Great sunfish action today- July 20- and a tip!

[Slyster]

Had a great time fishing for sunnies on Thurs July 20! Caught an amazing amount of bluegills and hybrids.. one per cast... and many over 8".. all on a small beetle spin with a soft plastic crayfish!... Really surprised me.. out-performed any other tactic I usually use. I usually fish for bass.. but these panfish sure are fun!

[jonny_redhorse]

sounds like you had a great time.....Slyster!......when a guy feels that 8"-10" bluegill bend that little ultralight....just amazes me how powerful these great little fish are! .....I'll be going out this evening again for "the big guys"......jonny

[Juan Grande]

Slyster,

I hear you, I'm hooked on beetle spins too. You can catch bass, pike, and panfish on them with ease.

I was fishing from a dock last weekend with crappie minnows under a bobber. There was a boat anchored about 50 feet from the dock and they were pulling in crappies left and right, but I couldn't buy a bite. I tied on a white beetle spin and proceeded to catch crappies on 8 consecutive casts!

I guess it must be the flash of the spinner plus the fact the fact need to decide quickly on whether to bite or not.

Has anyone ever tried removing the plastic body and putting a crappie minnow on the jig?

[Matt Johnson]

Good work Slyster! Those small-profiled spinner-baits sure are a blast! A great search lure when looking for schools of fish too. A lot of times I'll just cruise around pitching those spinner-baits until I stumble across a pod of fish. Then depending on their mood, I'll slow down and pitch a jig/plastic.

[markkstanley]

It should work fine with minnows but why do it? Plastics work great. I often switch out the factory plastic for 2" Power grubs or Exude grubs if bite is not agressive. That's all the tweaking you need to do. Beetle spins and JR Tadpoles catch anything that swims. I can't get the green carp to leave me alone and I lose one lure every trip to the slimer pike.

[Slyster]

Tried again today.. this time with white "puddle jumpers".. worked very good! Nabbed a few bass as well. Need to try more plastics!