spinnerbait recomendations

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Tom Edwards on December 24, 2009 at 4:53pm

1/4 and 3/8.

Any brand. Mine are so off brand I forget what they are.

Black and chartruse, black and blue, white and chartruse, white and blue, chartruse and blue, chartruse, black, white.

I always have a white 3" or so curly tailed grub for a trailer. I like them better than the skinny trailers that are suppose to be for spinnerbaits.

Sometimes I'll use a trailer hook, like when spinning over thick weeds/milfoil.

Colorado blades, and sometimes willowleaf thru the weeds.

Usually gold or silver blades. Sometimes blades of different colors like chartruse.

Permalink Reply by J-Dawg on December 24, 2009 at 5:42pm

size: 1/4 to 3/4 like Tom said.

Color: BLACK

Trailer: Chartreuse curly tail, 3"

Trailer hook: I usually only use them in weeds or milfoil, (again, like Tom said).

Blades: Large single Colorado blade in silver or gold. This will give off a good amount of flash.

I have to say that all of my spinnerbait knowledge came from watching several TV shows, but mainly, Bill Dance Outdoors. Thanks Bill!!!

Permalink Reply by P.J. Koshi on December 24, 2009 at 6:08pm

Well white and chartruse is best for me on smallies and largies. Some of the ones I throw have some purple, red or blue strands in the skirt as well. 3/8 & 1/2oz most often are the best sizes, but I will say the Tiny T Terminator can be deadly for certain shallow water applications. Terminator is the fall back standby for sure but I have a couple others. I like the double willow configuration and I don't run a trailer hook because I too like to run a curly tail grub or a long fork tail as my trailer.

Permalink Reply by Eric DeLay on December 24, 2009 at 6:59pm

I like those same sizes, colors and blades. I usually use a trailer and no trailer hook. My favorite brand is Yamamoto but I also use Revenge. The one thing to be aware of with the Yamamoto spinnerbaits is that they are a light wire bait. I feel that this helps with vibration of the blades but also makes them prone to breaking after you catch a bunch of fish on one.

P.J. Koshi said:

Well white and chartruse is best for me on smallies and largies. Some of the ones I throw have some purple, red or blue strands in the skirt as well. 3/8 & 1/2oz most often are the best sizes, but I will say the Tiny T Terminator can be deadly for certain shallow water applications. Terminator is the fall back standby for sure but I have a couple others. I like the double willow configuration and I don't run a trailer hook because I too like to run a curly tail grub or a long fork tail as my trailer.

Permalink Reply by David Parnicky on December 24, 2009 at 11:27pm

My favorite spinnerbait for summertime smallmouth in clear water is a double willow 1/2 oz Pepper Hawg in the shad color. Something about that tanslucent, white and black speckled skirt just looks like a baitfish to me. I know many people do well on the white and white/chartruse skirts too but I prefer the more translucent ones in real clear water. I like to add a Silver Rainbow Zoom split tail trailer to this bait. For a trailer hook i use a #1 Gamakatsu Open Eye Swiash hook and slide a piece of surgical tubing in front of it. This bait seems to work pretty well on the river and at Banks. I move it really fast right up at the surface and simultaneously give it short twitches while retrieving it. In real clear water I believe you don't want the fish to get a chance to see what the lure is. I think you just want them to see a bunch of flash. Therefore, if the water is clear and the fish wont react to the spinnerbait moving real fast, I put the spinnerbait down and switch to something I can fish slower that looks more realistic than a spinnerbait. I have 0 confidence slow rolling a spinnerbait in clear water.

As far as largemouth go, I really don't have any particular spinnerbaits that I personally have a lot of confidence in. I do know that in cold, murky water, a dark colored spinnerbait with a LARGE single Colorado blade is an excellent choice. This can be deadly slow rolled and can trigger many bites deflecting off of the bottom of the lake and/or pieces of sumberged cover. I dont have a particular confidence bait for this technique yet. I have had a few excellent reccomendations though that I cannot wait to try this spring!

So I guess that is my philosophy on spinnerbaits....speed and flash rule in clear water and a slow moving spinnerbait that puts out a lot of vibration rules in murky and/or cold water.

Permalink Reply by Tim Vreeburg on December 25, 2009 at 1:47pm

These are great posts, thank you. If fishing Lake Sammamish in the Spring and Summer for smallmouth on spinnerbaits what would be the prefered target areas, docks and weedlines?

