This bait for white bass and hybrid stripers was specifically developed for topwater fishing when they are "boiling" AND feeding on small, young-of-the-year shad, as well as for fishing (when "rigged") horizontally using the sawtooth method. This bait is especially effective June through late September before the newly spawned shad grow out to dimensions exceeding the size of this lure.

The lure weighs approximately 7 grams or 0.25 ounces. Measures 1 5/8 inches from top of blade to bend of hook (not including shaft protrusion to the line tie.

To compensate for the lure’s light weight, I have rigged the MAL Mini with a ¾ ounce weight and placed the MAL Mini approximately 20” behind this weight on a 25-pound test fluorocarbon leader terminated with a Power Clip for easy lure changeout and/or removal.

You won't find this white bass/hybrid striper-specific version anywhere else on the web or in stores. This is a custom lure developed through cooperation with Mepps. The hook size, hook dressing, tail color, blade size, and hook attachment method are all specifically geared toward white bass and hybrid striped bass. Rig it behind a weight and ast and quickly retrieve for topwater action or fish it by casting horizontally and retrieving it back "sawtooth-style". With a price to match Mepps' online pricing for the non-customized version, there is no reason to look elsewhere. Guide-designed, guide-tested, guide-approved!!

• CATCHES STUBBORN SUMMERTIME FISH
• IMITATES SMALL, YOUNG-OF-THE-YEAR SHAD
• GREAT, LONG-CASTING TOPWATER BAIT
• WORK IT BACK IN A "SAWTOOTH PATTERN" HORIZONTALLY FOR BOTTOM-HUGGING FISH IN ANY DEPTH OF WATER

TECHNICAL DATA:

My favorite pairing for this incredibly effective bait is to use Sufix 832 Advanced Superline (a braid) in 10 or 15 pound test, attached to a 3/4 ounce lead slab blank, which is then attached to a ~24-inch fluorocarbon leader in 25-pound test.

I use a Dobyns Champion XP, 7’3", 1-piece spinning rod (DC732SF) with a Shimano NASCI 1000 spinning reel (5.2:1 gear ratio and 26" uptake per handle turn).

This bait excels in two applications: 1) the horizontal "sawtooth method", and 2) sight casting to topwater fish. In both cases a fast retrieve is best. For topwater fish, keeping the rod tip low to the water and reeling just fast enough to keep the bait from skipping out of the water is the key to success.

The sawtooth method involves retrieving the MAL Lure back to the boat horizontally for just 8-9 cranks at at time after making a long cast and allowing the lure to sink to the bottom. After 8-9 cranks, open your bail or hit your freespool button and let the lure settle to bottom once again. Do this all the way back to the boat. The lift-dropping action resembles a saw-tooth pattern. This tactic can be used from a Spot-Lock position, or casting downwind while drifting. Do not cast upwind while drifting.

Here are the specifics: After casting the lure long, leave the spinning reel's bail open so the lure sinks quickly and straight down. Once the lure settles on the bottom, close the bail by hand (this will prevent problematic loops from forming in braided line). Next, turn the handle to take up any slack and, once the line is taut, reel 8-9 cranks, thus bringing the bait off the bottom at an angle, headed back toward the boat.

Once those 8-9 handle cranks are done, manually open the bail again, allowing the lure to return to the bottom. Repeat the cranking and bail opening process until the lure is nearly vertical beneath the boat.

In both tactics, starting the retrieve with a single, hard, fast turn of the reel’s handle is essential to getting the spinner’s blade turning.

CASTING CORRECTLY - Correctly casting this rig will eliminate avoidable tangles. This rig is best used with a baitcaster using a slow lob-style cast. If using spinning gear, use a slow, lobbing motion and use your free hand to form a cup over the reel’s spool as the line is going out to slowly brake the rig to a stop. This will cause the lighter spinner to stay in front of the heavier weight throughout the cast.

THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGINAL MAL LURE:

Available only through Holding the Line Guide Service, Liberty Mart (Belton, TX), Gatesville Outdoor Adventures (Gatesville, TX) and Wooded Acres Tackle (Richland-Chambers Reservoir, TX)

My love affair with white bass and hybrid stripers began during my senior year in high school. My dad, a Vietnam-era Army officer, got orders to Fort McPherson, near Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of my junior year of high school in Liverpool, New York.

From our home in Jonesboro, Georgia, I trailered our 14-foot aluminum V-hull with a 9.9 horsepower Evinrude outboard down I-85 to West Point Lake, an impoundment on the Chattahoochee River, right on the Georgia-Alabama border, near LaGrange, Georgia.

One evening, while fishing near a shoal (that’s Georgian for hump), a mixed school of white bass and hybrid striped bass forced a school of shad to the surface and began feeding on them violently. The fish were aggressive, the shad were jumping out of the water trying to escape, my topwater lure was repeatedly annihilated, and, when it was all over, one of the most memorable fishing moments of my life was seared into my brain.

