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Saltwater Inline Spinning
By Sean Bekkers
Inline spinners are something that I remember as a kid some 20 years ago, with their outrageously bright colours and as a presentation for freshwater rather than the saltwater. Fast forward to 2019 and I had renewed interest in this presentation, mostly because there is some cool variations on this proven lure. I've been using them in the saltwater with great success and the spinner that I've been using is called a Bug from Mepps. Mepps have been around for years and years, in fact they produced the original inline spinner in France (where they are still made) and are renowned for manufacturing high quality spinners of all different shapes and sizes.
Although my go to presentation is a ZMan soft plastic, rigged on a TT Lures jighead, I like to have an out of the box presentation on hand just in case I need to mix it up. In a previous article I mentioned that I was throwing a small Mepps Bug #2 around the flats and the edges of the drop offs, where small bait fish get ambushed and it didn't take long to convince me that a spinner could be an effective saltwater lure.
Within a session or two I had caught a handful of bream, flathead and grunter, using a rather simple retrieve. Following a long cast to some productive looking ground, I kept a nice slow wind going, enough to keep the blade spinning and every now and then I added little pause. Both the grunter and bream loved a little pause, whereas the Flathead were happy to smash it on the constant retrieve. Following this small amount of success, I was pretty keen to try some other ground and see what other species were keen to hammer the Mepps Bug.
Like everything in fishing you really do need to match the hatch and when it came choosing a spinner I wanted one to represent a small baitfish like a hardy head, which can be found in large schools in my local estuary system. The Bug in the Olive colour has a slim small green body, representing a little bait fish nicely and with the gold blade giving off nice shimmer and vibration, it makes for a great presentation to nail fish.
For the next saltwater spin trick I decided to drift over some of the rubble patches that often hold good numbers of grassy sweetlip. Grassys, like all emperor species, pull really hard for their size and on light gear can be a lot of fun. The other thing that was in my favour here is that they love to eat hardy heads. I tend to work this spot when the tide is ripping in or out as the fish seem to bite harder and with more commitment. I was concerned early on that the Bug may get tangled with the current moving so hard, however as it turned out the spinner is nearly always tangle free.
Gravel Patch Session 1
I always add a little Pro-Cure Super Gel Scent to my artificial presentation and with some on the inside of the blade I opened the bail, letting the Bug sink to the bottom. Being a treble hook, I wasn't keen on hitting the gravel bottom. Instead I was guessing the how deep the lure was and it... well it never made it before a small snapper inhaled it and once getting it into the boat there was no mistaking the Bug was on the menu. The next few drifts went very much the same way with species like leatherjacket, grassys, snapper, bullseye and even a squid happily smashing the Mepps Bug.
When I eventually managed to get the Bug to the bottom, instead of just retrieving it up the water column I found just small movements, similar to that used when micro jigging, worked best and I was able to hold it in the strike zone for longer. By the time I finished my session I had landed a handful of Grassys over the 30cm mark using this technique and I had also left a few Mepps behind due to the unstoppables smashing them. I must admit that I was pretty stoked with this little session.
Gravel Patch Session 2
Following a hot little drop off session, that saw some jewfish and trevally landed on ZMan plastics, I decided to test the Mepps Bug again as a saltwater presentation, taking Justin and Kaitlin to drift the same rubble patch. Both of them opted to use the ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ in Motor Oil colour, which is the perfect bait presentation and a proven fish slayer. This provided the ultimate test and all my street cred was on the chopping block... lol.
As before, the tide was ripping and as we came over the rubble patch the lures were flicked out. It wasn't long before both Kaitlin and Justin were on a double hook up of grassy and snapper and for a few seconds I thought 'man, I'm not even going to look in'... tick, tick, tick, tick, BOOM the Bug got smashed! Just to let you know, all of us were using Pro-Cure so it was a level playing field. For the remainder of the session there was a steady stream of fish coming into the boat, including cod, grassy, snapper, whip fish and squid, just to name a few. Although I nailed all the species, including another squid on the Bug, Kaitlin still produced the fish of the day with a 51cm cod hammering the ZMan Slim SwimZ, which put up a heart in throat fight on her 1-3kg outfit.
Overall the Bug held its own against the fish slaying ZMan plastic and I am already planning on taking the Mepps outside, just to see what will hit them offshore. Unfortunately, between work and the weather, I haven't had the opportunity yet... so that's for another article.
Experimenting with different types of lures and presentation is one of the aspect of fishing that I really like as there is no hard and fast rules on what you can or can't do. So far I have managed to chalk up 10 different saltwater species on the Bug and I don't think it'll be long before I catch some other cool stuff on them. I'm happy to say that the Bug will remain a favourite for some time and if you haven't checked out the Mepps selection, jump on the tackletactics.com.au and have a look... there is some pretty funky spinners on there.
Screaming Drags, Sean
Gear Used:
Mepps Bug Olive Inline Spinner - #1 and #2
Okuma Cerros Spinning Rods
Okuma Helios Spinning Rods
Okuma Helios SX Spinning Reels
Okuma Epixor XT Spinning Reels
Platypus P8 Braid
ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ - Motor Oil & Midnight Oil colours
TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jigheads - 1/4oz 1/0 and 2/0