The Spotlight Minnow

Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour Angler Drew Gill is widely recognized as one of the top minnow fisherman on tour. So when Gill teamed up with Big Bite Baits to design a new minnow it was sure to be something special. So special in fact that Drew used the Spotlight Minnow to win the first BPT event of the season at Lake Guntersville just a day prior to it official public release. Utilizing a hollow body design and wedge angle tails, the Spotlight Minnow is now available in 3 sizes (3.25”, 4.25”, and 4.8”) and 8 colorways.

When Gill set out to create a new minnow, he had some very clear objectives in mind. “My frustration was that most minnows that were present on the market, you can't choose how fast you want to shake it,” he explained. “When bait fish swim in the water they flash, as their bodies move they let off light, the reflection off of their scales and what happens is that the faster a bait fish moves the faster the flash. Most minnows, they reach a certain point where you shake them faster than the minnow can actually roll and flash and you totally kill the action. I wanted to design a minnow that you could fish as fast as you wanted, shake as fast as you wanted and you could not shake the flash. Meaning no matter how fast you move the rod tip, no matter how fast you fish it, you still have that flash at incredibly high speeds.”

“The Spotlight Minnow is primarily built to catch clean water fish that are very, very hard to get to bite, fish that are suspended, fish that are chasing bait.” he said. “It doesn't have a tempo limit, you can shake it as fast as you want and it still produces action, that is what makes it special.”

“The most important facet of the bait that contributes to its action is the hollow core. It sits horizonal in the water even when you are not moving it at all,” Gill explained. “It is important to keep that bait fish posture. If you are having to spend some of the energy that is required to roll it just to get that bait flat when you start shaking, the bait first needs to work its way up to flat before it starts to roll. If it starts flat with that horizontal posture, that's where you want to be if you want to get maximum action from the bait. A lot of times when I am fishing it, I will let them (fish) catch up to it, do a little give and take, I want it to move the way I want it to move the moment that I start shaking it. I don't want the bait to have to get flat because its backend was sagging.”

“I love the blue gizzard color, my favorite thing is that because it has translucent sides and a white belly, is the flash as it turns and moves. It is just such a realistic bait fish imitating color,” said Gill. “The ayu is clear, its got green with a yellow dot, that ayu color is awesome too, it's a really good translucent. It's really well suited and niched for clean water and suspended fish and that's what I designed it for.”

To get the most action from the Spotlight Minnow, Gill is a fan of fast light action spinning rods. He relies on a pair of Phenix spinning rods: the 7'4”light action Feather and the 7'1” medium light action K2, depending on the conditions and the size and weight of the jig head minnow combination. Gill uses a Johnny Morris Carbonlite Tech spinning reel spooled with 15lb to 22 lb braid to a 12 lb Seaguar Grand Max leader.

When rigging the Spotlight Minnow, Drew chooses a jighead with a 90 degree 2/0 sized light wire hook. “You gotta have a small hook,” he said. “You don't want to spine the bait or you'll take the action out of it. The hook size is all action-related.