How to Hitch a Trailer to Your BaitBy Russ
Bassdozer
What not to trailer-ize.
If it's okay with you, I'd like to kick off this article in a
round-about manner. Let's identify what not to trailer-ize first,
okay? This doesn't mean that you can't lace trailers onto the
following baits, just that it isn't normally done. So here goes.
Trailers are hardly ever used on lipped or lipless crankbaits or
on hard jerkbaits. Soft plastic lure bodies (worms, grubs,
spiders, craws, lizards, tubes, shads, soft stickbaits) are used
on jigheads, Texas rig in cover, Carolina rig on structure, or
weightless on or near the surface. No one I know puts extra
trailers on soft plastics, do you? Jigging spoons, blade baits
and tail spinners typically go deep, cold and unadorned. Hard
topwaters - poppers, walk-the-dogs, and twitching minnows - do
work well with sparse hackle trailers on their tail trebles. You
can get more info about this by listening in to Topwater Talk.
Hitch your wagons.
But when we talk about trailers in this article, what we are
going to give you are suggestions for trailers to hitch up to
your weedless bass jigs. By default, we will also easily cover
suggestions for spinnerbait and buzzbait trailers too! Why is
this so? Well, bass jigs, spinnerbaits and buzzbaits are just
three specialized forms of the same basic lure. All three feature
a lead jig head, an upright single hook, and a rubber or silicone
multi-strand skirt. Their specialized uses in bass fishing are as
follows:
- First, the weedless bass jig is the specialized
bottom-probing form of this lure, often used in thick cover. This
form sports a fiberguard hook protector to remain weedless and
snagless on bottom or in cover.
- Second, a buzzbait is a specialized topwater form. It is
nothing more than a bass jig that has a bubbly pinwheel propeller
wired onto it that keeps it planing on the surface.
- And of course, a spinnerbait is simply a midwater form of a
bass jig. It is used from just under the surface, to just over
the bottom - and everywhere in between. I liken a spinnerbait to
a "punk rock" version of a jig. It's just your standard
jig with a wire-pierced nose, and an earring or two dangling over
its head!
For a basic discussion of jig trailers therefore, we can
easily apply the following suggestions not just to jigs, but to
spinnerbaits and buzzbaits too. Ready? Let's go. Don't trail
behind now. READ MORE
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