Clear Water Spinnerbait Help.

[Felix77]

Wondering what you use for very clear water spinner bait fishing. Not brand but weight, head and skirt color, blade configuration.

[MIbassin]

5/16-3/8oz my best has been double willow with silver blades with an all white skirt that has a couple strands if blue in it

[Catt]

3\8 oz., white skirt, & double gold willowleaf

[basshavoc]

3/8 bleeding shad, double willow silver

[The Young Gun]

War eagle 1/4oz double willow in silver. It's the only clear water spinnerbait i have, for good reason.. But if I had money I'd buy a lot more of others

[bigbill]

I been using the Mann's hank Parker classic 1/4 oz white spinner bait with two gold Colorado or one is a Indiana blade I'm not sure I have brain fade tonight.

I change the white skirt to the blue glimmer color. The blue glimmer color here seems to work the best. I put on a white mister twister 4" split double tail grub as a trailer. One shot of yum shad scent and it's good to go.

I had awesome success with the Mann's 1/8oz classic spinner bait setup the same way but trimming the MT 4" split double tail grub trailer to fit the smaller hook. But they don't offer it anymore.

[Bluebasser86]

3/8oz War Eagle with tandem blades, gold colorado/silver willowleaf, in sexy mouse or spot remover color. For really clear water I go with the 1/2oz Screaming Eagle with double silver willowleafs in the same color.

[A-Jay]

I fish clear water as well.  A spinner bait does produce for me but since the fish can get such a good look at it there are 3 times when it will seems do better.  As for color and size, I try to match whatever the local forage at that time is.

 

1).  Target fishing in tight quarters.  By fishing ambush points around structure (pads, docks, wood etc.) there is much less of an opportunity for the fish to get a very good look at the bait and forces the bass to make a very quick choice to eat it or let it go.  An accurate quite entry helps, it's almost like pitching but the distances are usually a bit farther but not always.

 

2).  Burning the bait.  In clear water speed can be your friend.  A heavier bait and slightly under-sized willow blades will help keep a correctly tuned bait speeding just under the surface.  White Blades on   a White bait (no trailer but use a trailer hook) is a favorite here and smallies especially love to chance these baits down and Hammer them.  Wind blown banks, long gradually sloping points adjacent to a fish holding drops are good places to start.  Sometimes bass will come up quite a ways to get this bait.  The SK "Burner" model bait works well as do others with this design.

 

3). And finally Night Ops.  Very clear water lakes , especially places that get a fair amount of fishing /recreational boating use, are often good night time producers.  I prefer a single Oklahoma or Mag willow bladed 1/2 oz bait.  A swim bait body trailer has been a solid producing upgrade for me as well.  Don't be afraid to use a healthy sized offering either, especially late summer and early fall when the weeds start to die off and the bait size is bigger.   Target places you've taked fish before but they may not be very tight to the cover and fairly willing to chase down & gobble up your slow-rolled blade bait.

 

 

Good Luck

 

A-Jay

[29JMP29]

1/4 - 3/8, try to find something in natural colors, not a lot of people make green pumpkin or watermelon colored spinnerbaits, but the few that do are pretty nice

[Zach Dunham]

Natural colors only unless in the really early dawn. At dawn or dusk in low light you can get smallmouth to really whack a chartreuse even in clear water. Once there is good visibility I would stay with white skirt and white or silver blades. In general I fish them much faster in clear water and higher in the water column, but as usual, nothing is 100% of the time in fishing.

 

Night time in clear water every one will pretty much agree on: big, dark-colored (usually black for me) spinnerbaits with big, dark-colored (usually black for me) colorado blades.

[J Francho]

1/2 oz.  Chartreuse blades, head, and skirt.  If they are deeper, I'll throw a 5/8 or 3/4 oz. bait.

[Siebert Outdoors]

3/8 chart/white or white double willow for shallower water

 

1/2 for a little deeper.

[Bobby Uhrig]

Heres what I use  ya want it as natural as can be

[Felix77]

Heres what I use  ya want it as natural as can be

 

Bobby is that the Lavendar Shad or Ghost Minnow?  Looks like the ghost minnow.

