Annual Spring Rant

Spring is here which brings out the rants about fishing the scour hole, here is my annual rant on Blade baits. What a POS bait! Every spring I watch the video of James and Eric crushing walleyes with blade baits, every spring I am out there casting away with no results. I cannot understand why I keep trying and just don’t give up. I blame you James, Eric and you too Randy of singing the praises of this joke of a lure on us trusting lesser fishermen. You guys should be ashamed of yourselves . Ok rant over and going to bait store to get some minnows for next trip.

Good to know a blade bait doesn’t work.

After ice fishing tomorrow, and if the ice is good?? Off too the scour hole for our fish. Good tip for us.

Well from the last post of Randy I think we all know now why he ties on one, it’s self defense!

I’ll put money on Randy out 15
yds from another boat with a 1/2oz bladebait 7’M baitcaster over a hillbilly crazy fisherman with a 9mm any day.

Don’t forget to include that cookie stealing Marshal guy in this!

On the other hand I have caught two eyes on that stamped out piece of steel with hooks. Yes, “caught” as in the mouth.

‘Course my instructor was catching 25 to my two…

Some of the biggest white bass I have ever caught were on blade-baits.Most guys tend to over work them,and give-up or lose a bunch.It’s a knack to dial them in,but once you do it’s a blast.I have personally seen randy do magic with them,while many others were struggling.

This time of year just lower them to bottom,lift-up an inch or so and give a 10″ or so snap.Follow it back down and hang on.They will rap it hard.No need to yank them up 2 or 3′ and drop on slack line.You will either snag fish or totally miss them.

The right set-up also helps.Extra fast tip rod,and braided line with a swivel and about 14″ or so mono or fluorocarbon leader.I have fished them with straight braid,but they tend to tangle up more.

Works for me.

If I fish blade Baits very carefully, or if I just dump the box over the side of the boat and get it over with, they all end up in the same place and I catch the same amount of fish. I hear ya Tomr, it’s a mystery to me too.

S.R.

milemark_714 wrote:

This time of year just lower them to bottom,lift-up an inch or so and give a 10″ or so snap

I never used them this way. Always pitched them to a current seam (or rip rap I’m told)

Learn something new everyday!

Brian Klawitter wrote:

milemark_714 wrote:
This time of year just lower them to bottom,lift-up an inch or so and give a 10″ or so snap

Brian Klawitter wrote:

I never used them this way. Always pitched them to a current seam (or rip rap I’m told)

Learn something new everyday!

I have never fished them this way either. Always cast them. After I thought about my post I was going to throw out the remaining blade baits I have as I only have so much time to fish and the time I have invested in this bait vs fish caught does not justify the space in my tackle box. I will give this a try this weekend. Thanks Milemark_714, hopefully I will not have to include you in next springs blade bait rant

Tom,
Maybe a bad thing I’m coming off of a really crappy week. So here is the harsh reality. It’s not the color of the blades , its not the size :???:, its not even the rod your using IT’S YOU!

How ironic. I was just explaining to someone last night that you can draw pictures, explain things like they are in first grade, spend hours typing up instructions, produce very elaborate how to videos, and even park their rear ends in my boat for 16 hours and dam near hold their rod for them – and there is always that 1 in a 1000 people that will never be able to catch fish.
So Tom, congratulations For you its like hitting the lottery. You are that 1 in a 1000 I would offer to take you out for a day to personally teach you, but we already know how that would work out. I would be hammering them one after another and there you would sit all bent out of shape watching the magic show So please, do us all a favor, pack up all your fishing gear, neatly bubble wrap all the rods, and deliver them to myself or one of my friends. We will make sure a well deserving child ( most likely in 1st through 3rd grade) will make better use of it all

In the spirit of my new spring rant of 2018 – I no longer care if your offended or have your feelings hurt If you need reading material for self-reflection, spiritual uplifting, or just the sake of education follow this like below: You’ll want to go to the 3rd of 4th entry in this. Seriously there is a ton of knowledge compiled in this.

The IDO Book of Blades

https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/ftlgeneral_1322968/#Post1322984

nhamm wrote:

Well from the last post of Randy I think we all know now why he ties on one, it’s self defense!

I’ll put money on Randy out 15
yds from another boat with a 1/2oz bladebait 7’M baitcaster over a hillbilly crazy fisherman with a 9mm any day.

Could you imagine myself and Dean in a boat together? Box of blades, box of cookies….holy crap, both the fish and jackasses would go into hiding

Mr. Root – Just a suggestion to my most liberal friend. YOU DON’T USE BLADEBAITS ON A FLYROD. THEY ARE NOT STREAMERS

Hey Randy thanks for your reply, I think You have responded to my requests for help in the past with blade baits and I thank you. I have to agree with you that it is me, I have never put so much time into trying to understand a technique with nothing to show for it. I also would have to agree with your suggestion to give up the sport if blade baits were the only way I had in my arsenal to target spring walleyes. Fortunately this is not the case so do not expect any packages from me anytime soon I also am going to take your lottery comment as a compliment as those are pretty long odds so I guess that makes me a special fisherman One comment on your bad outing, which I read is that hopefully it makes you appreciate the good days even more. Enjoy reading your posts, Thanks.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

Don’t forget to include that cookie stealing Marshal guy in this!

You have a good point, once I asked Dean for some pointers at Everts and his reply was “did you bring any cookies”? Which I had to reply no. His next comment was “see the pictures of these guys holding big fish, they brought cookies”.

