spinnerbaits

[greg]

just purchased a few spinnerbaits some of them are not fishing upright have tried altering the front wire.some coming in on 90 deg angle.and some sideways or flat.does it make any difference to the catching ability.they are double Colorado blades.just wondering if anybody else came across this problem.

[alan behenna]

???

Put a picture of one of the offenders up Greg?

[andrew_nagel]

Try making sure the arm is coming out of the head at roughly 45° vertical and truly in-lie with the hook. Then make sure the upper part of the arm is 90° to the lower. Twist the upper arm so it is also in-line wit the hook when looking at the bait 'nose' on. They all take a bit of tweaking and tuning to run right. Running them true makes them more snag proof when you are running them over the bottom or over weeds etc.

[John Milford]

Sounds like the blades are delivering more torque than the 'keel effect' of the lead head can deal with. Probably poor design, rather than tuning.

[sebshelton]

Sounds like the blades are delivering more torque than the 'keel effect' of the lead head can deal with. Probably poor design, rather than tuning.

+1

Try cutting the top blade off one of them.

[John Milford]

Or you could wind some extra lead on the bottom arm to see if that cures the balance?

Another trick may be to swap the rear Colorado blade for a willow-leaf? They produce less torque than a Colorado.

[greg]

thanks for the tips guys will try a few of them over the weekend and see how it goes.

[peteren]

Sounds like the blades are delivering more torque than the 'keel effect' of the lead head can deal with. Probably poor design, rather than tuning.

That's very astute and sensible (and right)!

[Martin Ward P.A.C.]

Unfortunately some SB manufacturers cannot make a decent bait and like Squirrely burts you have to tinker but once bitten twice.... don't buy any more from them. Often the very cheap ones are crap.

Having said all that its one of the great mysteries for me how these daft lures produce so many pike. I still catch more fish on them than any other group of lures.

[Mark Phillips]

I second what Martin says - spinner baits have delivered most of my red letter days on lures, certainly for numbers of fish caught casting (as opposed to trolling). They work so well for pike because they kick out all the right signals - vibration, flash and movement/action - whilst being very versatile, e.g. you can fish them slow along the deck, use them vertically or on the drop, fish them through most weed or snag situations, fish them on the surface, burn them back quickly, the list goes on... almost all mine are from the states, where they make them properly and in decent sizes. The smaller (bass) versions of course catch pike, but it doesn't take long for them to get wrecked by pike. My spinner bait collection nowadays mainly consists of Rad Dogs and ERC Grinders. I often change blades around to suit how I'm fishing or swap over a metal for a coloured finish for murky water or low light...

[thueske]

I also begin to like spinnerbaits more and more. Last week I was fishing a spot with a shad and I carefully fished every corner without result. After all hope for fish was lost I put on a spinnerbait and I got 3 pike in a very short time in the same spot.
I do have some questions for spinnerbait users:
-> Do you guys always use trailerhooks? I have a hard time unhooking fish who are hooked on both hooks and mostly I have to cut the trailerhook.
-> Do you fish them with a grub attached or just a plain spinnerbait?
-> Do you have preference for silicone skirt or bucktail?

Mark, in what situations do you swith the blades (I guess from colorado to willow leaf)?

[Landy17]

Does anyone use stiffer wire trace when using spinnerbaits? I find with a lighter trace it tangles back on its self on the cast, even when feathering the line.

[Steve Dennington]

Does anyone use stiffer wire trace when using spinnerbaits? I find with a lighter trace it tangles back on its self on the cast, even when feathering the line.

A stiff leader won't help, unfortunately. Unless someone has found a guaranteed method of avoiding it that I'm not aware of, I think you'll just have to accept that it's going to happen every now and again.

[Mark Phillips]

I tend to use a heavy single strand titanium leader. Feather casts and tangles are rare.

