Quetico and the Boundary Waters Fishing

Jig spinners:
Jig spinners are sometimes called Beetle Spins, consist of a safety pin style stainless steel wire, blade and a jig to which you can add a grub or twister tail. They can be used with ordinary jig heads but I find they work much better with jigs that have oversized wide gap hooks. The 1/8 oz weight jig works best with the larger sized jig spinners. Jig spinners can be bought without the jigs attached in both gold and silver colors. Color is not very important in the jig head itself but the fish may show a definite preference for the blade color and/or the color of the grub or twister tail that is added to it. If you pay attention, the fish will eventually let you know what they want. Try to thread grubs and twister tails onto the jig with the curve in the tail facing straight down or up for the most natural action.

A good combination to start with is a large gold Colorado blade jig spinner, 1/8oz jig with oversized hook and a 3” white grub. This rig can be cast to likely looking shorelines that have a gradual slope with fist size to soccer ball sized rocks. A few bigger rocks mixed in also is good, and if there is a little weed growth present you have a hot spot. The rockier it is the more likely it will hold smallmouth bass. The weedier it is the more likely it will hold northern pike and bass.

The jig spinner is reasonably snag proof and can be retrieved fairly slowly over rocks and even wood without too much risk of snagging. Since it has only a single hook it is also easy to release the fish. Don't be afraid to throw it right to the shoreline in less than a foot of water but be prepared to chase down a few snags until you get comfortable with how it works. A trick for targeting walleyes is to toss it out into deep water, let it sink to the bottom and then “slow roll” it back to the canoe, retrieving it slow enough to maintain occasional contact with the bottom. After you catch a few large fish, you may have to bend jig spinners back into shape or replace a worn out grub. The beginners in my groups love this easy to use lure and catch some very impressive fish with it.