VMC's Spindrift Hook

VMC's Spindrift Hook is a nightmare and headache preventer for the Midwest finesse anglers who like to affix a small soft-plastic bait affixed to a split-shot rig and stroll it with a Slow Death presentation. Not only does it solve the massive line-twisting woes that confound many Slow Death presentations, but it enhances all of the convoluting, undulating, and gyrations that are created when Midwest finesse anglers employ the Slow Death presentation with a short soft-plastic worm or stickbait.

Even though the Slow Death presentation has allured unending numbers of largemouth bass and smallmouth bass across the years, it has never been a popular tactic with black bass anglers.

But it has played a significant role in the walleye fishing world.

Dave Spaid of Pierre, South Dakota, who is a walleye angler and guide, is credited as being its creator, and he used it to win three South Dakota Governor's Cup Walleye Tournaments in the 1990s. And after Spaid showed Gary Parsons of Glidden, Wisconsin, how to employ it, Parsons used it to win several walleye tourneys. Since Spaid and Parsons' halcyon days with the Slow Death method, it has become a very popular summertime tactic for catching walleye in a variety of waterways in the northern states and central Canada.

On Sept. 11, 2011, we published an article entitled "The Virtues of the Kinky Worm and Other Cock-eyed Finesse Presentations," which detailed how a few Midwest finesse anglers created their Slow Death motif, which they employed to catch an impressive array of largemouth bass by affixing a twisted and kinky soft-plastic worm to a 1/32-ounce mushroom-style jig. To this day, the kinky-worm and other cock-eyed presentations continue to catch vast numbers of largemouth bass and smallmouth bass for the small handful of Midwest finesse anglers who use them.

But despite the innate ability of the kinky-worm and a Slow Death presentation to inveigle unending numbers of largemouth bass and smallmouth bass for the few anglers who employ it, the majority of finesse and power anglers who read about it shake their heads in disdain. These disdainers argue that the major problem with kinky worms, cock-eyed stickbaits, and Slow Death presentation is that an angler can't exactly replicate it for 25 or 50 or 100 or 1,000 casts in a row. And in their eyes, it is important to exactly replicate an effective or alluring presentation cast after cast after cast.

What's more, these disdainful anglers don't like the way it looks, and to their fastidious eyes, kinkiness and crookedness is disconcerting. And when they become disconcerted, it adversely affects the way they fish. Thus, it is unlikely that these disdainers will give the VMC's Spindrift Hook a whirl.

Before the advent of the Spindrift Hook, the black bass anglers who attempted to employ the Slow Death tactic often became so frustrated with a host of twisted-line woes that they swore they would never use it again.

But it should catch the fancy of the Midwest finesse anglers who are privy to the effectiveness of the Slow Death motif with a split-shot rig. And it might even provoke a renaissance of the split-shot rig, which has fallen into a state of disrepute with finesse anglers all across the nation.

The Spindrift Hook has what the folks at VMC call an "integrated swivel-to-hook system." A free-spinning stainless steel swivel is affixed to a black-nickel hook that is embellished with what VMC calls a "Technical Bend." The swivel and the bend in the shank of the hook allow a soft-plastic worm or stickbait to roll around and around and twist and turn like a corkscrew.

It is available in three sizes: No. 2, No. 1 and 1/0.

A package of six can be purchased for $3.39 at one online retailer and $3.99 at another online retailer.

Endnotes

(1) For more information about Gary Parsons' ways with the Slow Death rig, please examine this link: http://www.thenextbite.tv/articles/new-spin-rigging-walleyes-slow-death-rigging .

(2) Here is the link to the Sept. 11, 2011 article about cockeyed Midwest finesse presentations for catching largemouth bass: http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/of-the-kinky-worm-and-other-cock-eyed-finesse-presentations/ .

(3) Back in the 1980s, Tom Mann, Jr., of Clewiston, Florida, and a full-time guide and noted tournament angler, used a power-angler's rendition of a split-shot rig and  Slow Death routine. He worked with 10 to 17-pound-test monofilament line. Instead of a split shot, he used a barrel swivel that was attached about 14 inches above a 4/0 hook. He affixed a seven-inch Zoom Bait Company's worm onto the hook in a cattywampus manner. He primarily used three colors of this worm: white, pink, and orange. When he retrieved it, it darted and bobbed erratically. He said from one cast to another cast, he never knew which way the worm would bob and dart, but that did not prevent him from catching a multitude of largemouth bass and spotted bass on it — especially around shallow-water lairs in the spring. For more information about Mann's Slow Death methods, anglers can read Chris Altman's story entitled "Mercurochrome and Sore-mouthed Bass."

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