Short Arm Spinnerbaits for Slamming Tough Weeds and Grass

In the southwestern US desert lakes, dense ledges of underwater tumbleweeds constitute semi-permanent cover that endures for years, even decades.

Each tumbleweed has an odd round shape and averages 2-3 feet wide. They can get piled five or ten feet deep in windrows that are dozens of yards long. Or, there can be five or ten tumbleweeds locked together, forming isolated cover. They're terribly spiny. A tumbleweed is like a brillo pad, except there's a lot more space for stuff to hide inside its thorny haven. Small bait can crawl, swim or slip inside tumbleweeds easily, but bass can't go where the hiding bait can go. So deep in the inner sanctum of a tumbleweed is a safe haven. This is pretty much the same thing with dense grass beds of all kinds, that bait can slip deep into the inner recesses of the grass, where bass can't easily get at them. Of course, some grass species are stiffer or spinier than others, but no grass is as thorny as tumbleweeds (although spiny naiad is close). Nevertheless, the way to fish tumbleweeds - or tough grass - with spinnerbaits is the same, and short arms like these work best.

Cast, out, let the spinnerbait flutter down and make contact with the tumbleweeds (or grass). Sight the rod directly straight down the line without any angle or bend where the line comes off the rod tip, essentially fishing the line straight off the reel - "straight-lining" - a spinnerbait so it smashes across the tops of windrowed tumbleweed ledges. This is called "slamming" because the spinnerbait just slams the tumbleweeds hard, jarring loose all sorts of nymphs, fish fry and critters holed up in the protective tumbleweeds. Slamming actually knocks - or startles - so much food out of the tumbleweeds that it's almost a method to stir up a chum trail. It starts a food chain going as the slamming lure rips and rocks the tumbleweeds, knocking all kinds of critters loose. Bass go ape when that happens.

Inside the tumbleweeds (or grass), there is an ample, captive food source for them, but bass usually can't get at it.

So bass are ever-present on these tumbleweed ledges - but mostly must patiently bide their time.  They cannot go into the tumbleweeds which are like barbed wire. They watch and wait for an impaired or careless morsel to fall out or otherwise make a mistake and blunder out in the open.

So they have slim success getting at the food holed up in the tumbleweeds - until it crawls out on its own such as during a "hatch" when nymphs must emerge to metamorphose or during a species seasonal migration when they shift locations en masse - or whenever a straight-lined spinnerbait slams the food chain loose, that kickstarts the ever-present bass into instant active feeding mode.

Now just change the word tumbleweed to pads or coontail or other tough weeds - and you can do the same thing by straight-lining a spinnerbait. It will startle and flush all kinds of food out as it plows and slams through weedbeds.

Think of it this way, if you are snug as a bug laying in your cozy bed, or hanging out comfortably in your house or whatever safe shelter you're in or under, if it suddenly shook to the rafters, you'd probably run out of there in a panic. That's exactly what happens when a spinnerbait slams through a patch of tumbleweeds or tough grass, shaking the foundations, and stampeding everything out of there. Bass will not be far behind!

As the spinnerbait grabs in tumbleweeds or grass snags, you simply use the reel alone to winch it out of there. Don't snap the rod or move the rod to the side. Have the rod sighted straight down the line, and use the reel alone to winch it out of there. Never sweep the rod to the side, as you'll get solidly snagged if the rod moves to the side. Always keep the rod sighted straight down the line, which will help keep the spinnerbait wire and hook straight up. It's hard to imagine a spinnerbait getting stuck when it stays upright. That bent wire arm is a formidable snag-bumper guard - if it stays upright.

Using the reel to power-winch the spinnerbait loose really helps rearrange the furniture down there, and that's what upsets all kinds of critters who bolt, attracting bass. So you really don't want to use the rod to snap the spinnerbait out of there too quickly nor too easily. You really want to use the reel to wrestle the spinnerbait through the cover, making maximum mayhem moving the cover. But if you must snap or lift the rod tip as a last resort to break a spinnerbait loose, make sure to lift it straight up directly aligned with the fishing line. Needless to say, this requires a relatively stouter rod and heavier line than usually used with spinnerbaits. The wire used on these short arm spinnerbaits is heavy too. It's .040 diameter wire.

A single blade spinnerbait is best for this. A single blade comes through tough weeds better than a pair of blades because there aren't any components (beads, clevis, front blade, etc) on the wire arm to hang up. Without a front blade on the wire, the plain wire arm effectively only serves the purpose of a weedguard.

Nor do you want to use a second trailer hook while "slamming" the grass. A trailer hook will only foul and hang up.

When you straight-line winch a spinnerbait loose from one weed clump, you want to repeat the whole process on the next weed clump and the one after that, all the way through the weed bed. So make sure you constantly let the spinnerbait flutter down and constantly make contact with the weeds, just winching the weeds apart and knocking everything loose - until a nice bass belts you.

Heavy Wire Arm. Short arm is heavy .040 diameter wire.

Blade is 24K gold-plated finish.