[primetime]

I like to "Mtatch the Hatch" as they say, and I have found that in clear water, spinnerbaits work well for the "Flash" effect which in turn causes reaction strikes as well as strikes from Active fish. I like to downsize my selection to a spinnerbait that is 1/8 or 3/16 and I prefer either a single colorodo blade or willow blade (Not hammered) in Silver/nickel. I use Black at night, but often the same set up that works in the daylight will work at night. Studies have shown that 90% of fish actually strike the Skirt as opposed to the Blades (Knowing Bass by Keith A Jones.) If bluegills are the Main Forrage I like to use a Skirt that has black and blue with a chartrueuse pepper translucent single tail twister grub. 3" trailers usually work fine and I like a trailer hook since clear water fish love to just bump faster moving baits.

 

Keep in mind that "Clear water" is never really clear....Bass feed by sight first, so in clear water, I have had success avoiding rattles and sound, and also vibrations with colorodo hammered blades and Indiana deep cupped blades. Keep it simple. You can never go wrong with a Baby bass or green colored skirt and trailer, or silver flake if Shad or Shiners are the main Forrage.

 

Good rule of thumb that works for me....In Winter and Pre Spawn...I fish crawfish pattern spinnnerbaits with orange blades and craw pattern trailers with a white trailer. In the spring, after the bluegills spawn, I go firetiger, black and blue, and chartruese heavy...Then, whenever in doubt...I go with a white trailer and translucent watermelon, motor oil, smoke, or white trailer/grub.

 

Experiment with colors for blades as well....I have done great with black and white colored blades in clear water and I use this rule....If water is stained red, then I will use a trailer that is translucent with Red Flake and also go to a Red/Silver blade combo and if water is brown or green, I go with darker colors like green and Blue/Purple.

 

It is important to have skirts to change out while fishing and also some extra blades that you can downsize...spinnerbaits with single blades and double willow work best for me, or willow and small colorodo....I don't like alot of thump in clear water.....

 

One last suggestion...get a 3.5-4" skinny dipper style swimbait or Gambler Ez swimmber and rig it with a  3/0 hook and 1/8 oz bullet weight pegged, and then add a small willow blade attached to a swivel and split ring to the hook so it hangs off. Completely weedless, plenty of flash and fish a swimbait no bigger than 4.5" and no smaller than 3". If water is completely clear, Motoroil dipped with chartruese is killer, as well as smoke and silver flake, watermelon translucent, and black blue flake of course.

 

Do not be afraid to throw a johnson silver minnow or any spoon for that matter in clear water and always use the lightest line possible. If not alot of structure, 6lb test is preffered in my opinion and if fish are over 10lbs, then 8-10lb fluorocarbon or mono in clear colors work best. Rig the spoon with whatever soft bait gives you the most confidence as long as it is black, white, or in a translucent color.

[ww2farmer]

In clear water I rarely use a spinnerbait anymore, I have switched to swim jigs or soft swimbaits. BUT when I did use them in clear water, for shallow work, I liked a 3/8 oz white/chart with double #3 willow blades, gold on one side and 'dull" on the other......I usually used a black sharpie to dull the one side. Reel it fast and keep it high up against the surface so the chop "hides" it a little.

[nascar2428]

1/2 oz, double willow, silver and gold blades, Bluegill.

[pbizzle]

Here's what I've always thought.

Clear Water Spinnerbait = Swim Jig

If you put on a good trailer it's just enough flash with a subtle action.

[Bobby Uhrig]

That is the ghost minnow-deadly in clear water -I use the willow blades as well -Usually when I want to burn themacross the surface-Great for small mouth fishing

[Tartan34]

The only spinnerbait I regularly fish in clear water is a quad-willow (all silver) blade, 3/8 oz, shad color.  

 

Sure, I'll change it up during bluegill spawns, but that's really about it.  

 

For me, in clear water, that thing just outfishes all of the rest.  

[Deleted account]

I'll pile on the swim jig idea, unless its windy and cloudy, then I may try a 3/16-3/8 in a natural color with downsized gold blades.

[Felix77]

Picked up a few Spinnerbaits to test out this weekend.  I also tied on a swim jig with a swimming caffeine shad trailer.  Bringing a few trailer alternatives to see if one "sticks".

 

Wish me luck!

 

Thanks to all again!