Big Daddye's Willow Wobbler (Guest Review)
by John McKean

Catch and release is a way of smallie fishing life for me and most of our members. Yet, back in the sixties an eyepopping string of giant smallmouth literally changed my life and helped get me into this fascinating sport. It was on New York's Lake Chautauqua at the beginning of bass season when a group of three anglers stopped for gas and supplies at the small resort at which I was vacationing.They placed a frighteningly heavy triple-limit stringer into the water at the dock, all smallies, none of which were less than 20 inches! All three had medium-size Abu-reflex spinners on their lines and said fishing was always this easy in early season -- just cast such spinners around the lily pads in the lake's shallow bays. It's fortunate that not many guys fished for or kept smallmouth on this famed muskie lake (big smallmouth are still there in big numbers!) and it's a wonder I didn't become a life-long spinnerbait man!

Oh, sure, I've done my share of spinner fishing, both with straight shaft models and with overhead blades, but never seemed to get much personal fulfillment out of this work. Particularly in streams and rivers, spinners seemed to give me trouble: they snagged a lot, many were too heavy for the very slow presentations which I came to favor through jigging, they snagged a lot, they didn't allow natural presentations while deaddrifting in currents, they snagged a lot, they weren't too good with my favored dropping technique, and, did I mention -- they snagged a lot! Yes, I caught a lot of fish with various spinners over the years when my finny competitors were active, but usually had better luck with more subtle presentations.

These days, and for the past 30 years, most of my smallmouth (or any fish) work revolves around small or ultralight jigs. While I've experimented with attaching overhead spinner arms on my leadheads at times, this approach still seems to stifle my own particular nuances for swimming-twitching-dropping a lightweight jig. Enter my new friend, Mel Eaton from Snohomish, Washington. Mel, who runs Big Daddye.com, is also a small jig fanatic and has created a special jig attachment which not only resists stifling any jig presentation, but actually ENHANCES it!

Mel calls his little blade a "willow wobbler." As the name suggests, it is a willow leaf spin blade of about 1 1/4" length (he has three sizes) with a swivel on one end and a snap on the other. It's attachable to any size jig hookeye, providing flash up front and a slight twitching spasm on the retreive. In particular, during a slow downward drop, arguably the jig's most effective motion, the little blade flickers seductively and actually shakes the tailfeathers (whether they be marabou, bucktail, or plastic) into action. The total effect is that of a slightly struggling, helpless wounded critter; something I've always had to agonize over in trying to achieve, but now is essentially done for me!

A neat thing about the willow wobbler is that this extra little bit of hardware gives casting weight to even a tiny jig or weightless fly with light spinning gear. Just last evening I spent a few hours at an extremely hard-fished local pool. It was Easter Sunday and tremendous weather in a trout stocked area near Pittsburgh, PA and it was really hammered before I arrived. I used Mel's willow attachment and a 1/50 oz. jig tied in sparse flashabou. The tiny bait easily sailed the length of this hole and woke even these well spooked fish right up -- got three bass, several nice crappies, and scads of bluegill and sunfish. I also discovered that the up front, flat blade actually helped slide my single hook jig right up and over rocks and logs -- look ma, no more snags! Only warning is that those used to tackling giant smallies may not be used to the constant fish activity generated by these nifty little rigs!

Additionally, Mel's small company www.bigdaddye.com offers some of the niftiest ties I've seen in hackle and bucktail patterns, as well as other spin blades. Be sure to check out his site and see what he can add to your jig fishing this season!!