The combination of the spinnerbait's blade breaking the water's surface and the shimmering effect of its skirt and trailer creates an illusion of sorts -- one that's too much for most bass to resist.

From time to time as you're waking a spinnerbait, bass will come up to blast the lure and miss it. When that happens you'll want to keep up a steady retrieve. If you find that bass continually miss the lure, add a stinger hook. That's a very good way to catch bass on a spinnerbait that might normally be missed.

Another little trick if you get too many missed strikes in clear water: Switch to a smaller spinnerbait. On the other hand, if you're fishing in murky water and missing bass, you might simply want to slow down your retrieve.

As water temperatures inch up into the upper 60s, gurgling a spinnerbait across the water's surface is an all-time favorite method for catching lots of bass. Gurgling a spinnerbait is simple: Cast it out and bring it up to the surface on the retrieve. You'll want to reel fast enough to keep the blade turning as it gurgles its way across the water.

Talk about exciting! This type of retrieve is deadly to bass holding in thick vegetation or in brush. It's a noisy way to fish a spinnerbait -- and that's why it's so effective on bass. The combination of the spinnerbait's blade breaking the water's surface and the shimmering effect of its skirt and trailer creates an illusion of sorts -- one that's too much for most bass to resist. A 1/4-ounce spinnerbait is perfect for gurgling; most of the time, a willow-leaf blade is your best option.

When you're fishing in aquatic vegetation like hydrilla or coontail moss, gurgling a spinnerbait is an almost perfect way to catch bass. In fact, gurgling in thick vegetation like that is one of the few topwater lure tactics that will fool bass bedded up in thick vegetation.

Gurgling and waking are also well suited for fishing spinnerbaits at night, and especially so if the moon's full. At many lakes you'll find that bass are still on the spawning beds in early April, and gurgling a spinnerbait over the beds under a full moon during this period will draw some wrist-jarring strikes.

If I had to pick one way to fish for bass, it would be to work spinnerbaits over and around vegetation and brush on flats in 4 to 6 feet of water at night during a full moon; that's how I've caught hundreds of bass. And it's a technique that will catch bass on lakes that get a lot of angling pressure.

Another way to work spinnerbaits is to slingshot them under boat docks and up under overhanging trees. Basically, you want to slingshot the baits to bass that are holding in hard-to-fish spots. This tactic is well adapted for fishing under boat docks at times of the day with a high sun. Bass will move into the shaded areas to avoid the sun -- but that doesn't mean they won't hammer a spinnerbait.

A lot of pros will slingshot a spinnerbait under a dock and then rip it across the surface like a panicked perch or shad. Talk about drawing the big hits: This tactic will do just that!

Regardless of the technique you use to fish a spinnerbait, keeping the hook razor-sharp is very important. Most experts agree that touching up a spinnerbait hook with a file every 10 minutes or so will lead to an increase in solid hookups.