FISHING LAKE EUFAULA WITH JACKIE THOMPSON
Fishing a Large Spinner Bait
 EDITOR'S
NOTE: My friend and longtime expert fisherman Jackie
Thompson of Eufaula, Alabama, has guided on Lake Eufaula
for 34 years. As a full-time guide, Jackie deals with
fishing all day, every day.
QUESTION: Why are crappie fishermen so important to
catching Jackie, I know you’re excited about a
discovery you’ve made recently about a new fishing
line. Can you tell us about that?
THOMPSON: I was already fishing what I believed to
be the best fishing line ever made, Stren, when I started
fishing Mossy Oak Fishing Line. I found it to be really
limp and very abrasive resistant. I fish in rough cover
on Lake Eufaula and have found that Mossy Oak Fishing
Line can take a rough beating. Too, this line doesn’t
have the memory that many other lines do.
QUESTION: Jackie, you fish one of the biggest spinner
baits on the market - the Ledgebuster, which weighs
1 – 2 ounces. What pound test line are you fishing
the Ledgebuster on, and how are you fishing it?
 THOMPSON:
I fish these big spinner baits on 20-pound-test line
with a heavy-action rod that has a little bit of tip
sensitivity. I need the tip action to cast the big hunk
of lead on the spinner bait a good distance behind the
boat. I’ll fish anywhere from a 1- to a 1-1/2-ounce
Ledgebuster spinner bait. Because Mossy Oak Fishing
Line doesn’t much stretch, I can feel the spinner
bait working the bottom of the lake and can actually
feel the big blades turning.
QUESTION: What kinds of places are you fishing that
big spinner bait?
THOMPSON: I fish it around ledges, humps and standing
timber on Lake Eufaula. That spinner bait comes through
a lot of structures, and the line that’s holding
it has to be tough enough to handle the abuse the line
will take. I need a line that will stand up when I get
a big, heavy fish on it that I have to fight out of
the cover. Mossy Oak delivers that line.
QUESTION: What time of year are you fishing the big
spinner bait?
 THOMPSON:
I primarily fish with a big spinner bait in the summer,
but I also use it in the winter. I like to use it when
a warm trend comes through because the bass will become
more active. I primarily fish the spinner bait from
late February through late September.
QUESTION: How are you fishing the spinner bait?
THOMPSON: I fish it several different ways. I cast
it out, let it go all the way to the bottom and then
reel it in slowly just off the bottom. Because the spinner
bait is so heavy, you can keep it in the strike zone
of the bass all the way to the boat without having an
arc in your retrieve. Too, if my boat’s positioned
in front of a big drop, I’ll use the big spinner
bait. I like to cast to the shallow side of the drop,
drop the spinner bait off the bottom and then when it
reaches the breakline, I’ll let it fall vertically
all the way to the bottom. When you drop this type of
bait into deep water, you tend to get a lot of strikes.
QUESTION: Jackie, How do you troll that big spinner
bait?
 THOMPSON:
I use a 2-ounce spinner bait for trolling, called the
Gorilla Spinner Bait. I fish from a 19-foot Ranger bass
boat with a 150 horse-power motor. At a slow idle speed,
a 150 motor trolls the spinner bait at just the right
speed. Most of the fish we catch using a big spinner
bait weigh from 4- to 10-pounds each.
If you want to learn more about Jackie Thompson or
fishing Lake Eufaula, you can contact Thompson at (334)
687-9595. For more information about top-quality Mossy
Oak Fishing Line, go to www.mossyoakfishingline.com.
TOMORROW: RIGS AND LEADERS
FOR SPOTTED BASS
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