HOW TO EFFECTIVELY PRESENT ALEX JAMES' LOVERTAIL 2 WEEDLESS INLINE SPINNERBAIT
Here is a quick rundown on how we and our pro staffers setup and present our Lovertail 2 spinner for bass and pike.
ROD SETUP: ANY bass rod with a MEDIUM action or higher will work. I do not recommend buying a special rod just for this lure. Graphite baitcasting or spinning rods will work just fine. I do feel that the best rod for this is a fiberglass rod. My favorite rod that I use is the Skeet Reese S-Glass Crankbait Rod by Wright & McGill. They run around $65-90 online or at most Walmart stores. The weight of the lure is so perfect for a baitcaster setup that backlashes are extremely rare, if your braking system is set correctly. For inexperienced baitcasters, I recommend only using 50# braided line such as Power Pro. This casts farther than other line, casts smoother, is more sensitive, sets a hook better because of the zero-stretch, and backlashes the least. For tournament fisherman, use braid in stained water or around cover, or use a premium quality fluorocarbon in clear water. I like fluorocarbon better because I can get the lure to run deeper with its natural sinking characteristics. I would never go lighter than 17# fluorocarbon because we live in the land of the mighty Northern Pike. If your water is dominated with Pike, or Pike is what you are targeting, go with the braided line, or make very sure that you check for nicks in your fluorocarbon line after EVERY HIT from a fish!! Any nicks will require an immediate retie of your line!
REEL CHOICES: Once again, any will work. My choice is the 7:1 baitcaster, no doubt about it. Casts farther, fishes faster, covers more water than a spinning setup. Like I said before, this lure really works well with baitcasters. Backlashes are usually from too light of lures, requiring a lame brake setting. Spinners will work totally fine but are not my preference at all for heavy spinners. I use spinning rods for a #3-#4 Mepps style lure, our #4 Badboy, and all soft plastic applications
KNOT:: Very important! You don’t want to lose a $10 lure on the first cast from a weak knot (which has been common since we started selling this lure.) There are three knots I am happy with, but one I use as much as possible – the SAN DIEGO JAM KNOT. Look it up on YouTube, practice it, use it, dominate with it. If you use good line this knot is incredible! Make sure you wet the line before cinching the knot, or you will burn the line and weaken it terribly!!! The other two knots I do like is the tri-knot, or for drop shotting – the Palomar Knot. For the Lovertail 2 – use the San Diego Jam Knot!!
TARGETS:
WOOD COVER: Throw this lure INTO the edges of laydowns and brushpiles. Try to nick the tree trunk or limbs with the lure. This creates a reaction strike. Throw this into cover, and your texposed hook will not snag, unless you nail a bunch of twigs and bump it enough times that the hook point pops out of the Kalin Grub trailer. Get as close as you can to the cover, with occasional nicks, and you will catch a lot more fish than others. An occasional snag is worthwhile, if you end up pulling more fish, or some giants out that are not in the chasing mood.
WEEDS: This lure does an awesome job running through weeds. It is very weedless in most vegetation, the only exception is an area covered with heavy green slime. The slimy weeds will wrap around your clevis and kill all action of the spinner blade. Open pockets in weeds are prime target areas, and inside of lily pads are another great place. In rivers, target grass and run through grass edges, points, and pockets whenever possible. Also eddies behind boulders would be a great place to run the Lovertail 2.
RETRIEVE METHOD: Cast PAST your target. In clear water, cast WAY PAST your target. Retrieve in a slow steady matter, and on occasion completely stop, let the lure dive down a ways, then resume reeling. Also throw an occasional snap of the rod tip in your retrieve, to look like a small school of baitfish changing directions out of instinct. In situations where the bass are not in the shallows, it would be a great idea to count to 10 after your cast, before you start reeling. Then reel very slow, occasionally feeling the lure bump bottom here and there. This will drive some giant fish wild if you run into a few. You are giving them something they never see, in a place that is commonly overlooked. Be sure to cast this lure over shallow sunken islands, rock reefs, and offshore ledges.
