Heavy heads increase the weights of spinnerbaits, allowing them to get deeper and stay there. Photo by Chris Ginn.

Avid shallow-water spinnerbait angler Jack Tibbs began to get wind of rumors that some of his angling peers were using his favorite lure to catch big bass from Lake Eufaula's deep river and creek channels.

"I heard they were taking a regular spinnerbait and adding weight to it by wrapping lead around the hook shanks," Tibbs recalled. "That got me to thinking, and I wound up buying some heavy muskie spinnerbaits, which I cut the wires down on, and started fishing them on deep structure, where lots of other people were fishing crankbaits and Carolina rigs."

Tibbs quickly discovered that deep-water bass that had rarely seen a spinnerbait buzzing past them loved them just as much as those that he frequently targeted in shallow water. Realizing that he could now use spinnerbaits to cover every part of Lake Eufaula from the shallowest water to the deepest, Tibbs began tinkering to come up with a specialized spinnerbait that would allow him to fish the deepest water more efficiently.

The resulting spinnerbait, which Tibbs dubbed the Ledgebuster, featured either a single No. 7 Colorado or a No. 6 willow-leaf blade. Heavy heads up to 1 1/2 ounces got the lure to the bottom quickly, and it stayed there throughout the retrieve. The Ledgebuster became a popular tool for catching bass in places that used to be the realms of deep-diving crankbaits and Carolina rigs.

Since then, super-heavy spinnerbaits have become a mainstay in many anglers' tackle boxes. While the Ledgebuster continues to be a popular seller, many other companies including Strike King, Booyah and Stanley now offer their own versions of heavy spinnerbaits designed for pulling over deep structure.

Many of the nation's best bass anglers who compete at the highest levels have come to see super-sized spinnerbaits as a way to push the weigh-in scales down as much as they can when they place their sacks of bass on top. Take Bassmaster Elite Series angler James Niggemeyer, for example.

Niggemeyer has come to rely on super-sized spinnerbaits to put the big fish in the box when nothing else seems to be working. While it might not be the first lure he ties on when he goes fishing, it is often the last.

Together, Tibbs and Niggemeyer have enough years of experience fishing big spinnerbaits that their tips and advice can help even the most novice anglers learn how to use these lures more effectively. Given the right set of circumstances, there isn't a better bait to throw.

WHY BIG SPINNERBAITS?
With so many options available for fishing deep structure, one might wonder: Why go to the trouble of heaving and retrieving up to 2 1/2 ounces of lead with the added resistance of large blades? According to Tibbs, that's the great thing about super-sized spinnerbaits -- they aren't any trouble at all. And, they have some decided advantages over the typical techniques.

"All the young guys can get on those ledges and crank DD22s all day long during the heat of summer," said Tibbs. "Crankbaits catch a lot of bass off deep structure, but they are also a lot of work. On the other hand, a big spinnerbait like the Ledgebuster does much of the work for you. You can lob them way out there. They get down quickly. And they stay on the bottom."

A heavy spinnerbait's ability to stay on the bottom throughout the retrieve is one of the main reasons Tibbs reaches for a Ledgebuster rather than a crankbait. Whereas a crankbait takes almost half the length of a cast to get down to the strike zone and the other half to sweep back up, a heavy spinnerbait stays in the deep strike zone the entire length of the retrieve.