Blades? How to tie them and use them.

When tying the blades on do you guys use the snap swivels to connect them or do you just tie the line to them? Also how do you fish them? Thanks

#1 light wire stainless snap. No swivel

duo lock snaps size #2

Berkley® Cross-Lok Snaps #3 or as stated above..duo lock snaps size #2 easy on ,easy off with your fingers

Depends on the size of the blade…

1/8-5/32oz #1 snap
1/4-1/2 oz #2 snap
3/4-1 oz #3 snap…….never a swivel

Most, All call them blades, but they are spoons, right?
Either way, I use the quick snaps, like the ones you get when you buy a Slendor Spoon.

So the snap that is on there should be sufficient enough?

Never a swivel.

And I too have only felt a couple fish on…never one to a boat on a blade.

Some call them Sonar’s (an old brand name I believe), most call them blade baits now a days. Not to be confused with a slender spoon.

Photo coming soon.

A blade bait.

Crestliner,

they are not spoons at all, it actually is a blade; flat, forward weighted metal, usually with 2 trebles.

so a snap is required for the line tie.

check bfishn web site for pics.

blade baits

Jack

When I was first introduced to these guys in the 80’s at Prescott, folks fishing them RIPPED them off the bottom vertically. Since this was new to me, I found most if not all fish were snagged. I stopped using them.

Fast forward to some time in the 2000’s and, well I’m not sure who to give credit to. Dean Marshall was the first person to explain how to “pitch” them. Well he explained it the best he could from inside a bait shop.

I’ve gone out with a few people that have tried to help me get the hang of it. It sounds easy. Cast, watch your line until it goes slack (that’s bottom) then lift and hold as the current works your lure, lift, reel in any slack and hold. Trying to keep your lure close to the bottom while letting the current work the bait.

There’s others on here that can actually do it and catch fish. I just do with without the fish part.

If a person really wants to learn how to catch fish using a blade, I have two suggestions for you that will save you a ton of scratching your head and lost baits.

1. Find a friend that knows how to pitch a blade. Buy him a few beers and get him to take you out.

2. Hire a guide that will take you out solely to learn the art of mastering the blade bite.

The guys that have it down have really had some nice photos taken!

Eric R’s Report from 2011 with exactly the same conditions we have now

FYI looking at last few years of fishing reports is almost like cheating.

Why not a swivel ????

It would cause the blade to spin and defeat the purpose of the snap which allows the to vibrate freely. #2 is the best all purpose size as the #1 at times with a 1/4 ounce seems to almost prevent the action from happening.

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Most, All call them blades, but they are spoons, right?
Either way, I use the quick snaps, like the ones you get when you buy a Slendor Spoon.

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There is a difference between the two.
Remember this though:
Spoons = snap swivel – why? Because they spin and can impart twist in the line.
Blades = snap only – why? Because blades don’t spin and you don’t want them to. Its also one more piece of hardware than can fail.

The freinds I have had in the boat that have never pitched blades have the wrong setup for rods. They cannot feel that suttle tick tick of the blade vibrating and hence they will work the blade to hard. I can hand them one of my setups and the feel for what the blade is doing goes up, it is a learning curve no doubt. Dean Marshal and Eric Reiberg, were my tuttors and now I wil pitch blades year long with success, it is my go to search bait. Learn how to use them correctly and have fun.

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The freinds I have had in the boat that have never pitched blades have the wrong setup for rods. They cannot feel that suttle tick tick of the blade vibrating and hence they will work the blade to hard. I can hand them one of my setups and the feel for what the blade is doing goes up, it is a learning curve no doubt. Dean Marshal and Eric Reiberg, were my tuttors and now I wil pitch blades year long with success, it is my go to search bait. Learn how to use them correctly and have fun.

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What is the correct or best rod set up? M, ML? What do you prefer?

medium light exra fast action rod with braid only. 6’6″ to 7 ft. length.

Blades will catch you limits when most guys just catch colds. BUT you needed to be rigged up right, be in the right place, work it just so and have plenty if patience (and plenty of blades- you’ll lose some)… but when you get it all figured out, what a riot!!!

Here is a really good thread with a lot of blade info! Pitching Blades

Once you have a feel for them, don’t hesitate in fishing shallow. 27-7/8 less than 5 fow yesterday in the monsoon rains.

