Well actually he wasn’t using a beetle spin in the traditional sense. We had removed the split tail body and placed a lime green rubber shade body on it. Worked like a charm, as always.

After about an hour I hear my son yell “Hey dad, what’s wrong with this fish?” I looked over and there is my son holding what seemed to be a largemouth bass head by the lip, but the fish had a skeleton for a body. It looked similar to something from a cartoon.

After further examination it seemed this largemouth bass at one time was more than likely around 3-4 libs easy, if not more. I base this on the size of his head. However the fish had swallowed a hook, which was caught in his thoat. The hook still had some line and a lead weight attached,, which hung about 2-3 inches out of his mouth.

The fish had been basically starving to death. My son decided to name him Skeletor since the rest of his body looked like nothing but bones covered with scaley skin. After examing skeletor the largemouth bass, I grabbed my clippers, reached down his big mouth and clipped the line as close to the hook as possible. There was no way to remove the hook as it was down in his throat with just the eye and part of the shank showing. We placed skeleto back in the water and watched him slowly swim away.

The likelyhood skeletor made it through the winter and lived long enough for the hook to rust and dissolve is very unlikely. He was so hungry at the time we cuaght him that, knowing he couldn’t swallow, he hit the beetle spin shad my son was throwing anyway.

That’s our story of Skeletor the Largemouth Bass.

For those not familiar with the beetle spin, it is usually on a 1/8 or 1/16 ounce small jig head. More traditional the jog head is baited with a soft split tail body. Various color assortments are available for the bodies and the jig heads. What really sets the beetle spin apart is the spinner. The spinner is a safety pin looking design that can be easily removed from the jig head so different colors can be fished without retying line. Spinners can be found in the traditional round type and some even come with small willow leaf blades.

I typically fish the beetle spin on a light spinning reel and rod using 4-6 pound test, but have went up to 10 pounds in thicker cover and lost very little action.

During the spring, the beetle spin can produce a pot-luck of fish. From smallies, largemouth bass, crappie and other pan fish, this little fish slayer can make a fisherman out of anyone. Even the larger bass can’t ignore this little morsel.

Keep in mind however that for the paper mouth of the crappie, a lighter line and tackle setup is preferred fishing the beetle spin so that the action and strikes are felt much easier. Fishing with lighter tackle is also more challenging and fun, especially when hooking bigger largemouth bass.
It seems to be most effective in spring, but this is an all season lure as well and very versatile. With the jig head and safety pin type spinner one can easily change bodies from the traditional split tail beetle spin to a small auger tail grub or fish body with tail action. All of the fore mentioned can be very effective depending on what the fish are hitting. That said the ease of changing out bodies makes it much easier and quicker to test what the fish are looking for as well, from color to body type.

Other advantages of the beetle spin are the hook on the jig head. The hook bends and reforms easy when hooked in thick cover like that you find when fishing for crappie. You can also remove the spinner and use the jig head and body like a normal jig.
However you use or present this bait, the beetle spin is a tremendous and fun tool for any fisherman to have in their arsenal.