I keep getting PM's about this, so here is an updated description with some subtleties added:

After casting, point rod toward fish, take up the slack and raise rod slightly and hold steady while cranking the reel at the same time. Crank from 3 to 6 turns. Keeping rod as still as you can helps you feel the bite. Raising the rod as you start gets the blade spinning immediately. If you don't get a fish after cranking the reel 6 turns, stop, release the line, and let the spinner free-fall back to the bottom, then take up the slack and crank it 3 to 6 turns again, repeating this all the way back to the boat. They strike it coming up from the bottom, so don't guess - make sure it gets back to bottom. The bite can be sharp but is usually soft or you feel something pecking at the bait. When you feel this raise the rod to set the hook. Try different speeds until you find what they want. The slowest speed to try is cranking barely fast enough to make the blade turn. If that speed is a 1 and burning it up is a 10, I usually crank it about a 3. Use that as starting point and vary up/down if needed. Try both holding the rod in front of you and reeling more vertically, and try holding the rod to the side down toward the water and dragging spinner more horizontally.

I usually use a #4 unless I know the pattern is smaller (#2) like it was in August and September. #4 is easier to fish because you don't need a weight added to the line, and you can feel the blade spinning easier. But back then they wouldn't touch a #4 but ate up a #2. When using a 2 or 3 I use a mash-on 1/4 oz lead weight up the line about 13 to 14 inches. This makes it heavy enough to cast with a casting reel and gets the bait to the bottom faster. I use Berkley Vanish 100% fluorocarbon 10 lb line, a Shimano Curado 5:1 reel and medium action 6 ft rod.

The Mepps to get is the Aglia, plain, silver. Retail stores like Walmart or Academy usually have only "dressed" Mepps if they have them at all. They will work just as well as plain if you cut off the the bucktail. I order mine online or use catalog from BassPro or Cabelas.

Good luck, Dennis



A #4 Mepps Plain Aglia Silver

Thanks Dennis for the description of your technique. Now all I need is to find the Mepps #4.

Karry

Thanks Dennis , now if i could just put this all to work maybe i could
catch a few, thanks again and keep up the good work,
Jerry R.

Sounds like most sassy shad techniques!!!!!!!!!!!!

Would you guys out there agree with me??????

Huh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Karry

Hey Dennis did you know Mepps will trade lures for squirrel tails? Might need to start carrying a pair of pruning snips and riding the city streets looking for the unlucky ones.

Sure wish I could get out and try it. Cant seem to get away. I sure need to retire and fish all the time.

Good stuff...thanks!

Rex

GWS147, I DO hope you make it to retirement. My Dad spent his adult life supporting my Mom, my 2 sisters and me and working extra jobs so I could be 1st in family to go to college. Then, when it came time for him to retire and enjoy well deserved recreation, he got cancer and died at 60. So, I am hoping he can see and enjoy the retirement he missed vicariously through me. I would urge you to appreciate and enjoy the blessings you have today - you have no gurantees in this life for the future. Dennis

there are some similarities, but a 4" sassy shad cuts down on the number of smaller
sand bass and yellow bass hook-ups.

Dennis has done a great job explaining his technique.

Dennis,

"After casting, point rod toward fish, take up the slack and raise rod slightly and hold steady while cranking the reel at the same time. Crank from 3 to 6 turns."

Does this mean you don't let it drop to the bottom on the initial cast?

Thanks..

"They strike it coming up from the bottom, so don't guess - make sure it gets back to bottom".

Amongst all my thousands of baits in the garage, I've actually found some Mepps inline spinners covered in dust, used to fish the Neuches River back in the day. Now I need to find an anchor, then when and if I come out of retirement will try. But I've got to find Game Warden Point.

Yes, absolutely, let it go to bottom - like Fastguy noted. Dennis

Dennis, thanks once again for some great information and taking the time to share it.

Thanks for the info Dennis. I will try it next time I'm out!

Dennis, great article. My first experience at Fun White Bass
fishing was also with an inline spinner fishing Spavinaw lake
in NE Okla. We used a lure called a humdinger which had a
white leadhead abt 3/8 oz with spinner blade and the rear end
of the spinner wire would unsnap to change a small white streaer.
Yep no depth sounders then, we located fish by trolling and
sighted surfacing fish but mostly on points, the only structure
that we knew was there. This was as a teenager back in the late
50's with my brother, Dad, and Grandad, I learned a lot from
those two. A couple years later A friend and I got our first
100 plus fish per day with the same method on Grand Lake.
Lots of fun then and it still is. Again thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing!!! A lot of great memories with loved ones out in the great ouitdoors! Dennis

Dennis,
Is the fishing as good without your lucky hat?

Could have used it Saturday but managed without it. Dennis

It's in my truck. I just turned in a bid for the City of Farmers Branch. We'll see how lucky it is.
I'll get it back to you.
Mike

Thanks Dennis
I appreciate you taking all of the time to write the article and post and answer the questions! Love all of the reports and old pictures of fishing.Not to mention the ones of the limits you seem to pull out all of the time ha ha.

Just a humble student of fishology .Thanks Johnathan

I have a lot more old pictures because up to the mid nineties we used to keep and clean all of our fish up to limits. So, we had something to take pictures of. Now we do 95% catch and release. The guides today keep a lot for their patrons and so DO have a lot of pics of large amounts of fish. I try to make it a point to take pictures nowdays every time we decide to keep and clean fish, so I'll have some more current pics. Dennis

Thanks Dennis. I read your most recent fishing report went to Mepps website order the cataloge. Then I went on the serach for the technique for inline spinners. I will definatly be purchasing mepps and tring this out many times!!

Thanks for TFF for creating a wonderful community for beginners to learn

Thanks Texcwby! Where do you fish? Do you have a boat and good depth finder? I haven't said much about this thus far, but to catch lots of white bass on the deep points and humps on big lakes where I fish, it is equally important to know how to use a good depth finder to locate concentrations of fish. I might do a post on that sometime, but really haven't back checked to see if that has already been done by one of the TFFers or on another web site about fishing. Dennis