Trying The Headbanger Spitfire On Some Angry River Smallies!

Howdy everyone. I'm back at it again. It's a beautiful summer evening here in Minnesota. It's been kind of a scorcher all day. It was about 95 degrees. That sun was beating down, but we had some clouds move in. That's brought the temperature down a little bit. It's actually bearable to be out here now, so I figured I'd head out in the kayak and try to chase down some smallies out here tonight. I've got a new topwater lure. We're gonna try out on them too. I've been seeing this lure a lot on social media lately. It's been on my Facebook and Instagram feed pretty much every day. What we've got here is the Headbanger Spitfire. So I've got one fresh in the box here. I've got a second one already tied on my casting rod. I like to bring out two just in case a pike decides to come and take one of those, but I've got the four and a half inch version. Kind of the silver holographic minnow color. That's about the only color that they had available when I ordered it. But if you look closely, it's kind of similar to a jitterbug style lure. It's got that concave lip. The big difference is that lip isn't attached to that first segment of the lure. It kind of wiggles freely, but it gives the rest of that minnow body some nice swimming action. So we'll put that to the test against some Minnesota smallies out here tonight. I think it should work pretty well. I mean, it looks just like a minnow, so I got a feeling if we toss that Spitfire up in front of some hungry, aggressive smallies, they're gonna have a tough time saying no. I'll give it a few casts off this point. Maybe off the next one up there too, and then I think I'm gonna work my way up to the river. Oh, there's one right there though. Look at that. Very first cast. Is that a smallie or a largey? I think it was a smallie. Couldn't tell at first, but yeah, that one's a smallie. Look at that. He shook the lure right as he swam into my net. Make it easy for me. I don't gotta unhook you or nothing. Let me take a quick look at you. He's a feisty one. Well, that sure didn't take long, did it? Nice quality smallmouth to start off the evening. All right, first one of the day on the Spitfire. Yeah, I think that lure is gonna be a winner. Oh, there's another one. This one might even be bigger. He feels bigger. I don't know, might be the twin brother of that other one I just caught. Oh yeah, it is gonna be a good night of fishing. We'll just unhook him. He's got my other hook caught in the net there. Wow, look at that. Pretty, pretty fish. Exact same size as that last one too. Probably related. I do really like the action of that lure. It's got a nice wobble to it. You can fish it at different speeds too. Fish it slow or a little bit faster, which is nice because some topwater lures, they kind of have a certain speed that you have to fish them at. That makes it tough when you get into river currents sometimes. I had one there. I missed him though. Off of those rocks. There should be one right about now. Right about now. Come on fish. I said right about now. Boom. Come on, eat it. No, they're not gonna bite on command tonight. There's one though. Look at him. He's a feisty one though. Come on up here. Hopped in my lap of those treble hooks. Gotta do this the easy way, I think. There we go. Then I don't have to deal with the angry little smallie thrashing around with treble hooks. I thought he was gonna be just a little dink. Oh, that's actually a decent fish. I'll scoop him up in a minute there. Come here, bud. They are just super angry tonight. They do not want me to grab them. There's a nice one. He's roaming around the weed bed here. Took a couple little swipes at that lure and finally got him on the third one. I haven't found the giants yet, but so far it's not too bad for average size. I'd say, I don't know, 17 inch fish. Hopefully we can find a 19 or 20 out here tonight. That's what I'm hoping for. I think I'm a little bit too thick into these weeds here. Just about to the surface in a lot of spots, so dragging those treble hooks through them probably won't go too well. Try to get to the edge of the weeds here. This should be about good. Let's see if we can pull one more off this spot and then we're gonna hit that point there. That point should be holding something. Swipe at it. Did he snag it? No, I don't think he did. Definitely charged at it though. We'll toss it back over there again. It's definitely not prime top water time out here yet. Oh, there's one. That's a good fish too. I'd say it's right at the beginning of July right now. They'll usually hit that top water. They're not going to slam it quite yet, at least these river smallies. August, September, that's when the prime time top water action happens. Oh, this is a good fish