Many times I use a technique known as the Floating Fly. This is a relatively-new method being used on quite a few lakes in Tennessee, Kentucky and other areas in the Southeast. This tactic is great for catching suspended fish. I use a round bobber with about 3 feet of line below it, and I tie a 1/16-ounce jig on the line. I hand-make my jigs with craft hair and paint them with Spike-It powder paint. I paint the jigheads chartreuse, blue or white. I prefer to paint the jigheads with brighter colors. One of the reasons I like the powder paint is that I can dip the jighead in the powder paint and it dries instantly. Moreover, there’s no dripping. With the powder paints, you also get a uniform color, and you don’t have any streaks. There are so many different colors of powder paint to use that you can color them just about any color you want them to be. You also can get glitter colors in powder paint. To cast this rig out, I use an 8-1/2-foot rod with a spinning reel. I prefer to use a lightweight rod. Once the bobber and fly hit the water, you want to let it fall and then move the bobber along to make the jig jump. After you pop the jig two or three times, however, let the bait sit still in the water. Often that’s when the fish will attack. This is an excellent tactic for catching suspended smallmouth bass. Another technique that I use with this type of rig is a slip bobber. If I spot smallmouth bass suspended in 20 feet of water over a 50-foot bottom, I remove my snap-on cork and replace it with a bobber-stopper cork. I tie my bobber stopper on to the line, cast the rig out and let the line slide through the bobber until it hits the stopper. This way I know my fly is down at about 20 feet. I use the same action of jerking the bobber two or three times and letting it stop to work the fly in that 20-foot depth. The fly looks like a minnow all by itself around those smallmouth bass, and they naturally have to eat the fly. If I see a school of shad suspended in 8 feet of water, I back away from them and use a bobber stopper on my fly so that it will fall through and stop just below the school. This way, the bass holding near the school will see my fly dropping and attack. Once the fly falls through the school, I pop the bobber and work it back to the boat. I try to keep it coming toward the boat a couple of inches at a time, stop it and let it sit still in the water.
When I’m not fishing for bass, I paint muskie lures. I’ve had a good time using Spike-It’s Crank’n Paint. I use an airbrush to paint the lure initially, and then I use the Spike-It Crank’n Paint to apply stripes, spots and lines. I like the Crank’n Paint because it stays on the lures better than anything else I know. Moreover, it comes in some bright colors. Using the Spike-It Crank’n Paint to add detail to muskie baits has really caught on, and I have many muskie anglers now buying these big lures. I like the flexibility and wide variety of colors that Spike-It offers. This enables me to paint a lure the way I want it to be, instead of having to accept any lure color. Although Spike-It makes a variety of lures in many colors, the company can’t create every color of lure that you may need. However, with the paints and dyes that are available, you can personalize the lures to fit your own needs and wishes. The Spike-It products put you in charge of the lures you fish more so than any other companies I know. I believe Spike-It realizes that individual anglers have their own color preferences. With Spike-It’s dips, dyes and sprays, you can make your lures to suit your needs. I also use the Spike-It scent. Most of the time I use garlic scent, unless I’m fishing a lure that I want to imitate a shad. On those occasions, I use their shad scent. I like the idea that I’m in charge of the colors of my lures, how they smell and the colors of my hooks. I can change those colors any time I want to by using Spike-It products.