COLOR CHOICES: Priority #1 in our view is to always try and match the local forage! Our hottest seller and hottest fish catcher is the BULL BLUEGILL pattern. The reason why? A bluegill is probably the most common forage in almost all man-made and natural Wisconsin lakes! Our BULL BLUEGILL imitates a male bluegill in the spawning season, very natural colors, and that awesome bright orange belly they get. The bright orange looks natural in all water clarity levels, and is a fantastic choice even in stained waters because it looks similar to firetiger. Our Pro Staffer and KBF Tournament angler Tyler Theide has caught some Wisconsin giants on this color and has posted the catches on YouTube for you all to enjoy! If the sun hides and the cloud cover gets heavy, you have two recommended options – WHITE CRAPPIE or FIRETIGER! WHITE CRAPPIE imitates crappies, shiners, shad, ciscoes, etc. Firetiger imitates bluegills, but with its painted blade, its more visable to the fish in these cloudy conditions. In clear water conditions, you want mellow natural colors. If black crappies are your forage, go with our DISCO MAGIC or SMOKEY SHAD. They are subtle with darker colors. DISCO MAGIC is a great imitator of a black crappie, smokey shad looks like a white crappie, shiner, or shad that is bleeding. Not near as obnoxious as our WHITE CRAPPIE color. Another successful color in lightly stained fairly clear water would be our purple/black skirt called JUNEBUG. It’s the Rogalski Family’s secret weapon. Oops, the secret is OUT!
TOUGH CONDITIONS/POOR BITE: If you are experiencing a poor day of fishing with the Lovertail 2, I would suggest changing colors to something more subtle. Put the chartreuse/bright skirt models away and switch to the DISCO MAGIC or JUNEBUG colors. Another thing I would do is add some JB's Fish Sauce to the lure. The easiest way would be to use their stick application, its similar to a chap-stick style application. Baitfish would be my personal choice, since that is what you are imitating. If you are in an area where you know fish are present, and they wont commit to the subtle colors or the scent attractions, switch to our #4 BAD BOY lure. It is a much more compact version of the Lovertail 2. Much more finesse, much less spooking will happen. If that fails, try a plastic jerk shad in the weeds, or a BASS JERKER suspending jerkbait if you are not in the weeds. Maybe a vibrating jig such as our Flappin Jig, a Chatterbait, or the Molix Lover will get the reaction bite that you are looking for. If all of these fail, it might be a good time to head back to the camp and cook a deer leg over the fire for supper. Take time to regroup, then try every lure in your tackle box, at all different depths and types of cover, until you solve the puzzle.
Any further guidance or questions regarding the Lovertail 2 or any of our other lures, feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thanks for checking out our lures and our website, and please send us your fish catch pictures so we can share them on social media!!!! If you would like to be taught personally by the masters of fishing this lure, contact Tyler and Chang at www.smallcraftoutfitters.com and book a guided trip in a premium kayak! Have fun fishing, and best of luck!!!
Jesse James
ROD SETUP: ANY bass rod with a MEDIUM action or higher will work. I do not recommend buying a special rod just for this lure. Graphite baitcasting or spinning rods will work just fine. I do feel that the best rod for this is a fiberglass rod. My favorite rod that I use is the Skeet Reese S-Glass Crankbait Rod by Wright & McGill. They run around $65-90 online or at most Walmart stores. The weight of the lure is so perfect for a baitcaster setup that backlashes are extremely rare, if your braking system is set correctly. For inexperienced baitcasters, I recommend only using 50# braided line such as Power Pro. This casts farther than other line, casts smoother, is more sensitive, sets a hook better because of the zero-stretch, and backlashes the least. For tournament fisherman, use braid in stained water or around cover, or use a premium quality fluorocarbon in clear water. I like fluorocarbon better because I can get the lure to run deeper with its natural sinking characteristics. I would never go lighter than 17# fluorocarbon because we live in the land of the mighty Northern Pike. If your water is dominated with Pike, or Pike is what you are targeting, go with the braided line, or make very sure that you check for nicks in your fluorocarbon line after EVERY HIT from a fish!! Any nicks will require an immediate retie of your line!
REEL CHOICES: Once again, any will work. My choice is the 7:1 baitcaster, no doubt about it. Casts farther, fishes faster, covers more water than a spinning setup. Like I said before, this lure really works well with baitcasters. Backlashes are usually from too light of lures, requiring a lame brake setting. Spinners will work totally fine but are not my preference at all for heavy spinners. I use spinning rods for a #3-#4 Mepps style lure, our #4 Badboy, and all soft plastic applications
KNOT:: Very important! You don’t want to lose a $10 lure on the first cast from a weak knot (which has been common since we started selling this lure.) There are three knots I am happy with, but one I use as much as possible – the SAN DIEGO JAM KNOT. Look it up on YouTube, practice it, use it, dominate with it. If you use good line this knot is incredible! Make sure you wet the line before cinching the knot, or you will burn the line and weaken it terribly!!! The other two knots I do like is the tri-knot, or for drop shotting – the Palomar Knot. For the Lovertail 2 – use the San Diego Jam Knot!!
