Spinner baits

[G4zza]

Coming from a saltwater bass lure fishing background, the weedless lures are fairly slimline with the hook point reasonable well hidden.
The descriptions for spinner baits say they are ideal for the retrieving through weed and lily pads, yet are the most gangly awkward looking lures I have ever seen.
Is there that much difference between salt and fresh water weed? Do spinner baits work in UK waters and how do you retrieve them?

[Carlperkins]

Yes they work
And I use a steady retrieve or troll

[enby]

How do they not get weed attached to the spinner and arm part?

[Daniel]

How do they not get weed attached to the spinner and arm part?

Just depends on the type of weed.

[John Milford]

How do they not get weed attached to the spinner and arm part?

They're not completely weedless enby, and will get clogged with soft, filamentous types of weed. They're pretty good at driving through and shedding harder weeds though.

The 'V' shape plays a big part in that, plus the high torque of the blades. Bumping though hard weed can 'stall' them - but the fluttering stop and re-start when that happens can be when they are most deadly.

[peteren]

Coming from a saltwater bass lure fishing background, the weedless lures are fairly slimline with the hook point reasonable well hidden.
The descriptions for spinner baits say they are ideal for the retrieving through weed and lily pads, yet are the most gangly awkward looking lures I have ever seen.
Is there that much difference between salt and fresh water weed? Do spinner baits work in UK waters and how do you retrieve them?

Do spinner baits work in UK waters?

RESOUNDING YES - they may look weird, but one of my most consistent options for pike and perch.

JM is right - not most weedless in soft weed.
But deadly "on the drop", and around / near weed and features. Versatile for speed and depth - especially if you use a spinnerbait arm and option to clip on various jigheads with grubs or shads, as I prefer.

[Monts]

Like Peter above when after Perch with a spinnerbait I like to stick on a shad of about 2 inches as a trailer. They are a real blank saver, fish them how you want, when things are really slow I find buzzing them back shallow provokes a response. I figure more out of annoyance than anything.

[Oldskoolfool]

I love them as they are so flexible. Use a wide variety and often add a grub/shad to the hook for extra attraction as long as they still run true. Not entirely needless as mentioned but more snagless that a lot of lures and gives confidence to fish them as losses through snagging are generally lower than most other types. I do all sorts of retrieves slow roll, sink n draw, bulging/burning and often mix them up so had lots of success doing several fast bulging retrieves to wind the fish up followed by a slower retrieve then bang!

[G4zza]

Thanks for the replies fellas, I am going to give my SG da bush an outing at the weekend.

[Mark Phillips]

If I had to use one lure all day long, it would be a spinnerbait. In fact, the most pike I have caught in one day came to spinnerbaits, albeit I think it was four or five I got through. 77 pike that day. Doubt that's possible on the Fens right now. Happy memories anyway.