By Kevin VanDam

KVD with a St. Clair SmallmouthNow’s the time when Michiana anglers should be thinking about spinnerbait fishing our northern natural lakes.

KVD with a St. Clair Smallmouth

There is no better bait for catching big fish this time of year. We’ve got a lot of fronts coming through and those weather changes tend to invigorate the bass. We also get a little more wind and that makes spinnerbait fishing even better.

The bass are moving off the deep structure and onto the flats. Instead of cruising the deep weedlines, they often suspend on the grassy drops and are moving toward shallower water.

This is when I go looking for those areas where the wind is pushing up on the flat. The bass are really getting aggressive, feeding up before winter, and will really attack the spinnerbait.

I start on the outer edge of the weedline/flat and work that before moving to the next depth change, like along the inside, shallower edge of the weed line. I keep checking each depth change, moving shallower, until I find them.

The thing to remember is that fall bass will congregate on any irregularity on that flat. It might be the corners where the flat meets a point, or two types of vegetation, a slight depth change, or change in bottom content.

Most of our lakes don’t have shad so the bass target emerald shiners, perch, or bluegills and I match my skirt colors accordingly. Strike King offers a bluegill color in the KVD Signature Series that works well for me. Now, if I’m fishing White Lake or the Grand River where there is shad, I will fish shad-colored baits.

Because the water is clear, I like silver and gold combinations in double willowleaf blades. If it’s cloudy, I prefer painted blades because they offer a better silhouette.

In northern Michigan where they have a variety of bait, I like Strike King’s sexy shad or blue back herring colored blades since that’s what the smallmouth are targeting. They will come a long way to bite it.

The retrieve of the spinnerbait is critical. I keep the bait high in the water column and moving fast, especially when fishing smallmouth. That’s how they like it.

If targeting largemouth, I’ll run it a little slower, especially if the water temperature gets into the 50s.

The main thing to remember is to keep the bait ABOVE the bass’ line of sight. I generally want to fish it high enough that I can see the baits churning all the way back to the boat.

However, it’s always good to experiment with retrieve speed and a blade combination that allows you to change speeds. I will use a blade and weight combination that allows me to run the bait near the top, but if the fish miss it, I can slow it down. You can do that by using a heavy bait with bigger blades.

In the north, my bait is usually a 3/8- or ½-ounce spinnerbait, depending upon the thickness of the grass or water depth. If the water is deeper or there is very little grass, I may go to a ¾-ounce spinnerbait.

I like a big profile bait since most of the forage is larger this time of year. I may also put a plastic trailer on the back to give it more lift and create an even larger profile.

I’m constantly jerking, stopping and changing speeds with the bait. That really works well for enticing smallmouth.

Do other baits work this time of year? Of course, but I’ve found that spinnerbaits catch the biggest fish anytime there’s wind or cloudy weather, which we tend to see a lot of this time of year.