Spinner Baits

[mercman]

I have recently gotten interested in Spinner Baits. They seem to be a very versatile lure that can be used to catch a number of species of the fish i target. I have a 7foot medium light rod with a 6.4:1 baitcaster that i will be using.

Is braid an acceptable line when using a spinnerbait? What are some of the technics that i should be useing, or is it just cast and burn the retrieve? Can i add a piece of worm or a tube to the hook?

Teach me oh wise Spinner Baiters What are some of your most successful techniques?

 

 

Thanks

 

Paul

[Mike the Pike]

are you kidding me man.You have never used spinner baits.Really?

 

Your success rate is now going to increase my friend.

 

Pike and Bass love them.

 

[Rizzo]

Most versatile lure out there...about time you started! At my cottage I actually refuse to use them because it gets too easy to catch pike...need a bit of a challenge. Long story short, pretty hard to fish them wrong. Burn the surface? part way down? jig it back in? and I have even caught a bunch of pike just leaving it laying on bottom! No word of a lie, I have caught several pike leaving a spinnerbait dead on bottom for a few minutes.

[mike rousseau]

cant fish em wrong paul...

 

one thing i like to do is to add a large single stinger hook onto the regular hook... for the days when they are nipping at the bait...

 

then its a mood thing... if they are really aggressive then burn em fast... if not... slow it down a bit and get the lure down to the strike zone..

 

as far as trailers go... keep em short... there ok for bulking up a bait a bit... but if you hang a 10 inch worm off the back your gunna get short stikes...3-4 inch twister tails work good for trailers..

[Nipfisher]

I have also never used one for more than a few casts. Never needed to as the pike and bass are usually willing to cooperate on Rapalas and crank-baits.

[mike rousseau]

also good for trolling...

[Dan668]

Anyone ever try komanchi spinnerbaits? I want to try them. 18 bucks a piece is stopping me lol

[KShea]

If you want a slower presentation go with the Colorado blades ( the rounded ones ) if a quicker presentation use the willows. I like using Colorado with a dark skirt for pike around thus time of year on my lake they just eat'em up ( pardon the pun ) also Mike makes a good point about the stinger hook very good idea. They are for the most part pretty easy to use though there are so many ways to work them it can take awhile to mastern them all lol. Good luck in your new venture though fir some reason i don't think you'll need it.

[mercman]

Great I picked up about a dozen of the in various weights and colors at Sail last week.Terminators. They were on special during the no tax sale. I have seen them in action,just never had a reason to use them before. Now i want to try something new to me.

[bigmac1984]

Where to begin with this one....

 

As many have said, a spinnerbait is a great "search" bait to find the active bass. Can't really fish them wrong, chuck and wind, chuck and wind. Trailer hooks are a must, alot of times without them you'll miss the smallies. I don't add a twister tail or anything to mine but I do use the Strike King Perfect Skirts with Magic tails which pretty much already give the bait that same look, but those skirts are my personal preference (I make spinnerbaits myself for fun).

 

You can do a few things when you are retrieving the bait to increase your odds of a strike. As soon as the bait hits the water, give the rod a quick jerk to get the blades spinning, and periodically during the retrieve, do the same thing. This will make the blades flash which can entice a strike, as well as make the skirt pulsate and give off a vibration at the same time. Quick flash + vibrating skirt = injured baitfish. With smallies, the further you can bomb the bait, the better it seems to be. Since they are notorious sight feeders, the further away from the boat you can be the better. Most of my spinnerbait strikes come within the first 3 or 4 turns of the reel.

 

Secondly, smallies notoriously will follow a bait all the way to the boat and frustrate the hell out of you, so I always have a tube or drop shot rig right beside me and if I see a follower, I drop that in the water right away. If you don't have multi-rig setups, then next time try a faster or slower retrieve to see why that bass didn't strike the bait. Chances are, it'll follow it 2 or 3 times, and eventually it'll hit if you present it correctly.

 

Blades make a difference too I find. Silver blades give the most flash on clear days, while the gold blades seem to work better on overcast days. I usually use only silver willowleaf blades when smallie fishing, and go to the bigger colorado blades when largemouth fishing. They seem to like the thumping and the flash that the gold blades give off. As far as the actual spinnerbait colour, white, white, white for smallies. Largies seem to hit more colours, but I find the firetiger or bluegill colours work the best.

 

Lastly, and again I think this will be personal preference, but I use a MH baitcasting rod, extra fast action, with 50lb braid. When those smallies hit a spinnerbait, they will absolutely smash it and cripple your spinnerbait. Most spinnerbaits will have a 3/0 of 4/0 hook that will require good backbone to set the hook, but enough flexibility to keep the fish hooked.

 

I could go on and on about spinnerbaits as it is one of my favourite techniques, I don't go on the water anywhere without a spinnerbait tied on.

 

Hope this helps along with the great advice I'm sure many people will give you.

[Dontcryformejanhrdina]

Spinnerbaits are great, especially when you want to work a weedbed.

[manitoubass2]

If your on a school of walleye and you want to catch the biggest ones in the school, tie on a spinner bait. Let it sink to the bottom the slow roll it or jig it back to the boat.

 

Bass and pike will hammer these baits, just gotta try different retrieves etc to see what they want.

 

Braid works fine, actually I prefer to use braid for the sensitivity.

