Blade baits for bass

Using blade baits to land lunkers from top to bottom

Minutes from the launch, we stopped where water flowed through a cut from another waterbody to ours.

With his first cast, Steve Niemoeller, founder of SteelShad Lures (steelshad.com), tossed his blade bait into the cut mouth. Seconds later, a 6-pound largemouth nailed the bait that looks something like a knife blade. Two casts later, Niemoeller landed a 3-pounder.

Looking more like something anglers would use to fillet fish rather than catch them, a blade bait simply consists of a flat piece of shiny metal, sometimes curved like a scimitar with treble hooks. A lead “head” or “chin” adds casting weight.

Nothing new, the concept dates to 1959 when Heddon came out with the Heddon Sonar. Soon, similar blade baits followed, like the Silver Buddy, Gay Blade and others. All mimic baitfish and catch fish. The metal reflects sunlight, giving the lure considerable flash that also simulates baitfish. Because they so closely resemble shad in size and action, blade baits work like dynamite for enticing largemouth bass keying upon shad.

“A blade bait represents a shad with a tight action,” said Greg Hackney, a professional bass angler from Gonzales, La. “They have a unique vibration, similar to the movements of a shad.

“Blade baits fall extremely fast because they’re heavy and not very wide. When bass key on shad, it excels. Bass will come up to eat it.”

A versatile bait

Because blades mimic shad, and practically every carnivore living in fresh or salty water eats shad and similar baitfish, blade baits tempt many fish species in both environments. With a SteelShad, I’ve personally caught largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass, white bass, striped bass, crappie, bluegill, speckled trout, redfish, flounder, Spanish mackerel, bluefish and even catfish among other species.

“It’s a highly versatile lure,” Hackney said. “People can throw blade baits an extremely long way. It’s a bait that people can fish many different ways and depths. It’s probably one of the best baits ever made for catching schooling white bass. People can simply cast and wind a blade bait back, so children or novice anglers can work it easily. In the right spot, people can catch a bunch of fish in a short time.”

In the fall, bass feed heavily upon oily, protein-rich shad to build up their energy reserves before the coming winter. A cool snap might ignite a bass feeding frenzy. Anglers commonly spot huge shad schools in major river channels and large tributary creeks in reservoirs. Where shad appear, bass won’t stray far from their groceries.

“A blade can work at any time, but if I had to pick one season to use one, it would be the fall,” said Stephen Browning, a professional angler. “That’s when bass feed heavily upon shad and tend to chase baits better.”

Schooling bass

Attacking from all directions, gluttonous bass herd shad to the surface where the terrified baitfish run out of escape room. Then, bass move in to gulp anything they can grab. Like in salty water, anglers might see birds diving to get their share of protein.

“Blade baits are highly effective around schooling fish,” said Mark Menendez, a professional bass angler. “It can cast a mile with great accuracy. I like a ¼-ounce blade early in the year after the shad spawn and a ½-ounce size during the rest of the year. Around schooling bass, I fish blade baits on 12-pound fluorocarbon line. I like to rip it and let it fall under the schoolers. Sometimes, I run it 1 to 3 feet under the surface and burn it back to the boat as fast as I can to make it vibrate like crazy.”

Although schooling bass might appear instantly and disappear in seconds, they didn’t necessarily leave the area. As long as baitfish remain in the area, so will bass. When bass disperse the shad schools, the baitfish drop close to the bottom to regroup. Bass also regroup for another assault.

Bass could slurp wounded shad in deeper water while waiting to hit the baitfish on the surface again. Schooling bass might appear again anywhere at any time. Where the shad last appeared, fan cast while watching for bass to reappear on the surface.

Reel the blade a few feet and then let it sink. A blade bait sinks quickly. On a controlled slack line, it flutters down like a dying shad. Bass often strike as it falls. If not, let the bait sink a bit. Then, pop it up again. Keep repeating this procedure and experiment with different depths and retrieves. Also try vertically jigging blades. If it reaches bottom without a hit, jig it up a few feet and let it drop again.

“Blade baits excel for vertical jigging,” Hackney said. “Because it’s heavy and compact, it has an extremely fast rate of fall, similar to a jigging spoon. Fish it straight up and down like a jigging spoon, but it has a totally different action than a jigging spoon.”

Deep-water fishing

Even when not tempting schooling bass, these highly versatile lures can work from the surface to the bottom, but blades work best in deeper, open water. As water temperatures drop, bass usually go deeper and want more subtle action. Blade baits generate very tight wobbles.

For deeper fish, slow-roll blades along the bottom near humps, creek channel edges, brush piles and other cover. Let the bait sink to the bottom. Then, lift it up so that it runs about 2 or 3 feet off the bottom or structure. Periodically, pause to let the bait sink again. In the fall, bass also frequently suspend next to vertical structures like bulkheads, pilings and flooded timber.

“A blade bait is not a bad bait for suspended fish because we can get it down quickly and present it to them,” Hackney said. “Once we get the bait down to them, rip it upwards or fish it slowly. On a lake like Toledo Bend, use bigger baits on deep structure to represent bigger shad. Blade baits are great for fishing around ledges, humps, hard spots, creek channel bends and other deep structure.”

Topwater temptation

Not at all weedless or snagless, blades can work around shallow cover if fished correctly. Burn it just under the surface. Run blades parallel to grass mats, riprap, shorelines, channel drops and other places that might hold bass. Toss it between cypress trees and knees or run the baits past flooded timber or along fallen logs. When fishing over submerged vegetation, occasionally let the baits fall just enough to tickle the grass tops.

Niemoeller even uses the heavy steel bait as a topwater temptation by bending the thin metal to a 90-degree angle. He holds his rod tip high so the bait flops sideways along the surface like an injured baitfish. Bass blow up on it.

Sandbars

Sandbars look sterile, but can hold good fish. In rivers with numerous sandbars, bait often collects at the drop-off edge or in eddies on the downstream side of bars. Drag blades across sandy flats, occasionally thumping the bottom to create a mud trail. Yo-yo it up and down like a spinnerbait parallel to weed lines, shorelines, rocky riprap or along creek channel edges.

“Blade baits are very effective for fishing around sandbars,” Hackney said. “Bass in those rivers often school up around those sandbars in the fall. On sandbars, bass aren’t relating to cover, but to bait. Fish like to get on clean breaks.”

Line choice

Many anglers throw blade baits on 12- to 15-pound fluorocarbon or monofilament line on a medium to medium-light rod with a fast action tip. Use medium to medium-heavy tackle, especially when fishing around thicker grass or other cover.

“I don’t want to use line that’s too heavy,” Hackney said. “We want that right rate of fall and to be able to cast it a long way. For fishing blades, I like to use 12- to 14-pound Gamma fluorocarbon line because it’s so sensitive. I like a 7-foot medium action graphite rod with a high-speed reel, like a 7.5:1 or an 8.3:1 to pick up the slack.”

Since they stayed on the market so long, few people still throw blade baits. However, they still catch many different fresh and saltwater species all year long. In many places, generations of largemouth bass have probably never seen one before. It looks new to them, but more importantly, it looks and acts like a shad. What hungry bass can resist a wounded shad?

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