When pressured bass won’t give your bait a second look, show ‘em something they’ve never seen before. Throw ‘em a Storm® Arashi® Spinbait. “Subtle differences can be key,” says six-time Bassmaster Classic contender, Brandon Palaniuk. “When this bait falls, it’s going to fall horizontal, and when it does that, it’s going to shimmy on the fall. And that triggers a lot of strikes. That draws a lot of fish.”
Although similar in appearance to a top-water prop bait, a Spinbait is a finesse offering you fish deep for suspending bass. And although suspending bass are notoriously hard to catch, Spinbaits command their attention like other lures can’t.
“We’re almost playing mind tricks with the fish,” says Palaniuk in this ibassindotcom video. “This bait [has] a really big profile that the fish can feel, but it comes in a really small package.”
That’s a function of the Spinbait’s unique, counter-rotating, 3-2 propeller design – three blades in front, two in back. “That actually creates a different turbulence in the water,” Palaniuk says. “So you actually get this little pulsating action. … That’s really important to get those fish that are just tracking, or following the bait, to actually trigger and react and eat the bait.”
After Palaniuk determines a depth at which fish are suspending, he makes long casts to the area and counts down his Spinbait to the strikezone. He then reels it very slowly through the school. “Literally as slow as you can reel the handle, these blades are going to spin,” he says. “So as soon as they touch the water, they’re going to start spinning – which is very important.”
Arashi Spinbaits measure 3 1/8 inches, weigh 1/3 oz. and comes in 10 fish-attracting color patterns: Hot Blue Shad, Bluegill, Blue Back Herring, Wakasagi, Ghost Hitch, Ghost Pearl Shad, Green Gill, Pro Blue, Black Silver Shad, Green Gold Shad.
Rotated hook hangers, a feature of all baits in the Arashi line-up, ensure that the Spinbait’s two sticky-sharp No. 6 Premium VMC® black-nickel treble hooks will grab fish and not let go. “I’m throwing this on light line and a light rod and reel, so it’s important to have a good set of hooks that will be able to drive into the fish’s mouth, but not too light where it’s going to bend out,” Palaniuk says. He throws Spinbaits on a medium-light action spinning rod with a reel spooled with 6-pound-test fluorocarbon line.