Entry 263-5

Greg Hackney on His 2008 Bass Fishing and Strike King’s New Lures

Part 5: There’s a New Creature Living on The Bottom

Question: Greg, what is a Bottom Dweller?

Hackney: From the name of the bait, you’d think it was a creature bait, but the Bottom Dweller is Strike King’s new spinner bait. Strike King built its reputation on the spinner bait. Strike King has always had the best spinner baits on the market, but we’ve never had a spinner bait specifically designed to fish deep-water structure. Everyone knows the spinner bait produces numbers of big bass anywhere you’re fishing. However, getting a spinner bait down to deep ledges takes awhile, since most spinner baits on the market aren’t designed to fish deep ledges. Strike King has designed a spinner bait called the Bottom Dweller for that deep water. These baits come in 3/4- and 1-ounce sizes.

Question: What makes the Bottom Dweller a deep-structure spinner bait?

Hackney: The head design on the spinner bait has a tapered head to allow the spinner bait to reach the bottom fast. It also doesn’t have the lift that other spinner baits have. Most spinner baits on the market are designed to have lift. Lift is the element in the spinner bait that causes it to rise the faster you reel it. Therefore, if you’re reeling a conventional spinner bait in 25-foot-deep water, the whole time you’re reeling it, the spinner bait is lifting-up toward the surface, instead of staying on the bottom. Strike King has designed the Bottom Dweller, so that it doesn’t swim up as you’re retrieving it.

The other advantage of the Bottom Dweller is that it can be a shallow-water speed bait. Because it doesn’t have as much lift as other spinner baits, you can burn it (reel it quickly), and it won’t ride up to the top of the water or come out of the water. The head and the blade designs were developed to give the fisherman a spinner bait that he can fish very deep that will stay deep longer during the retrieve than most other spinner baits do. This spinner bait is designed to fish in 10- to 25-foot-deep water.

Question: How do you get the Bottom Dweller to go that deep?

Hackney: I get the Bottom Dweller to go deep by casting it out and letting it fall on a tight line instead of a slack line. The reason I keep a tight line is so that the blades don’t get tangled-up like they will if you let the bait fall on a flat line. If you throw the bait out on a slack line, the spinner bait will spin, catch your line and foul your line. Many times, a bass will take that spinner bait on the initial fall of the lure.

Question: So, you’re letting it fall on a tight line. Once it gets to the bottom what are you doing?

Hackney: I’m fishing it on a 5:1 ratio reel. I don’t want a fast-retrieve reel when I’m fishing this bait because it’s harder to keep the bait deep when you’re using a fast-retrieve reel. You almost want a bow in your line when you’re retrieving the bait to keep the bait down deep. You’ll want to feel the cover when you’re fishing the spinner bait. Those bass that are holding deep are holding on rock piles, around deep cover and on stumps and grass. You want to make sure the Bottom Dweller stays in contact with that cover. So, when I get the bait down, I want to retrieve it just fast enough to keep the blades current in that structure.

Question: What rod, reel and line are you using when you’re fishing the Bottom Dweller?

Hackney: I use a 5:1 PT Quantum Reel and 16-pound-test Gamma fluorocarbon line. I don’t like to get too big with my line because I can keep the bait down deeper with a lighter line. For the rod, I like 7-foot medium-heavy Quantum Superlight Rod. I like a long rod because I’m throwing that spinner bait a long way. When that fish bites deep, I want to be able to take up the slack in the line quickly with the long rod.

Question: When you’re fishing that deep with a spinner bait, how do you keep the bass from coming up from that deep water, throwing the spinner bait and getting off?

Hackney: This is why I use the 5:1 gear ratio Quantum reel. That’s about as fast as you can slow-roll that spinner bait. That reel is still fast enough that it can pick up a lot of line in a hurry, but it’s slow enough to work the spinner bait slowly across the bottom. One big advantage of the spinner bait over the crankbait is that you’re dealing with a single-hook lure instead of a multi-hook lure. Bass are less likely to throw single-hook lures than they are multi-hook lures.

When I see that line coming up, and I think the bass is going to jump, I’ll stick my rod as deep into the water as I can get it. Often, I’ll go up to the reel handle under the water. I’ll try to pull the bass sideways and change the direction in which it’s running. The reason for this is that we have a big piece of lead hanging in that bass’s mouth - either a 3/4-ounce or a 1-ounce lead head on the Bottom Dweller. I’ll try to keep the bass down and from jumping, if I can. When I get that bass close to the boat, I’ll keep the slack out of the line, but I’m not worried about the fish jumping. If I hook the bass far away from the boat, I’ll stick the rod in the water to the reel to keep the bass underwater instead of in the air.

Question: When you’re fishing 25- to 30-feet deep with the Bottom Dweller, what color do you like?

Hackney: Unless the water is gem clear, I like chartreuse and white. I don’t know how well white shows up in water that deep, but I know chartreuse can be seen by the bass.

Question: Are you using a trailer with the Bottom Dweller?

Hackney: Not when I’m fishing it deep, because the Strike King spinner baits come with the Perfect Skirt, which gives you that fish profile. Since the trailer has a tendency to float the spinner bait upward, I can keep the spinner bait down deep easier without using the trailer. Strike King has got some great new products this year, and we’ll all learn more about them as we fish them more and more.

Contents:

• Part 1: Even Babe Ruth Strikes Out
• Part 2: I’m Looking Forward to Monkeying Around
• Part 3: Catch The Wake
• Part 4: I’ll Have the Lobster
• Part 5: There’s a New Creature Living on The Bottom