Spoons, Tailspinners, Blades

While the appearance and action of the tailspinner remain virtually unchanged, one enhancement has nonetheless sparked a new generation of fans. While fishing with friend Tom Mann in 1968, Bob Ponds observed how easily bass were able to throw Little Georges by thrashing their heads as they jumped. “I asked Tom why he didn’t make his baits slip up the line, and he said that such a design would be so unconventional that nobody would buy them. He was right. When I first designed my Wing Ding in 1969, no one cared about it,” Ponds recalls.

His modification—a small hole bored from the back of the lure to the belly—allows anglers to pass their lines through the bait and tie to a treble hook below. “When the fish jumps, the bait slips up the line, and the weight’s leverage is eliminated, so the fish can’t throw the hook,” Ponds explains.

The Wing Ding design eventually ended up in the hands of Mississippi’s Redneck Lures, where it underwent a slight modification in shape, as well as a name change. They released the “Tail Kicker” in 1978, with satisfactory sales in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana. In 1995, Sunny Wells from Lake Fork spotted the lures in a tackle shop at Toledo Bend and contacted Redneck, offering to sell the baits at Fork, the unquestioned proving ground for lunker bass baits.

Fork’s guides and regulars quickly discovered what Mann had learned years before. Big bass go for tailspinners. Sales boomed and word spread, establishing the Tail Kicker as a premier tailspinner. Hugh Rinkle’s Rinky Dink is another line-through design that dates back to the 1960s, but with modern features. Hart’s Back Flash and Strike King’s Thruster Tail are the latest in the lineup.

Although primarily fished along the bottom and cast for schooling bass, some pros have discovered that tailspinners are effective around weedbeds, ripping them from snags and generating strikes much like a lipless rattling crankbait.

Bladebaits

Likely the least known of the metal baits is the bladebait, another unchanging marvel. These lures have a heavy metal head and thin body of steel, tin, or zinc. The combination produces a tight vibration effective on smallmouth and largemouth bass in deep water.

The Heddon Sonar appeared in 1959 and has remained a staple baits in the PRADCO lineup to this day. Three holes for attaching a snap offer three different running angles and depths, a feature appearing in several newer blades. Scott Stecher added a curve to the blade of his Cicada for a unique vibration. The Luhr-Jensen Ripple Tail is a larger option.

In the 1970s, the Silver Buddy, a simple lead-headed model designed in Kentucky for giant smallmouths in hill-land impoundments, gained a cult following among brown bass aficionados of the region. These baits are favored when water temperatures fall below 55°F.

The Hogeye Blade Runner is a turned bladebait, meaning its sheet metal body runs parallel to the bottom behind a lead head. The Blade Runner apparently is out of production, but Mann’s Mann Dancer is a newer entry in this class, also intended for deep water. Top Brass Tackle’s new 1-ounce X-Shad represents a true innovation in metal baits, a brass rattlebait with rattle chamber and various textured color schemes.

* Russell Browder, Garland, Texas, is a freelance outdoor writer specializing in bass and panfish.