I was fishing with a guy on the river Sunday who hooked a Giant walleye on a blade bait. He didn’t land the fish cause he’s kind of a greenhorn, but he had it on

sticker wrote:

I was fishing with a guy on the river Sunday who hooked a Giant walleye on a blade bait. He didn’t land the fish cause he’s kind of a greenhorn, but he had it on

SMH, Those are fighting words! Meet me in the parking lot at 230pm….its going down!

Speaking of rants, I don’t share the same hate for blades (despite losing a monster on one that broke my hook last weekend) but I can’t for the life of me catch a walleye jigging a ripping rap.

I love fishing lipless cranks on cast and retrieve for bass and pike. Fun fall bite, but jigging a rippin rap similar to a blade or even more aggressive sometimes like a jigging rap I can’t catch a walleye to save my life.

I keep trying every now and then just to be reminded I hate them for walleyes.

It might be because they get tired when I can’t catch eyes on a jigging rap or a blade. Or because I fish them without an ounce of confidence. Who knows.

THEY DON’T CATCH WALLEYES!!! I DON’T CARE HOW MANY TIMES JAMES SHOWS ME ON HIS SHOW THAT THEY DO!!!

Evan Pheneger wrote:

Speaking of rants, I don’t share the same hate for blades (despite losing a monster on one that broke my hook last weekend) but I can’t for the life of me catch a <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye jigging a ripping rap.

I love fishing lipless cranks on cast and retrieve for <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass and pike. Fun fall bite, but jigging a rippin rap similar to a blade or even more aggressive sometimes like a jigging rap I can’t catch a walleye to save my life.

I keep trying every now and then just to be reminded I hate them for walleyes.

It might be because they get tired when I can’t catch eyes on a jigging rap or a blade. Or because I fish them without an ounce of confidence. Who knows.

THEY DON’T CATCH WALLEYES!!! I DON’T CARE HOW MANY TIMES JAMES SHOWS ME ON HIS SHOW THAT THEY DO!!!

Broke a hook? Are you familiar with how drags work?

I had a similar experience with rippin raps last year over opener. I always make the mistake of trying new things when fish aren’t biting. But I made an effort to try them when we were smacking them pretty good. Nothing. For two days. Finally, I was messing around on the dock and watching how cool they swim in the water and a 2-3 lb smallie smacked it on the end of the rod.

I did finally catch on eye on one this winter on Pool 2.

Blades are fantastic for vertical jigging up small main channel walleyes and saugers. Good chance many will be snagged. They are much better pitched for larger walleyes on structure. No jigging here if you want to catch anything. Lift and flutter. If you can feel the action of the bait stop working it so hard or just put it away.

Thanks for the info randy!! I followed the rabbit hole of links and there is enough info about blades to make my head swim. I might have to force myself to blade all day friday. If your out on p4 friday, I’ll be the one looking frustrated in a jon boat.

Evan Pheneger wrote:

I can’t for the life of me catch a <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye jigging a ripping rap.

I don’t believe anybody can. They hook a walleye from the livewell on, throw it back in the water, and film themselves reeling it in. It’s all editing tricks funded by big Rapala.

So are these blade baits more for river systems or will they work in lakes? I have used them on Lake Oahe a little bit but I was wondering if they would work in our lakes in NE SD? I do use rippin and jigging raps with success so I would guess they should work?

Instead of using blades or rippin raps I just motor out to my spot, drop my wallet in the river, and then go home.

I either snag them or get broke off by so many pike it’s like throwing money away.

This is a 100% user error problem and I know that.

Matt Moen wrote:

Instead of using blades or rippin raps I just motor out to my spot, drop my wallet in the river, and then go home.

Haha x2. The ONE nice thing I can say about blades, is at least they are cheaper than rippin raps. And the one nice thing I can say about rippin raps, is if you are catching fish and getting your arms wore out, you can switch to a rippin rap and then have enough time between fish for a drink or a sandwich! I’ve caught fish with both, but imo the only thing they do better than a jig is snag!

Update from my post in 2018. After watching the u tube video of James and Eric catching large walleyes on blade baits for probably the 100th time and rereading posts on blades something must have finally pierced my thick skull on how to fish these baits. I have been hammering the walleyes on Pool 2 and 4 with blades this year and as of right now have to say it is becoming my favorite way to fish this time of year. Took only 6 years but maybe have the technique down

6 years isn’t bad good job at catching on finally. I can say I sucked or didn’t have faith on blade baits for some time. But now it’s quickly a go to at certain times of the year on the river. It can really shine on rainy in the right conditions.

This made me realize it was time to restock my blade baits. Lost many of them last year to snags. Ordered a bunch from trumar at tru tied tackle and then some new ones off tackle warehouse. Maybe I’ll be able to reuse a few of these ones for a couple seasons

I’m looking forward to trying blade baits in the salt. They may be a great option.

Bearcat89 wrote:

This made me realize it was time to restock my blade baits.

Blade baits are definitely more expensive than jigs! Thought I had a lifetime supply but now that I am using them so much I have had to order more. I have been using braid to 6# floro but think I am going to try 12# floro to see if I can’t pull a few out instead of breaking off all the time. Worried that maybe the heavier line will affect the “action” but don’t think it will and I can always to back to lighter line if feel not getting bit as much. Using blade has been great for numbers of walleyes but biggest so far this year pool 2 was on a jig and minnow 26″.