Spinnerbaits
72 bass vs. 87 bass in 2024
War Eagle (white/chartreuse), Stanley Vibra Shaft (blue glimmer)
Top Bass: 4-14 Lake Storey – October 12
Top 5 Weight: 16-3 (4-14,3-6,3-4,2-6,2-5)

Comments
It’s hard to believe that it is going on forty years since I landed my first bass on a spinnerbait. And how rewarding that 2025 saw me catch the largest spinnerbait bass of my fishing “career” on a lake that I’ve been fishing since I was a kid in the 1970s. That lake, Lake Storey, really came through in terms of spinnerbait success as those bass were right where they were supposed to be. My entire 2025 Top 5 Spinnerbait bass came from Lake Storey and tipped the scales at an impressive weight of 16-3. In contrast, the bass on The Canal have turned up their noses to my spinnerbait offerings that last couple years so I have had to shift gears on that water (more on that tomorrow).

October 12 – Top Spinnerbait Bass at 4-14 (20.5″) from Lake Storey

History
I caught my first ever spinnerbait bass in the mid-1980s and have been casting them consistently ever since. I’ve got a rough draft of a series of posts that detail that history but have yet to get it written. One “chapter” of that series would be a spinnerbait that I called the “Blue Glimmer” which was a top lure in the 1990s-2000s. It is long out of production, but I broke one out again in 2025. Risky business on Lake Storey as it has a population of toothy muskies. The Blue Glimmer caught eight bass in a couple of hours, just like old times, before it broke off on a hookset (muskie?). I refrained from any bad words, wiped my eyes, tied on a War Eagle model, and kept on casting (and catching).

Video
For today’s post, you get two clips. I do not have catch video of the 2025 Top Spinnerbait Bass as my GoPro was not running due to operator error. I do have the celebration and release footage, however. Perhaps that is for the best as the Top Bass came from a “secret” spot. I do have footage of my Blue Glimmer catches and have also included a clip of the final catch as well as the demise of the bait.

 

 

Last Cast
I rely heavily on a spinnerbait, and my current favorite is a War Eagle model that features an orange blade which I like in the stained waters of The Canal and Lake Storey. I don’t employ it much on most of my strip mine waters as other baits set up better in the clearer, and sometimes deeper, waters. I thought that I had at least one more Blue Glimmer stashed away but I have not been able to track it down. Perhaps it will turn up and make another appearance one of these days. If not, it was a great run, and the War Eagle is an effective replacement as it only comes up short in terms of sentimentality.

Final lure on the way tomorrow so talk to you later. Troy