Spinnerbait question for RK or others

[Cooter]

Forgive as i have asked this before but......

pros and cons of long vs short arm and which work best in weeds vs timber vs open water vs rock (does it matter in rocks? Have a chunk of river with lots of snaggy rock bottom).

Also single vs tandem blades and which - double colorado vs colorado and willow vs double willow and when to throw which.

Finally favorite blade or blade combo for big pike? (Might double post in the pike forum as well

tks! Got the itch!

[RK]

Hiya -

Short arm baits like Pearson's Grinders are good in cabbage/coontail, great for fluttering or yo-yoing, not so good around 'hard' vertical cover like rushes or wood. When the arm hits a rush stalk, for example, it tips the bait to the side, and once the arm is past the rush, it returns to vertical. With a short arm, it tips back vertical just in time to bury the hook in the stalk. I love grinders, but fishing them in rushes is an exercise in futility.

Long arm baits OTOH are great in rushes, etc. Look at Shriver's High-Jacker spinnerbaits, and they have a very long arm, because they were designed specifically to fish in rushes on Leech and Cass.

Rad Dogs are kind of in between, and are about as versatile as it gets overall.

Blades - I throw single spins most often, especially if I'm slow rolling. But tandems are good for over the top of shallow weeds, etc., especially if you're bulging them. I prefer Colorado blades to fluted Indianas personally. More lift, more thump. A tandem with a front Colorado and rear willow is a good burner in clear water. Go find a bass article on spinnerbait selection - same rules of thumb apply more or less...

Rocks - they're tough. It's more a function of head design than blade or arm, and there aren't a lot of good options. The old fat head M&Gs weren't bad. Bullet head designs tend to wedge in rocks the worst, but sometimes jagged chunk rock is just snaggy no matter what you do. There are some areas of Lake of the Woods were the rocks are just like velcro for reaching up and grabbing a slow rolled spinnerbait...

[RK]

Oh - Pike. Willows for sure. I love the Northland Magnum Reed Runners for pike.

Honestly though with a spinnerbait the absolute best thing you can do to one to make it a pike killer is put a twister tail trailer on it. Don't know what it is exactly, but it makes a huge difference. Friend of mine related a story to me not long ago of fishing pike on Lake Nipigon. 3 guys in the boat all throwing spinnerbaits. Two guys with twister tails on their spinnerbaits were catching fish steadily. Guy 3# had a plain spinnerbait and did not get a bite until he put a trailer on. Same bait, just added a trailer, and went from getting throttled to keeping up with the other two guys.

I've seen that repeated everywhere from MN to NW Ontario to Manitoba to Alaska...

[Cooter]

Much appreciated sir!

Lastly - color.......white with silver blades, chart and silver/white, red and silver, white and red, mix it up with firetiger?

A pink cowgirl is gonna get thrown as well.........

[JPenny]

Couldn't agree more on the twister tails and pike RK. My favorite spinnerbait around rocks is a Shumway Hot Head. It has a pivoting head that avoids snags in rocks better than most. Also comes with an 8" grub that is actually pretty durable.

[Cooter]

Thanks jack! I have spinnerbait wire forms in both .040 and .051 along with jigs and plastics to match.

BTW - i miss your magazine, that one was tops!

Did some panfishing and scouting today on the lake i will be pike fishing and there are areas where the weeds never died off much and are right at the surface......looking to add a few buzzbaits to the arsenal as well.

[RK]

I forgot about the Hot Heads. They are great pike catchers. I've made my own swinging head baits with bucktail wire and an Owner swimbait jighead too. Put a big shad body on them and the whole thing wobbles like a crankbait. Muskies eat them too... They're basically just a giant Beetle Spin, and try to name something they don't catch...

Pike do love buzzbaits. Have a heck of a time actually eating them though, but that's part of the fun. Trailer hooks are a must... You can also take the buzzbait skirt off and replace it with a Fluke/jerk shad, which helps some too. Plus they cast a lot better.

Colors - I'm pretty unimaginative when it comes to colors. For muskies, white/silver, blue/white/silver or black/silver in clear water, black/flame or firetiger in dirty water, and brown/yellow/gold in any water... For pike, hard to be either black and orange or red and white. (The old Bass-o-reno and Daredevles where red and white for a reason...)

[Cooter]

Ditto on certain jig/plastic combos on a spinnerbait wire form having the back and forth crankbait motion - in particular it seems to work with a no 9 indiana blade i got from thorne bros (lakeland make?) - didnt work for double inlines but do get that action, even with a stanard spinnerbait head vs the looped eye spinnerbait wire form.

Tips on making a buzzbait (or topper stopper style) bait sqweak? Have heard run em on a fan for days, soak in water periodically. Anyway toget them sing the right song?

[RK]

Tips on making a buzzbait (or topper stopper style) bait sqweak? Have heard run em on a fan for days, soak in water periodically. Anyway toget them sing the right song?

If you run them in front of a fan or under a sink or tie them to your car antenna all it does is wear them out faster...

On most buzzbaits there is a rivet on the end of the arm that the blade rests against. That's where the squeak comes from. Make sure that rivet doesn't spin on the shaft by crimping it down with a vise grips, then take a file or emery board and rough up the flat surface on the rivet. Then look at the blade. The bottom metal tab that the shaft runs through needs to be at a 90 degree angle to the shaft so as much of the flat part of the tab rubs against the rivet as possible. If it's at an angle *gently* bend it with a needle nose (it's easy to break them off if you aren't careful). You can also rough the bottom of the tab up a little too.

Do all that, and it might squeak. Most will to some degree, but some just squeak more than others. Save the ones that really squeal for special occasions.

BTW, same process works for Topper Stoppers. I have one Topper that's caught an ungodly number of fish, and I can hear it squeaking from 50' away... With Toppers, some just have it and some don't. I know someone who will buy every Topper on the rack and try them all, keep the ones that squeak, and sell the rest.

[JPenny]

BTW - i miss your magazine, that one was tops!

Thank you Cooter. I'm guessing that you are referring to Esox Angler magazine. This was not actually "my" magazine, I just wrote for them. It was owned by a group of guys, some who had their heart's in it and some who didn't in my opinion. I can tell you this for certain. The heart and soul of that magazine was Jack Burns and Rob Kimm. I believed Esox Angler was the very best magazine of it's type on the market and Jack & Rob were responsible for that. I was very proud to be associated with them.

[KING]

any idea where to find the shrivers spinnerbaits? Or know of a similar design?

I've always been a Rad Dog guy but doing more reed fishing recently and could use a slightly more efficient tool.

[RK]

any idea where to find the shrivers spinnerbaits? Or know of a similar design?

I've always been a Rad Dog guy but doing more reed fishing recently and could use a slightly more efficient tool.

I'd just call Jack at the bait shop. 218.547.2250

I honestly don't know if they're still making baits, but for rushes, you can't beat them, although Rad Dogs aren't a bad choice. With Rad Dogs you can change the angle from the head to the line tie a little by lifting up the wire, and that'll extend the top arm back over the hook a little more.