Spinnerbait Blades

[midnighthrasher]

Ive use spinnerbaits quite a bit and this year ill be picking up a bunch. Just wondering what blade configuration everyone has had success with. Ive only ever used willow/willow. I have read a few articles like the one from *** and their very informative but i was wondering what people use the most. Your GO TO  blade configuration. Thanks

[ww2farmer]

For me personaly, I like a double willow in clear water, and a willow/colorado tandem in stained water. Both with a gold/nickle combo for blade color.

A few blade modifications I make, especially in the clear water I fish are:

#1 Down size the blades, most (Strike king, the brands I use) come with blades bigger than I care for.  A 3/8's oz double willow will usually come with a 4.5 and 3.5 size blades, I'll take them off, shorten the wire a bit and put a 4 and 3 back on, I'll do the same with a 1/2 and 1/4 oz baits as well. I basically down size the blades a half size from what the come with, but some times 1 full size as well.

#2 Often even in "good spinner bait conditions" (cloudy, chop on the water, falling pressure etc...) the flash of the gold and/or silver blades in clear water is still too obnoxious. Alot of guys up north here like painted blades to combat this, especialy for Smallmouth............I do, but I don't. I have much better success painting one side of the blade and leaving the other bare. Most of my spinnerbaiting is done with Chart/white combo skirts, so I paint my blades to match. For example on a 3/8 oz bait I'll paint the larger blade white and dip the tip in chart.I'll leave the other side of the blade alone, and the smaller blade will get painted the same, but on the opposite side or rotation........follow me??

Those are just some of the easy mods I do that IMHO help get a few more bites than a standard out of the package bait.

[Paul Roberts]

It's all about depth and speed for me. Blade size and type factor in. I have SB configurations for the range.

I use willows for speed and/or depth and Colorado's to slow things down. I do use some Indiana's but really only to tame an unstable bait that can't handle the CO in the size I'd like.

I use Glenn's approach (http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1247326108) of using a standard weight (in his case 3/4, in mine 1/2, for stability), and then I adjust blades from there. I use 3/8 too for much shallower places. (I do have even smaller but they more rarely see any use anymore). I also have 3/4s for deep water, but where I mostly fish I am more apt to configure a 1/2oz with a shorter arm and single willow for summer, and a single CO for winter.

For example, I just picked up some new Strike King "Burners". Looks like a great basic design: low center of gravity head to stabilize the blades at high speed. They come with extra narrow heavy willow blades, for really high speed -hence the "Burner". I plan to use some this way, subsurface with lots of rod manipulations. But I took some and switched the blades out to Colorado's for "bulging" -retrieving fast just under the surface -deadly.

Colorado's make a great bulge in the surface film and depending on size of blade, will fish faster of slower. In general, the larger and wider the blade the less stability (ability to run true) and more critical tuning becomes -using a heavier weight head really helps.

I also replace the terminal split ring with a tiny snap -so I can change blades on the water.

In general, the higher the visibility the faster, and possibly quieter, I go. The lower the visibility, or heavier the cover, the slower and more disturbance I want.

If you need the willows and you feel there's too much flash -you can pop on some vinyl tape, or use a permanent marker for a quick alteration (it rubs off).

Think depth and speed first.

[bassin is addicting]

i typically use double willow also.  or front colorado back willow.  i do use colorado in stained to dirty water.

but, like you i have read ***s article and am considering some double-oklahoma. 

does anyone have any feedback on these?

[Raul]

Well I 'm a bait junkie like since I can remember, at the beginning of my bait addiction when I began purchasing tackle and being a novice I just had to purchase everything I saw so I ended up having spinnerbaits in almost every blade shape you can find, in almost every configuration you can find; nowdays and 30 years later the ones that see all the action are: single Tennessee and single willow leaf, with those two I cover almost any fishing situation. I put much more emphasis on depth and speed than I put in blade shape.

[Catt]

It's all about personal preference for me

Tandem: Double willow 100% of the time, double gold 90% of the time, & silver/gold the other 10% of the time

Single: Over Sized Deep Cupped Gold 100%

1/2 oz 70% of the time, 3/8 oz 15% of the time, & 1/4 oz 15% of the time

[fishfordollars]

Clear water: Hammered Willow

Stained water: Combination of Hammered colorado/Willow

Muddy water: Hammered Indiana, Colorado, or turtle back

Depending on the degrees of color and depth I will adjust the sizes.

If smallmouth are present I like painted blades as another option.

Jack

[RoLo]

Back in the 60s and 70s, the "Indiana" blade used to be my favorite style.

It's a nice middle-of-the-road compromise between the 'Colorado' and 'Willow-Leaf' blades.

Unfortunately, as the years rolled by, a good spinnerbait that sported Indiana blades

became increasingly hard to find For a couple years I made due with the somewhat similar

"Oklahoma" blades, but eventually threw in the towel on compromise blade-styles.

Roger

[A-Rob]

Williow leaf....silver in clear water, gold in tea stained with sunshine.

haven't noticed much of a difference b/w the 2ndary blade, in fact one of my most productive spinnerbaits only had 1 silver willowleaf