The Super Spot – Shake what Cotton Cordell gave you.

I fish two lakes predominately. One is shallow and weedy – I’ll call it Lake A, and the other is deep and rocky - Lake B. Lake B is a relatively new lake to me, with the upcoming season being my third year on the body of water. I hadn’t fished a deep lake for 25 years, and interestingly enough, I am throwing the exact same lure today as I did way back when, albeit an updated version - Unfortunately I will not divulge the actual names of Lakes A and B – they are my honey holes… you understand.

I throw this lure on Lake B for a number of reasons; first, the depth I need to reach to get to the fish; second, because of my limited knowledge of the water itself I need a search bait to fish it properly; and lastly, because I can only fish lake B from shore (no boats allowed), I need a bait that will call the sows to me. The bait I’m referring to? The Cotton Cordell Super Spot Lipless Crankbait. In my wonder years my parents rented a cottage way up north. That cottage sat on a very deep lake which was chock full of pike and a good number of bass holding on large boulders. God, those were the glory days, throwing rattling spots for the first time and catching monster pike. The strikes would literally rip the rod out of my tiny ten year old hands, but I digress... Today, the strikes on lipless rattlers still jar me. In fact, two seasons back, while reeling in a crawdad patterned Super Spot on Lake B, a titanic (for me) 7 and a half pound monster bass stopped my retrieve like I had hooked into a cinderblock. Strikes like that are the reason I fish - plain and simple.

The thing I love most about Super Spots is in the act of throwing one - it’s visceral; you can feel and hear the lure working, making its way back to the boat (or shore) on every cast. As the vibrations travel up your arm and into your jaw, it’s as if the bait is an extension of your body; this is why the Super Spot becomes the ideal search tool for any deep lake – especially those that you are not familiar with. It calls fish like no other lure. It puts you in touch with them, as rattling balls in the baits hollow cavity send shock waves through the water, screaming, “hey predators, I’m an injured baitfish or startled crawdad, come and get me!”

A colour and pattern for almost every season and reason (COPPER CRAW, WATERMELONSEED and RAYBURN RED are great choices)

I like to throw a 2 to 3 inch Super Spot in a red chartreuse if I don’t know the specific forage of a body of water. If I do know the endemic prey (or if I’m fishing in gin clear water), I’ll match the hatch and chose an appropriate colour (e.g. crawdad or shad or panfish). I toss this bait on 10 pound mono, tired directly to the lure (no snap or swivel as this hardware keeps the lure from exhibiting its complete action). I also prefer to use a medium action spinning reel and similarly matched rod, with my drag set fairly tight. You really can’t make a bad cast with a Super Spot, though you’ll maximize your chances of hooking fish by tossing it into or adjacent to rocks and other hard structure. In fact, many strikes will occur after the Spot makes contact with a boulder and bounces off, triggering the bite response of a stalking fish.

Topwater Bottom Line: The Super Spot is a bait that catches fish in deep lakes, and even some shallow lakes where there is little weed growth to foul the diving nose and hooks. It is a lure that brings the fish to you, which helps tremendously on bodies of water that you may not be familiar with. I recommend keeping at least seven different colour patterns, and strongly suggest that three of those be craw, shad and red/chartreuse. Try to match the Spot’s size to the season, i.e. smaller in the spring and lager in the fall. A word of caution: you may loose a number of these baits to hang ups if you bump and run – which you should be doing to entice chasers to strike; but you can always purchase replacements at the more than reasonable price of 2.89 a piece. I have used, and still use more expensive lipless ratting baits by companies like SPRO, Yo-Zuri, Lucky Craft and Rapala, but have found them to more effective only in isolated instances, when a specific colour pattern is called for, or a particular vibration is needed (different amount, type or size of metal balls). The Cotton Cordell Super Spot deserves a spot in your box if you target free roaming pike or relatively deep holding bass, and at their price point, they can’t be beat for the quality you get in return. As always, please practice catch and release with this lure.

Topwater Rating:

4.5 out of 5 bobbers

Louder than a pissed off rattle snake and much more effective at catching fish, The Cotton Cordell Super Spot.