“Hell-Pet”

by John Varner

The hell-pet is an effective and deadly combination on just about any lake in the summer time for sandies. This method of fishing was shown to me by Steve Bradbury. Steve was taught by the great Billy Seaman. This method of trolling is not like deep sea fishing or down-rigging, you are not trying to catch a fish here and their. You are going for the mother load. You do not just put it out and troll the lake, there is a method to this madness. The main thing you look for is water temperature, 75 and above is when to break this baby out. The thermocline is the ticket. The water warms , thermocline sets in and the fish will move shallow.  You want to locate fish on humps, points, and flats. When you mark fish, their usually isn't any arches. The fish are bundled so close they look like a blob on your graph. You start in deeper water, 20ft , and move up. Depending on water temp these fish can be anywhere from 17ft to 10ft. I throw a marker buoy out on the other side of the fish that I have found. If on a hump, I turn my boat around let out the hell-pet. You want to count the lure out for the proper depth going anywhere from 2.5 to 3.2 mph . I use the 1 Mississippi method. Usually for 15ft water I count about to 16 Mississippi . If you start dragging bottom count a few seconds shorter, different reels and speeds  will determine your actual depth. Once you catch fish, stop the boat and reel them in, you do not need to go back to the original starting point. I seldom move more than 75 yards back and forth. Points and flats are almost the same. Sometimes you have to move across the point and flat not getting to shallow. 

Some people hold their rods, and some put them in rod holders. If you are in fish really thick you should hold the rod to feel the fish. I put mine in rod holders because my arms get tired. When in the rod holder you can usually tell if a fish is on by the position of the tip of the rod. Buy real hellbenders and pet spoons, do not buy the knock offs. The hooks on the knock off pet spoons have been know to come off.  The hellbender comes in a verity of colors and patterns with or without hooks. If you can, buy the ones without hooks. On the front eyelet remove the hook and use a 3/4 oz bell weight. You need to remove the eyelet before doing this. Use a pair of pliers and a small screw driver to spread the eye apart. On the back, you need to also remove the hook, and take the back spinner off leaving the swivel. Tie a 4ft leader to the back swivel and then the pet spoon to the other end. I use gold pet spoons on cloudy days and silver on sunny. The pet spoon comes in many sizes, my favorite is the #12 and #13 for sandies. Some days they like the #12 a lot better. They also come with different feathers, chartreuse and white are the favorites. I have not noticed any difference in feather color, we catch fish when the feather has come off. I like to use 7ft to 71/2ft rods with a large capacity reel. My reel of choice is the Abu Garcia 5600 C4, it should be spooled with minimum 15lb test line. Be sure to set your drag, if you hang up on bottom or hook a nice hybrid then you do not want your rod to break. People do things different, this is not the only way to use the hell-pet. This is just the way that I have used it.

   Guide John Varner

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