I prefer to cut one of the hooks off before I pinch the barbs down. If you look closely at your treble hooks, one of the hooks is welded on. That is the one I typically cut off. This way the two that are left are one solid piece.

David, I'm very glad those suggestions helped you out.

Although you have plenty of warm water season left to use that setup with the fast gear ratio, once the water drops back into the 60's, you'll likely find you'll want to slow down as much as you can AFTER you feel the spinner blade kick in and begin to spin. Eventually, once the water dips below 58F, the fish will get so reluctant to chase, that other presentations will outperform the MAL.

Until that time, it's "game on"!

Thank you for the feedback and for putting it in this forum so others can benefit from your experimentation.

As an all-catch-and-release operation, I applaud your use of the curved-tipped forceps for hook removal. That tool is easier on you, on the fish, and on your MAL Lure collection!

Happy Fourth!


--Bob

May15 must have really sucked.

I promise this will be my last comment on this thread, but wanted to share a funny story. I went out yesterday and found a few schools of active white bass. During one wave I was pulling them in the boat on almost every retrieve. At one point I bought in a fatty (probably a 15 incher) and when I got him in the boat he slipped off the hook and landed on the deck (most likely because of me going barbless now, no biggy). Anyway, it flipped, flopped, and splashed back in the water before I had the chance to grab it. Because I was using my LS and MAL Heavy I could see my lure going back down and noticed the fish that got away making its way back down too. My lure dropped down past the fish, I let it go down around another 15 feet below the fish, did a quick crank to get the lure spinning, and caught the same fish as the lure went past it on the way up. So yes I caught the same fish twice. Pretty dam funny...

Those lures work very well.

Another question, can i use lure to troll with like any other lure, or do i have to start it similar to dropping straight down? TIA

I'm sure you could troll with them if the fish were up higher in the water column but at that point you should be casting and catching them and not driving through them and spooking them. Bob Maindelle taught me to use very light or almost weightless lures such as pet spoons (#12 and #13's usually) on his downriggers so he can 100% control his presentation as it stays inline with the 10-12 pound cannon ball and not drift any lower as a heavier lure would do. In that situation the lure might be three feet below the cannon ball or something and hard to predict and control.

Bob seems to prefer some crank baits for "trolling" or "flat line trolling" or "tight line trolling" as I believe he calls it. This is when fish are in the upper 3rd of the water column where something like an 6-12 foot crank bait can effectively cover......so I'm not sure that he uses these MAL lures for actual trolling based on my trips and talks with him over the last few years. But I'm sure it could work but I just hate trolling and if the fish are that high up in the water column I'm nailing them from a stationary position but to each their own.