Small lure can have big results with smallmouth

By Jack Spaulding, Shelbyville News, September 16, 1995

As the float plane touched down on Margot Lake, the sky had already turned a deep bluebird color behind the high pressure ridge that had poured over Northwest Ontario. The storm front was past, but the change of weather could make fishing for smallmouth bass a little slow.

As we unloaded our gear from the float plane, our fishing guide Chris Halley was optimistic, “Margot is always good for a few, eh?”

My wife and I could vouch for the smallmouth bass fishing on Margot Lake. We had fished the lake two years ago and had enjoyed some of the best bass fishing imaginable. With the location accessible only by float plane, we would have the lake to ourselves.

Standard tackle for these deep, clear water lake smallmouth is a 1/4th- or 3/8th-ounce black jighead dressed with a 3-inch black twistertail. Cast to the edge of the granite cliffs and jigged progressively deeper, these rigs usually produced bone-jarring strikes from the feisty smallmouth. Vertical jigging over the granite reefs and huge boulders which litter the bottom of the lake is also a proven and productive method.

Over the course of the morning, we caught and released 25 or 30 smallmouth bass ranging in size from scrappy quarter-pounders to several that went well past the 3-pound mark. Even with the bass hesitant and slow to hit, our morning’s catch would be considered fantastic by any angler.

The highlight of the morning was when our guide was fighting a 2-pound smallmouth bass back to the boat and said, “Look at this!”

Following and slashing at the fish was a 30-inch northern pike that was planning to make lunch of the bass.

As the bass neared the boat, the northern pike made a final turn and grabbed the bass sideways in its jaws.

Smiling from ear-to-ear, Chris Halley said, “Looks like smallmouth bass make good bait!”

As Halley tried to lift the smallmouth and it’s captor from the water, the northern dropped its intended lunch.

Unhooking and pitching the smallmouth a short distance to safety, Halley dropped his jig back over the side to the waiting northern pike.

As the fish slashed at the jig, Halley set the hook and began to fight the northern pike back to the boat.

Releasing the northern, he laughed and said, "Looks like that old pike got more than he bargained for.”

Deciding to spice things up, I clipped off the jighead and twistertail and began rummaging through my tackle box. Seeing my shuffling of equipment, Halley asked, “Switching to something different?”

“Yep. Think I’ll try a Beetle Spin. Would you like one?”

Grinning, but somewhat skeptical of my tiny lure, Chris said, “No thanks. I’ll stay with the jighead and twistertail.”

Tying on a quarter-ounce Beetle Spin in white with black stripes, I pitched the miniature spinner bait toward the shoreline and began my retrieve.

Nothing on the first cast.

Wanting to run the bit a little bit deeper, I added a medium-sized split shot about 10 inches in the front of the bait and cast it toward the bank.

As the tiny bait fluttered down through the crystal water, a bronze streak shot out from deep beneath a sunken pine tree and inhaled the bait.

Setting the hook, I began to work the fish back to the boat.
Another cast…another fish.
Another cast…another fish.