HOW TO CATCH SMALLMOUTH NOW WITH ROGER STEGALL
 The
Truth About the Quad Shad Spinner Bait
Editor’s Note: Longtime pro fisherman Roger Stegall
of Iuka, Mississippi, has guided fishermen on Pickwick
Lake on the Alabama/Mississippi/Tennessee border for
over 17 years. Here's some of his tactics for catching
big smallmouth during the month of November.
I keep a Strike King Quad Shad spinner bait tied on
one of my rods throughout the fall when I'm fishing
for smallmouths. When the Quad Shad first came out,
I thought that it was more of a gimmick bait than a
lure that would actually catch fish. Just think about
that lure - four blades on a spinner bait wire. No one
had ever seen a spinner bait that looked like this before,
no one had  ever
considered having that much flash and that many blades
on a spinner bait, and the Quad Shad was totally different
from any other type of spinner bait we'd ever seen in
the past. So initially I just wasn't impressed with
it very much at all.
But I decided I'd try and fish this goofy-looking spinner
bait on a guide trip the first year of its introduction.
I was fishing in the fall and started catching some
really nice-sized smallmouth fishing the Quad Shad around
grass. Three days later at a tournament on Pickwick
Lake, I was fairly sure no one else would be throwing
a spinner bait like this. So, I decided to use the Quad
Shad because I'd built confidence in it on that guide
trip. I went right back to the bank where I'd caught
those smallmouths and largemouths on the Quad Shad three
days earlier. But one of my buddies had already gotten
to that bank and was fishing it  with
a Diamond Shad. I decided to go ahead and fish behind
him with the Quad Shad. The first five bass I caught
weighed a total of 15 pounds with three of the bass
smallmouths and two of the bass largemouths.
That same fall I fished a BASS tournament where I caught
a smallmouth that weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces and missed
winning the lunker-of-the-tournament award by 1 ounce.
Since then, I've caught a boatload of smallmouths that
weigh 5 to 7 pounds fishing the Quad Shad. I retrieve
the bait usually about 2 feet under the water or just
barely out of sight. I fish the  Quad
Shad on a cranking reel and 12-pound-test clear line.
I like the silver blades with the silver-and-white skirt.
I particularly like the titanium wire model of the Quad
Shad because the titanium will bounce back and keep
its shape. If you don't use that titanium wire, the
smallmouth can tear up your spinner bait they attack
so savagely. I fish this bait around stumps, logs and
shallow flats, and it's extremely deadly when you're
fishing over shallow grass. You can fish this Quad Shad
spinner bait anywhere you fish other lures for smallmouths,
and it will really produce for you. These are my favorite
smallmouth tactics and lures. I believe that if you
will try them this month, they'll produce more smallmouths
for you.
To learn more about fishing below the
dam at Pickwick, contact the Hardin County Convention
and Visitor’s Bureau at info@tourhardincounty.org,
call 731-925-8181 or 800-552-3866, or visit www.tourhardincounty.org.
Pickwick Landing State Park offers fishing, boating,
hiking, camping, swimming and golf. Lodging includes
the lakeside inn with over 100 rooms, cabins that sleep
eight and a campground that contains 48 sites with grill
and electric/water hookup at each site. A restaurant
at the park offers delicious southern cuisine. Call
731-689-3135 or 800-250-8615 to learn more.
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