though. Yep, I must have thrown that spitfire right on top of him over there. I didn't have to give it action or nothing. He just came and grabbed it. There we go. Wow, I thought that was going to be a 19-20 inch fish the way he was fighting and jumping. That's a quality one though. Probably the biggest one of the day so far. I'll throw him on the ruler here real quick if he'll cooperate. About 17 and a quarter. Not bad at all. I think we're going to work our way up the river though. We'll see if we can find some bigger ones up there. Here comes one. Got him. Oh, I thought that lure was coming right back from my leg. Right up here. That one didn't look that big anyway. Got weeds on my hook. Yes, that's no good. Instantly, that's a big two. You stay on. I love a good reaction strike like that. Good fish. This might be the biggest one of the day so far. I don't think he's much bigger than the rest of them I've been catching. Oh, he's trying to jump right in the kayak with me. Not with those hooks hanging out of your mouth. We'll try to avoid that. Got this one caught in my net. There we go. We'll get a quick length on this guy. He is 18 and a quarter. His first 18 inch plus fish today. Yeah, that's a nice one. Oh yeah, there's a good one. You come back over here. I'm gonna get you in my net. Come on over here. They just do not like me to grab them tonight. Beauty. Hanging out right up here on the back side of this island. A little bit of slack water up there. A couple of weed beds. That's where he was. Nice little fish. Well, I worked my way up along the side of the island here. It's about as far as I can paddle upstream without getting out of my kayak and dragging it over the rocks. Not much up here today. I will find fish up here sometimes, but the water level is pretty low right now. So I think it's just a bit too shallow up here. Sure is pretty low, isn't it? I do think I'm going to turn around and start fishing my way back downstream. I've got maybe an hour until sunset and I've got about a mile and a half to paddle back to my truck. So I want to make sure I leave myself plenty of time to get back, get my gear put away and get out of here before the mosquitoes come out and try to carry me away. Pretty awesome day out here on the river though. I'm pretty happy with this lure after fishing it for the evening out here. It's a pretty effective river lure it seems. Kind of a stress-free lure. It doesn't tangle up and do anything like that. That causes headaches. Nothing for weeds to really get wrapped around and tangled up in like the plopper. Although don't get me wrong, the plopper is still my favorite river lure. I don't know. This one's going to be up there with the spook maybe. I don't know. Probably in my top three. I don't know. It's tough to say. The rats up there too. There's so many good top water lures. I'll definitely give that one another try though. I'd like to get the bigger version. Try that one on I think I got him there at first but he was swimming right back at me. That's why I like a high speed reel for river fishing. That was awesome. Oh you get out of those weeds. Get out of there. Oh yes, I got him in. That was pretty cool though. I saw this fish chasing bait right up there along the bank. Threw that lure over there and he crushed it. Nice quality fish. What an awesome evening it's been out here. Catching a ton of fish on that headbanger spitfire. Last spot we're gonna throw that lure at. Did catch one over here earlier but I missed a really nice one too. There's a good one. Fish is giving me a bath. Man these river smallies are so much fun. Come here bud. Grab you. Get that hook out of you. Oh nice. Well I think we might call it a day on that one. I've got about a mile to paddle back to my truck. Starting to run out of daylight here but that's a nice one to finish the day off on. Man what an awesome day it's been out here. Caught a ton of nice fish. Weather was perfect. I gotta say I am pretty impressed with that headbanger spitfire topwater lure. It's got great action. Smallies seem to love it. One thing I do really like it's got such a nice minnow profile so those fish that are kind of tucked up underneath the bank like that you just throw it up in front of them and it looks just like something they would eat. Yeah it's a pretty good lure overall. Never found myself frustrated with it. Wondering why it's not swimming like it's supposed to. It pretty much worked like it should. All night long. Caught a ton of fish. I had a lot of fun fishing it. That's what counts doesn't it? Well I think that's about it for this one. I'm just gonna enjoy the paddle back to my truck on this perfect evening. I had a lot of fun out here today. I hope you guys enjoyed it too. Thanks for coming along with me again. I'll see you next time.