttime fishing done in the summer but your gear will probably be a little different too. I’ve loved spinnerbait fishing my whole life. It’s one of my favorite lures for a type A personality like me, but I would never fish a nighttime spinnerbait on the combo that I use for shallow water spinnerbaiting or even deep water spinnerbaiting during the day.
During the day I use a 6’8 or 7 ft medium-heavy rod with a soft tip and a lot of backbone; however at night I prefer a ride a little shorter, say like a 6’6″ rod and a power that’s kind of like a softer medium-heavy or a stiffer medium that has more of a moderate action because I use braid. 50 lb braid tied directly to the spinnerbait, No FG knot, no extra step, and no breaking off at the leader and having to retie all that mess in the dark or over a lot while the bugs eat you alive.
Power pro makes a braid that glows under a black light, which is essential. If you’ve never fished at night with fluorescent line over a black light you have no idea what you’re missing. It is so easy to see bites but the main reason is that it’s easier to work your lure. When you see slack go in your line you know it’s on the bottom when you’re doing the lift and drop or the crank and stop retrieve. The reason you use the braid is so you can feel the vibration of the blade. Not so much for hook sets but for feel. Usually there’s no need to even set the hook. They hit it so hard a hook set usually is just not necessary, maybe a sweep to the side and that’s all you need.
Fishing with a spinnerbait at night in the fall is a great way to spend your time. I suggest you try it if you haven’t. I’m warning you though it’s more addictive than crack, good music or pretty girls. Good luck, my friends!!!
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