Thanks for the help guys. Great link Randy. Going tomorrow and working on my shallow water blade fishing.

I’d like to throw a thank you in here too. I’ve never had any luck fishing blades.. but from reading the info randy posted I have been fishing them wrong. I have been fishing them like I see others fishing them, let to the bottom then a sharp jerk 2-3 feet up and let it fall back down and repeat. All the fish I have caught but two saugers were snagged.

If it stops raining soon I’ll go out and give the blades a try this afternoon.

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I’d like to throw a thank you in here too. I’ve never had any luck fishing blades.. but from reading the info randy posted I have been fishing them wrong. I have been fishing them like I see others fishing them, let to the bottom then a sharp jerk 2-3 feet up and let it fall back down and repeat. All the fish I have caught but two saugers were snagged.

If it stops raining soon I’ll go out and give the blades a try this afternoon.

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I wouldn’t necessarily say that you’ve been fishing them wrong so much as you were fishing them differently. (vertically)
This method does indeed work very well and technique also comes into play when fishing a blade vertically. Much more so than many people would have you believe. For good vertical blade fishermen, there’s a lot more to it than just jerking it up & down.

In the thread I put the link to, Dean made a comment about rod action that I think needs to be highlighted. Too soft of a rod WILL result in over working them. I picked up 6’3 Quantum Smoke and EXO 7′ rods in Medium /fast. I know guys on here are huge St. Criox fans so what ever may be the equivalent or close. The lightest, most sensitive rods (recommended with braid) will allow you to feel the most subtle vibration and allow you to work it very slow. I can feel the difference of a 1″ long piece of grass or weed on the blade. When I’m teaching guys blade fishing in my boat, I try to equate it to ice fishing. A 2′ “snap” of the rod can launch a blade 4-6 feet up in the column. Minnows don’t dart up 5 feet and fall straight down. Unless the fish are supre aggressive, you want the quiver in front of the nose and kept in the zone.

Don`t be fraid to change up your presentation. Last time I was on pool 5 they wanted a long pause with the blade laying on the bottom and would pick it up as soon as the blade started to come off the bottom. Where a normal blade bait bite is on the fall.

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Fast forward to some time in the 2000’s and, well I’m not sure who to give credit to.

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BK,

The original pitching blade master, the founder of blade pitching down at Everts is Jim Beaulieu.

Using blades vertically IMO is fairly simple, the ripping them up 3′ is usually a good way to snag stuff. But in my experience a quick snap of a little stiffer 6’6″ rod with braided line will send the bait up a foot or so and then keep your line tight on the way down. Most of the fish that try to eat the bait tend to hit it (IMO) seem to come on the way up after it slows just a bit from the initial snap of the rod. My guess is its more of a reaction strike the fish sees something that might be food zipping past them and they just try to eat it instinctively. It also seems to work better for me when the water has some color to it. However there are still a fair amount of snagged fish doing it this way but not as bad as ripping the crap out of the blade bait.

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Most of the fish that try to eat the bait tend to hit it (IMO) seem to come on the way up after it slows just a bit from the initial snap of the rod. My guess is its more of a reaction strike the fish sees something that might be food zipping past them and they just try to eat it instinctively.

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This is pretty much the opposite of what we’ve experienced. I would bet 90% of our fish come the split second before the bait hits the bottom. Thats also why you keep the slack out of the line, so you can feel the hit.

Ideally, I try to allow the blade to fall at the same speed as it would fall if no line were attached to it and at the same time, keep all the slack out of the line. Not easy to do without practice!

If you don’t keep the slack out of the line, the instant a fish sucks in the blade, they will also try to spit it back out. As you can imagine, a piece of metal with two treble hooks probably doesn’t feel anything at all like food and while it may have fooled them into hitting it, the second they actually touch it, they’ll know better.

If you don’t feel the hit, and the fish successfully spits the bait, you’ll never even know you had a hit. If one of the hooks catches on the way out of a fishes mouth, you feel the weight the next time you snap upward on the rod, hook the fish (usually) and the fights on.

The real trick is being able to detect those bites that most people miss, then training yourself to set the hook instantly, before the fish has a chance to change its mind.

Vertical jigging a blade bait correctly takes a lot of practice so that you burn it into your muscle memory. The advantage is, once you got it down, your catch rate goes up. Way up!