David Parnicky said:

My favorite spinnerbait for summertime smallmouth in clear water is a double willow 1/2 oz Pepper Hawg in the shad color. Something about that tanslucent, white and black speckled skirt just looks like a baitfish to me. I know many people do well on the white and white/chartruse skirts too but I prefer the more translucent ones in real clear water. I like to add a Silver Rainbow Zoom split tail trailer to this bait. For a trailer hook i use a #1 Gamakatsu Open Eye Swiash hook and slide a piece of surgical tubing in front of it. This bait seems to work pretty well on the river and at Banks. I move it really fast right up at the surface and simultaneously give it short twitches while retrieving it. In real clear water I believe you don't want the fish to get a chance to see what the lure is. I think you just want them to see a bunch of flash. Therefore, if the water is clear and the fish wont react to the spinnerbait moving real fast, I put the spinnerbait down and switch to something I can fish slower that looks more realistic than a spinnerbait. I have 0 confidence slow rolling a spinnerbait in clear water.

As far as largemouth go, I really don't have any particular spinnerbaits that I personally have a lot of confidence in. I do know that in cold, murky water, a dark colored spinnerbait with a LARGE single Colorado blade is an excellent choice. This can be deadly slow rolled and can trigger many bites deflecting off of the bottom of the lake and/or pieces of sumberged cover. I dont have a particular confidence bait for this technique yet. I have had a few excellent reccomendations though that I cannot wait to try this spring!

So I guess that is my philosophy on spinnerbaits....speed and flash rule in clear water and a slow moving spinnerbait that puts out a lot of vibration rules in murky and/or cold water.

Permalink Reply by Tim Vreeburg on December 25, 2009 at 11:48pm

Thanks for the tips, I am anxious to efficiently use a bait that covers lots of water and is moving at a good speed when the fish strikes for exciting hook-ups!

Ronald Hobbs, Jr. said:

Tim
Lake Sammamish in the spring is a great time to use spinnerbaits, inside weedlines during the prespawn and spawn or anywhere you find the salmon smolt. Top of weedlines and outside weedlines next to docks in the summer is usually the rule of thumb. Summer try using a 1 1/4 oz. around deep weededges and structure in the 15 to 25 foot zones.

Permalink Reply by Buck Brunner on December 26, 2009 at 1:13am

Do you guys prefer mono or fluoro line when fishing spinnerbaits?
What lb test?

Last year at a club tourney on Samish, I had two decent 2.5lb or so largemouth throw my 1oz Terminator spinnerbait. It was hearbreaking! Almost started to cry... I wasn't using a trailer hook, just the standard white/chartruse BPS plastic trailer. Both fish were hooked in 5 feet of water, and they both came unbuttoned about three feet from my boat! After missing the second fish, I threw that spinnerbait for the next hour without stopping, fan casting the whole area like a fool.

Sorry for the thread drift, just had to comment. Maybe a trailer hook would have saved the day. Now I'm scared to throw a spinnerbait without one.

Permalink Reply by Tom Edwards on December 26, 2009 at 9:42am

I use mono for everything. I don't lose all that many fish. I use 12 lb Stren for spinnerbaits in most ALL conditions, even thru the brush on Potholes. Haven't broken off a fish on a spinnerbait in about 20 years. I see no reason to use other than mono, but that is just my opinion. If it works, no need to fix it..

Buck Brunner said:

Do you guys prefer mono or fluoro line when fishing spinnerbaits?
What lb test?

Last year at a club tourney on Samish, I had two decent 2.5lb or so largemouth throw my 1oz Terminator spinnerbait. It was hearbreaking! Almost started to cry... I wasn't using a trailer hook, just the standard white/chartruse BPS plastic trailer. Both fish were hooked in 5 feet of water, and they both came unbuttoned about three feet from my boat! After missing the second fish, I threw that spinnerbait for the next hour without stopping, fan casting the whole area like a fool.

Sorry for the thread drift, just had to comment. Maybe a trailer hook would have saved the day. Now I'm scared to throw a spinnerbait without one.

Permalink Reply by Buck Brunner on December 27, 2009 at 12:51am

Thanks for the info Tom!

Tom Edwards said:

I use mono for everything. I don't lose all that many fish. I use 12 lb Stren for spinnerbaits in most ALL conditions, even thru the brush on Potholes. Haven't broken off a fish on a spinnerbait in about 20 years. I see no reason to use other than mono, but that is just my opinion. If it works, no need to fix it..

Buck Brunner said:

Do you guys prefer mono or fluoro line when fishing spinnerbaits?
What lb test?

Last year at a club tourney on Samish, I had two decent 2.5lb or so largemouth throw my 1oz Terminator spinnerbait. It was hearbreaking! Almost started to cry... I wasn't using a trailer hook, just the standard white/chartruse BPS plastic trailer. Both fish were hooked in 5 feet of water, and they both came unbuttoned about three feet from my boat! After missing the second fish, I threw that spinnerbait for the next hour without stopping, fan casting the whole area like a fool.

Sorry for the thread drift, just had to comment. Maybe a trailer hook would have saved the day. Now I'm scared to throw a spinnerbait without one.