Since that night on the Chattahoochee, I have pursued white bass, hybrid stripers, and striped bass every chance I get.

In 2006, I began guiding for white bass and hybrid striped bass professionally, after pursuing them on Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir in Central Texas for the previous 14 years.

Take a look in any tackle catalog and you will quickly see there are not a lot of lures, nor tackle, designed specifically for whites and hybrid. Many of the lures I rely on day-in and day-out I either make myself or modify from commercially available versions.

Barring flooding, I believe June and July are the two most difficult months of fishing for whites and hybrids all year. Downrigging in the summer is always productive in and of itself, but, some folks don’t care for trolling. Downrigging allows me to effectively cover water while watching my sonar like a hawk for signs of congregated whites and hybrid, either suspended or on bottom, to stop and fish for.

Until 2018, I struggled with an effective lure to tempt tightly grouped whites and hybrids on the occasions I could find them while downrigging. It was frustrating to look and look for fish, only to find them and then not be able to get them to bite well.

In 2019, I had a breakthrough. On a whim, I decided to hand-make my own tailspinners. I knew tailspinners, like the Mann's Little George, were effective, but, the commercially available versions all had significant drawbacks. My design addressed and improved on these flaws, and the baits worked. However, they were prone to tangling just enough to be annoying, and, due to their compact size and heavy weight, a lot of my rookie clients lost fish right at the boat as they left fish dangling over the water instead of swinging them over the side of the boat.

I never marketed my tailspinners, as I just wasn’t confident that the average angler could make them work to their full potential.

If nothing else, I knew the spinning action of the tailspinner attracted fish. I continued experimenting in 2018 and 2019 with in-line spinners. Again, I knew from previous experience that in-line spinners had their drawbacks, and I developed my own versions to combat those problems, chief of which was a slow sink rate. Using tungsten, I worked around the sink rate issue.

About the time I got the spinners where I wanted them, fall weather came in during 2019 and I was back onto a hot slab bite with my Hazy Eye Slabs equipped with stinger hooks. The spinners were relegated to the back shelf.

As the end of May rolled around in 2020, and the live shad bite for hybrid had about run its course, I once again began experimenting with my spinners. At this same time, a friend and fellow Lake Belton multi-species angler, Bill Pasko, shared with me about his successes with spinners. He was using a large Mepps Aglia spinner with great success.

One day, as we compared notes at the Westcliff boat ramp on Lake Belton, he showed me a modified version of the model of Mepps Aglia he was using, complete with a barbless hook for quick, clean releases.

That day I got on the phone with both Laurie Powell and Darryl Laurent of Mepps and described my desire to obtain small, but heavy, in-line spinners from them for the purpose of targeting white bass and hybrid striped bass.

After some trial and error, and some willingness to be flexible on Mepps’ behalf, they worked with me to produce the white bass/hybrid-specific model of in-line spinner now found only on my website, and named the Maindelle’s All-Purpose Lure (MAL lure, for short).

I have now fished with multiple iterations and versions of this lure and now feel the version I am offering is the very best combination of all of the colors and components out there. Unlike my reservations with my tailspinners, I have no reservations about putting this in the hands of the average angler, and knowing his or her results will improve, and especially so in the difficult summer months from late May into late September.

This heavily customized spinner uses components to effect a fast sink rate, with colors, blade sizes, hook sizes, hook dressings, and hook attachments which are specifically geared toward white bass and hybrid striped bass, all at a price equivalent to that on Mepps’ online catalog for their models NOT specifically designed for whites and hybrid.

I have tried to give anglers every reason to try this lure developed specifically for white bass and hybrid stripers, including keeping pricing in check.

My favorite pairing for this incredibly effective bait is to use Sufix 832 Advanced Superline (a braid) in 20 pound test, attached to a clear, 35-pound test Aquateko Invisaswivel, which is then attached to a ~24-inch fluorocarbon leader in 25-pound test. A swivel is necessary to eliminate line twist, and the Invisaswivel is easier on your rod’s tip than metallic swivels.

This bait excels in two applications: 1) “smoking” for bottom-hugging and suspended fish, and 2) sight casting to topwater fish. In both cases a fast retrieve is best. For topwater fish, keeping the rod tip low to the water and reeling just fast enough to keep the bait from skipping out of the water is the key to success.

Smoking involves allowing the lure to fall to the bottom and very quickly reeling it up at least half-way off the bottom. I like to use the MAL vertically in conjunction with well-tuned colored sonar and/or Garmin LiveScope so I can see fish response to the baits and know when to keep reeling (as the lure is being chased), or when to allow the lure to drop back to bottom (if the fish are less enthusiastic).

In both tactics, starting the retrieve with a single, hard, fast turn of the reel’s handle is essential to getting the spinner’s blade turning.