Ever have a bud do something that makes you wonder if he's maybe gone loco? That's kinda how I felt when
Z's signature Lew's rods came out – they were all spin sticks! I was worried maybe Paul Mueller had been brainwashing him talkin' 'bout crappie, perch and teeny little jigs...😁
Then again, it's not cool to doubt a bud so I finally called him about it and here we go:
1. Your Lew's signature series – what up with all the love for spinning rods?
> "Man I grew up with a spinning rod in my hand. I only really put a baitcaster in my hand when I was 10 or 11 to be cool...and that's really the truth.
> "The way we fish [in MI] and how we fish is obviously conducive to clear-water lakes, light line and finesse to power-finesse techniques.
> "Spinning rods have always been finesse, slow down, really pick stuff apart. That's not how I fish with a spinning rod. Whether a tube or a dropshot – it doesn't matter what it is – with my spinning rods I'm able to cover as much water with a finesse presentation just by changing the weight of the lure.
> "I made up the term 'power finesse' a long time ago as a joke. ...3/8, 1/2 or 3/4-oz bait on a spinning rod...can take a notoriously slow presentation and create reaction bites while covering water."
2. Does forward-facing sonar mean spinning rods are now more in play more times?
> "I don't think so. I don't. But you're asking a guy – I just pulled into my barn, I have 6 spinning rods laying on the deck of my boat, and when I was fishing the other day I never turned my forward-facing sonar on. So my answer would be no, but I am highly biased."
3. Is there anything you do when you're fishing with spinning gear to make sure deep fish get hooked?
> "Yeah, use the right rod! The old adage is spinning rods are really wussy, wimp-like...don't want to sound like a sales pitch but the rods I helped designed are really powerful rods. I never hook a fish out deep and am like, Oh gosh I hope I got a hook in him.
> "With the old spinning rods, a bass tended to always have leverage over the angler. Every spinning rod I use is really 70% backbone and 30% tip to where I get really good hooksets at the end of the cast. They're also longer – 7, 7 2, 7 4, we're working on ones longer than that.
> "...want leverage when you set the hook 40 yards away, and I want leverage at the most critical point: at the side of the boat.
> "The 2 places where stuff goes wrong with a spinning rod is at the end of the cast or near the side of the boat, when a big smallmouth or big largemouth starts dogging. Especially big smallmouth: When you get him as ticked as he's going to be, you need to own him. If you sit there and let him fight for 45 seconds, there's a pretty good chance he's gonna come off.
> "The rods I use feel tire them down immediately. Fights do not last long. I'm still using light line – 8-lb [Seaguar] Tatsu – but I'm able to wear them down with longer more-powerful rods [that are not] M or ML."