Questions... stingers? Yep, on most spinnerbaits I will always use a single at the rear end and tend to push it through a curly tail grub. Bucktail - nope, I really don't rate it on spinnerbaits, with exception of smaller spinnerbaits in the 1oz to 1 1/2oz category which I use mainly for short range stuff on drains and rivers. That's where I am doing a lot of searching up and down the water column and working in and out of pads or marginal undercuts. As the skirt blows out a little more fishing like that, the bucktail seems to do the job a little better at slow retrieve speeds. A single colardo I think is best suited to bucktail skirts, but having said that, most of the time, silicon is much better. It's not as durable though, but is easily replaced. So in the long run, longevity of the lure is better with silicon. I doubt in reality it makes too much difference to the pike, but bucktail really starts to lose out to silicon on the bigger spinnerbaits, say from 3 to 5 oz with skirts up to 8 inches...

[andrew_nagel]

Remove the trailer hook for fishing in and around snags like sunken trees. A well tuned single hook SB is very snag resistant as long as it isn't paused or allowed to tip over on the retrieve. I have both twin hook and single hooks versions. The single hooks can be masked with a shorter skirt, for times when a smaller profile is flicking the pike's switch. Add grubs to extend the profile and put a different vibe into the bait. Silicon skirts are the most convenient because the baits dry easier after use and they tie up in seconds with a cable strip. The silicon is cheap too. Bucktail fishes well through soft/sloppy weed types, and due to it's buoyancy gives a big profile for less density so good for fishing over weeds that reach close to the surface. Pain in the rear to tie though, and the pike do destroy them. Marabou has an awesome action, but takes forever to dry so I don't bother with it any longer.

[fishder]

good info there lads cheers love spinnerbaits.

[John Milford]

. . . . . its one of the great mysteries for me how these daft lures produce so many pike. I still catch more fish on them than any other group of lures.

I think it's to do with all the different 'triggers' given off by the bait, simultaneously.

Vibration, displacement, flash, colour and three different kinds of movement (rotating blades, pulsing skirt and progress through the water). Couple all that with the fact you can also chuck them where you might not dare cast a different lure type and they tick a lot of boxes!

The only thing missing is natural mimicry, but it seems that alone is low on the list of things that makes a pike attack?

[pikerholic2]

I second what Martin says - spinner baits have delivered most of my red letter days on lures, certainly for numbers of fish caught casting (as opposed to trolling). They work so well for pike because they kick out all the right signals - vibration, flash and movement/action - whilst being very versatile, e.g. you can fish them slow along the deck, use them vertically or on the drop, fish them through most weed or snag situations, fish them on the surface, burn them back quickly, the list goes on... almost all mine are from the states, where they make them properly and in decent sizes. The smaller (bass) versions of course catch pike, but it doesn't take long for them to get wrecked by pike. My spinner bait collection nowadays mainly consists of Rad Dogs and ERC Grinders. I often change blades around to suit how I'm fishing or swap over a metal for a coloured finish for murky water or low light...

Have you used or heard of smaller ones working for sea bass mark?

in my local COLOURED tidal river they have to be given a go?

[Jason Skilton]

I second what Martin says - spinner baits have delivered most of my red letter days on lures, certainly for numbers of fish caught casting (as opposed to trolling). They work so well for pike because they kick out all the right signals - vibration, flash and movement/action - whilst being very versatile, e.g. you can fish them slow along the deck, use them vertically or on the drop, fish them through most weed or snag situations, fish them on the surface, burn them back quickly, the list goes on... almost all mine are from the states, where they make them properly and in decent sizes. The smaller (bass) versions of course catch pike, but it doesn't take long for them to get wrecked by pike. My spinner bait collection nowadays mainly consists of Rad Dogs and ERC Grinders. I often change blades around to suit how I'm fishing or swap over a metal for a coloured finish for murky water or low light...

Have you used or heard of smaller ones working for sea bass mark?

in my local COLOURED tidal river they have to be given a go?

Not such thing as sea bass.......just called Bass.......but there is no reason why spinner baits won't work for them too