TARGETS:
WOOD COVER: Throw this lure INTO the edges of laydowns and brushpiles. Try to nick the tree trunk or limbs with the lure. This creates a reaction strike. Throw this into cover, and your texposed hook will not snag, unless you nail a bunch of twigs and bump it enough times that the hook point pops out of the Kalin Grub trailer. Get as close as you can to the cover, with occasional nicks, and you will catch a lot more fish than others. An occasional snag is worthwhile, if you end up pulling more fish, or some giants out that are not in the chasing mood.
WEEDS: This lure does an awesome job running through weeds. It is very weedless in most vegetation, the only exception is an area covered with heavy green slime. The slimy weeds will wrap around your clevis and kill all action of the spinner blade. Open pockets in weeds are prime target areas, and inside of lily pads are another great place. In rivers, target grass and run through grass edges, points, and pockets whenever possible. Also eddies behind boulders would be a great place to run the Lovertail 2.
RETRIEVE METHOD: Cast PAST your target. In clear water, cast WAY PAST your target. Retrieve in a slow steady matter, and on occasion completely stop, let the lure dive down a ways, then resume reeling. Also throw an occasional snap of the rod tip in your retrieve, to look like a small school of baitfish changing directions out of instinct. In situations where the bass are not in the shallows, it would be a great idea to count to 10 after your cast, before you start reeling. Then reel very slow, occasionally feeling the lure bump bottom here and there. This will drive some giant fish wild if you run into a few. You are giving them something they never see, in a place that is commonly overlooked. Be sure to cast this lure over shallow sunken islands, rock reefs, and offshore ledges.
COLOR CHOICES: Priority #1 in our view is to always try and match the local forage! Our hottest seller and hottest fish catcher is the BULL BLUEGILL pattern. The reason why? A bluegill is probably the most common forage in almost all man-made and natural Wisconsin lakes! Our BULL BLUEGILL imitates a male bluegill in the spawning season, very natural colors, and that awesome bright orange belly they get. The bright orange looks natural in all water clarity levels, and is a fantastic choice even in stained waters because it looks similar to firetiger. Our Pro Staffer and KBF Tournament angler Tyler Theide has caught some Wisconsin giants on this color and has posted the catches on YouTube for you all to enjoy! If the sun hides and the cloud cover gets heavy, you have two recommended options – WHITE CRAPPIE or FIRETIGER! WHITE CRAPPIE imitates crappies, shiners, shad, ciscoes, etc. Firetiger imitates bluegills, but with its painted blade, its more visable to the fish in these cloudy conditions. In clear water conditions, you want mellow natural colors. If black crappies are your forage, go with our DISCO MAGIC or SMOKEY SHAD. They are subtle with darker colors. DISCO MAGIC is a great imitator of a black crappie, smokey shad looks like a white crappie, shiner, or shad that is bleeding. Not near as obnoxious as our WHITE CRAPPIE color. Another successful color in lightly stained fairly clear water would be our purple/black skirt called JUNEBUG. It’s the Rogalski Family’s secret weapon. Oops, the secret is OUT!
TOUGH CONDITIONS/POOR BITE: If you are experiencing a poor day of fishing with the Lovertail 2, I would suggest changing colors to something more subtle. Put the chartreuse/bright skirt models away and switch to the DISCO MAGIC or JUNEBUG colors. Another thing I would do is add some JB's Fish Sauce to the lure. The easiest way would be to use their stick application, its similar to a chap-stick style application. Baitfish would be my personal choice, since that is what you are imitating. If you are in an area where you know fish are present, and they wont commit to the subtle colors or the scent attractions, switch to our #4 BAD BOY lure. It is a much more compact version of the Lovertail 2. Much more finesse, much less spooking will happen. If that fails, try a plastic jerk shad in the weeds, or a BASS JERKER suspending jerkbait if you are not in the weeds. Maybe a vibrating jig such as our Flappin Jig, a Chatterbait, or the Molix Lover will get the reaction bite that you are looking for. If all of these fail, it might be a good time to head back to the camp and cook a deer leg over the fire for supper. Take time to regroup, then try every lure in your tackle box, at all different depths and types of cover, until you solve the puzzle.
Any further guidance or questions regarding the Lovertail 2 or any of our other lures, feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thanks for checking out our lures and our website, and please send us your fish catch pictures so we can share them on social media!!!! If you would like to be taught personally by the masters of fishing this lure, contact Tyler and Chang at www.smallcraftoutfitters.com and book a guided trip in a premium kayak! Have fun fishing, and best of luck!!!
Jesse James
