If you haven't noticed, fishing is changing and fishing with forward-facing sonar has become increasingly common and effective for many situations. Many different lures work great with this technology, but a minnow-style bait has become one of the primary weapons for fishing this way, especially for suspended fish. It's opened up a new world for fishing and baits like the Missile Baits Spunk Shad are perfect for fishing this way.
Missile owner and Bassmaster Elite Series pro John Crews has found great success with the bait in all three sizes.
The Hog Farmer and Missile Collab
Hog Farmer baits are known for their jigheads, umbrella rigs, and soft plastics like the Spunk Shad. They teamed up with Missile Baits, which allowed them to help distribute them to more places, which was a win for both companies.
"We're good friends with them and as good as their products are, they had a fairly limited distribution and we wanted to help," said Missile's John Crews. "We've helped get the Spunk Shad into many of the big box stores and to tackle shops internationally."
The Spunk Shad from both companies is the same mold and is offered in three sizes: 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 inches. The difference between the Missile and Hog Farmer version is the plastic formula, but it's an excellent bait either way. It's also versatile a great trailer for a vibrating jig or spinnerbait.
"It's become my go-to spinnerbait trailer because the pin tail design quivers perfectly every time the blades vibrate," he said. "For forward-facing sonar, I have used the smallest size on a jighead and the other sizes are great for the hover-strolling technique. All three sizes come into play with this new way of fishing".
Fishing the 3.5-inch Spunk Shad
According to Crews, the smallest of the three is ideal for a jighead. He has noticed that the bait's design makes it better than other minnow and fluke-style baits.
"One unique aspect of the Spunk Shad is the ribs, which you don't see often in a lot of baitfish-style soft plastics," he said. "The ribbed profile helps to displace water and slows the bait's fall more than something with a smooth side. With forward-facing sonar, this gives you more time as the bait falls and sits in the face of a bass longer."
Crews will fish this size Spunk Shad generally on a ¼-ounce ball head jig and fish it in slightly deeper water than the bigger versions. "For me, it's a better approach when fishing deeper water and you want a faster fall from your bait," he said. "The bigger Spunk Shads are when I'm fishing with a hover-stroll rig."
Hover Strolling the 4.5 and 5.5-inch Spunk Shad
There are many new techniques terms right now, including the name "hover strolling," which is essentially a rig that keeps the bait suspended in the water column. There are specialty jigheads on the market, like those from Core Tackle, or anglers can improvise with a 90-degree hook used for pouring jigs and adding a nail weight inside the head of the bait. The two biggest sizes of the Missile Spunk Shad are perfect for either rigging method.
"I prefer the hover strolling when I don't want the bait on the bottom, and I'm fishing the middle to the upper part of the water column," said Crews. "You can fish it with a slow and steady retrieve or pop it during the retrieve to get a more erratic action. It's great for suspended fish."
After experimenting with different retrieves, Crews has found the Spunk Shad rigged this way will do many other things.
"Sometimes I like to shake my rod and the bait will dart; I call it 'waddling' through the water as it goes back and forth," he said. "If you stop it, the bait, it will circle on its way down because of that rig and that's another great way to get one to bite."
Timing the bite
Initially, many anglers saw fishing these two rigs as specialties reserved for cold weather situations. Now, it can be successful any time of year and it works just about everywhere.
"It was first thought of just as something you did in clear water when it got cold out, but now it's an all-year situation," said Crews. "Even in dirty water, this a viable way to catch fish. We saw it last year at the Bassmaster Open on Buggs Island in Virginia; the water flooded the bushes. Conventional wisdom was to flip, but it was nearly won by anglers fishing with forward-facing sonar. There's no situation where this isn't viable."
Forward-facing sonar has continued to pick up steam and as anglers have learned to use it more effectively, baits like the Missile Baits Spunk Shad have continued to catch them. There isn't a wrong time to be fishing with this method, and it's proving that throughout the country and in all seasons.
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