Blade bait
A thin, heavy metal lure with treble hooks, fished by lifting it sharply off the bottom and letting it flutter back down.
A blade bait is a flat stamped piece of metal weighted at the nose. It has no action on a steady retrieve at all. Everything happens on the vertical lift: snap the rod up a foot and the blade vibrates hard, then flutters back down on a slack line.
It is a cold-water tool, most useful in late fall through winter when fish are stacked on deep structure and moving as little as possible. The bite almost always comes on the fall, which means you feel it as a tick or as weight when you go to lift again.
Blade baits are cheap, they sink fast, and they hang up on everything, which is a fair summary of why they are effective and why people ration them.
Keep contact with the line on the drop. A completely slack line means you will not feel the bite that is coming.
Related terms
Where this comes up
The guides that use blade bait and show it on real gear.
Blade bait is one of 206 terms in the glossary.
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