 

Two colors I love, chart with silver tandem blades, and black with tandem silver blade.

 

My preferred size is 3/8oz.

 

I only use Strike King Pot Bellies. All of them will work, but these are the ones I like the best.

 

[manitoubass2]

ML is too light Paul. Go 7' MH if you can convince (or hide it from) the missus.

 

 

Yeppers, good point Sinclair!

 

Also, my favourite spinnerbaits are the Strike King KVD models (no not because of KVD). I prefer them over terminator and booyah.

 

Well made and trailer hook pre-rigged.

 

I tried Terminator spinners last year and two of them broke right away, I wasn't too impressed. Strike King makes the best IMO

 

 

 

[Billy Bob]

You can also use them when fishing under low hanging branches......great bait for catching squirrels.....

[singingdog]

Lots of good advice. A couple of things I would add....

 

For smallies, don't be afraid of painted blades. My best smallie sbait has white/chart painted blades and almost always has a swimsenko trailer.

 

Fish sbaits like jigs: pitching into holes in weed beds can be deadly.

 

Don't be afraid to try them in open water, no cover to be seen. A big, bright sbait over 20' of water will get smallies to hit when nothing else will.

 

Hit wood....alot.

Edited May 8, 2012 by singingdog

[spinnerbaitking]

MH action is needed without a doubt or you will loose fish, try colour you like in other lures you will be surprised at all the colours they will hit, when I started on these forums I likely had 250+ spinnerbaits & will have not far off that many now, I agree with the White blades, Booyah's, KVD, Strike King , Piccasso, Pulsators by Norman & Black Fly Lures made in Acton Ontario & try his Purple & Orange lol it really works, not real expensive but they put alot of Bass, Pike & Musky in my Boats & Canoes, used mono only for years then made the switch to Braid & broke lots of Spinnerbaits & went back to Mono or Flouro, I do have my Name for a reason lol

Tight Lines SBK

[EC1]

Good Sharing guys! I think I might need to put spinnerbaits in my arsenal after I decided to completely not use them for a year.

 

Anyone ever try komanchi spinnerbaits? I want to try them. 18 bucks a piece is stopping me lol

 

The infomercial is terrible! I did get a free one a while back, and I'm not exactly sure I got a model that was on the market because it came with like 20 different sized blades, in colorado, willow, indiana, in like 8 different sizes each.. I just used what was provided on it, and it's pretty good..

Flutters nicely when falling, and has the nice pulsating action in the skirt during the retrieve. Hooks are sharp.

 

The spinnerbait also is not a tie direct...There's a snap that connects to the spinnerbait. I haven't seen any negative effects yet, I'll let you know a little later.

[Harrison]

Mercman, I'm not much of a spinnerbait anlger anymore, but at one time it was my fav way to fish Smallies, especially on Simcoe.

 

Used to burn 1oz willow leaf blades as fast as we could just under the surface. Smallies would crush them out of 20ft of water. Our ribs would get bruised.

 

singingdog is bang on about the painted blades and Chart/white skirts, hands down #1 smallie pattern.

(Simcoe was silver blades, shiner/white skirts)

 

Windy, rainy or choppy days are ideal for spinnerbait fishing.

 

Hard pressed to win a tournament on them (not impossible and has happened, but not very often). Great numbers bait.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Harrison

[mercman]

Great info guys Thanks a ton.

Now i'm pumped to get out there and use 'em.

[misfish]

Used to burn 1oz willow leaf blades as fast as we could just under the surface. Smallies would crush them out of 20ft of water. Our ribs would get bruised.

 

One of my fav, burning/boiling them over deep weeds Phil.

 

Reaction bait.Many hits will come in the first 3-5 ft of your retreve. My go to is Stanly,silver/brass willow with a white skirt. I also add a yum trailer. I seldom use a stinger,unless they are short stiking the bait.

 

I find it hard to find the original baits.The new ones Im not to fussy on. If I have to make a second choice,booya. Also give the chatter baits a try Paul. They are killer.

 

Last thing I can recommend is,dont be afraid to go with 30 pd power pro. Like I said,IMO,this bait is a reaction bait. They don,t care about the line.

 

Have fun.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Misfish

[misfish]

Nothing but braid for me. Just my preference.

 

Another tip now that I,m thinking about it. When retrieving over weeds,let the bait fall/flutter down and rip it out of the weeds and retrieve. You be surprised whats sitting down in them weeds.

[mercman]

Keep'em comin boyz!!!

[manitoubass2]

I like braid deep or shallow, just a personal preference really.

 

I use SB for walleye quite abit, and you need the sensitivity on the drop. Alot of times they hit when the SB is doing nothing but falling to the bottom. With mono, you wouldn't even feel it the majority of the time.

 

Cool to see everyones color preferences as well. Merc, you started a really good thread with lots of good advice!!!

 

Oh, I never add anything to the hook, just never found a need for it. But, I am heading out for some smallies here in a few minutes and I'm going to add a 4" minnow bait and see what the results are.

[Christopheraaron]

Interesting video I found...

 

[mercman]

Talked to a few locals here too.One guy i will be fishing with next wednesday, hammered 60 nice Pike on sunday using Spinner baits and spoons.

Spoons are another lure i havent fished in ages. Goes to show you, sometimes its the simplest things that catch more fish.