Troy Smutka explains how different sizes and varieties of spinnerbaits catch multiple species all day long.

Teaching my kids to fish, and guiding, have helped me learn to find shallow, active fish, and move quickly to get a bait in front of as many of these fish as possible. This often means fishing horizontal techniques, rather than vertical. When fishing central Minnesota bass and panfish lakes, horizontal often means spinnerbaits for me. Most people will think of the typical bass spinnerbait in this situation, and I use those a lot. But, I also use other variations of spinnerbaits for different species and situations.

I keep a good selection of safety-pin-style clip-on jig spinners in my jig box. These include silver, gold and colored blades in small, medium and large sizes. I can add these spinners to any size, style and color of jig, and then tip it with any size, style and color of soft plastic to fish for any species of fish in almost any situation.

For bass spinnerbaits, I like Terminator Pro Series and Stainless spinnerbaits. They fish nicely over, around and through weeds and I have caught walleyes, pike, muskies, sunfish and crappies on them, in addition to more largemouth and smallmouth bass than I could ever count. I have a box loaded with 1/2-ounce white Terminators, along with some other colors, including chartreuse/white, clown, green gizzard, silver shad and blue shad. Most of my Terminators have one Colorado and one willow leaf blade in silver, gold or a combination of both.

Both spinning and casting gear will work for casting spinnerbaits through and over weeds for bass and other gamefish. I use a 7-foot, medium-heavy-power, moderate-fast-action St. Croix Tournament Legend Bass Rod paired with a Pflueger Patriarch 6.3:1 baitcast reel. This medium-speed reel allows me to buzz the bait high over weeds, but also slow down to slow-roll a spinnerbait along deep weed edges. This reel is spooled with 14-pound test Berkley Fireline, with 8 to 10 inches of Terminator Tieable Titanium Leader Wire spliced between the Fireline and the spinnerbait.

The long, softer rod makes for long casts and gives enough at the strike for a bass to get the bait inhaled before the rod loads up, leading to more hookups. The Fireline casts a mile and is abrasion-resistant in cover. The short wire ties to open-eye (aka R-bend shaft) spinnerbaits, which wouldn’t work with a leader with a snap, is stiff enough it prevents the line from getting caught in spinning blades during the cast and adds some protection against pike and muskie teeth.

I generally target bass with spinnerbaits on weedy shoreline flats in spring and weedy reefs or points later into summer, with bonus pike, walleyes, and muskies on the right lakes. I look for cabbage weeds, coontail or grass on these spots in 6 to 10 feet of water. Predatory fish sit near the bottom in these sparser weeds, looking up for an unsuspecting sunfish, crappie, perch,or shiner to make a mistake, and then come shooting up for the kill.

When the time comes to chase sunnies and crappies, I downsize to a panfish-sized spinnerbait. With a box full of components, I can put together a multitude of jig-soft plastic-spinner combinations for casting for sunfish and crappies suspending over or hiding in weeds. One of my favorite combinations is a small jig spinner clipped to a 1/16-ounce VMC Mooneye Jig tipped with a Berkley Powerbait 2-inch Minnow. But I will also go up to a 1/8-ounce jig, use a medium jig spinner, and tip the jig with Crappie Scrubs, tubes, or grubs.

Early and late in the day, or on cloudy, windy days, I will toss spinnerbaits for walleyes on shoreline inside weed edges, or in pockets or sparser weeds on top of shallow reefs. I put a large jig spinner on a 1/4-ounce jig tipped with a 3-inch grub or paddletail for this approach and have caught a lot of shallow weed walleyes this way.

For casting small spinnerbaits for panfish, I like St. Croix Panfish Series Rods in 7- to 8-foot light and ultralight models. A Pflueger ultralight reel is spooled with 4-pound-test Fireline, and I splice 6- to 8-inches of 6- or 8-pound-test fluorocarbon between the Fireline and the bait. This is for stealth, but the stiffer fluorocarbon also keeps tangles from happening on the cast. This combo will cast small baits a country mile and give you a fun battle with scrappy sunnies and crappies.

I generally look for panfish in the same places as bass for the time of year. The bass, pike and muskies are where the panfish are to feed on them. Once the sun gets higher and the predatory fish slow their feeding, the panfish pick up theirs, especially on calm, sunny days. These conditions can turn the gamefish off by mid-morning, but get insect activity going, followed by minnow activity, followed by panfish activity, and fishing can be great. You don’t have to quit fishing just because it gets calm, warm and sunny. You just have to switch species to keep fishing all day. You will likely still catch some small bass and the odd pike on these panfish baits as the day wears on, so be prepared.

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