Spinnerbait wire length question

[georgeyew]

I am trying to make some spinnerbaits on my own. I see some with longer blade arms and some shorter. Does anyone know how the length of the blade arm affect the way the bait runs in the water?

 

Update: I did some searching online and came across an article by ***. He stated this:

 

"The short arm causes the vibration to be felt as a rapid, tight rattle, a shake or hard shiver as opposed to a throb or a thump. The short arm creates a lipless crankbait feeling in the rod tip. The short arm seems to hold the blade in one spot rather than gyrating all over. It creates quite a bit of flash concentrated in a small area."

[smalljaw67]

3 hours ago, georgeyew said:

I am trying to make some spinnerbaits on my own. I see some with longer blade arms and some shorter. Does anyone know how the length of the blade arm affect the way the bait runs in the water?

 

Update: I did some searching online and came across an article by ***. He stated this:

 

"The short arm causes the vibration to be felt as a rapid, tight rattle, a shake or hard shiver as opposed to a throb or a thump. The short arm creates a lipless crankbait feeling in the rod tip. The short arm seems to hold the blade in one spot rather than gyrating all over. It creates quite a bit of flash concentrated in a small area."

 

There is more to the arm length than just vibration. I make a bait that is an Indiana blade on the top and a Colorado blade on the bottom, I also bent the wire at a steeper angle on the blade arm and made it shorter. I did this because the bait I made is for fishing weeds in dirty water so the steeper angle helps it come through the weeds while using blades that aren't great for weeds but the shorter arm is so the end of the spinner blade is even with the bend in the hook. In dirty water the fish are going off of feel more than sight and will often hit the blades, so having the blade arm short and keeping it close to the hook makes the odds of hooking a fish that hits the blades higher than if the blade arm would be longer. I know, a long example but there are also other things it does, like killing a bait, just letting it drop, the shorter blade arm allows the blade to spin or "helicopter" better on the fall than a long arm bait does. Then you have the vibration part as what you read but there are cons as well to a shorter blade arm. It is true that you get faster vibration but it also makes the bait unstable at high speeds no matter what size of blades you run. For me personally, I don't use trailer hooks so my blade arm is shorter so that only 1/3rd of the blade extends past the hook bend except for a burner which I use smaller blades and a longer blade arm. You really don't see a ton of difference in vibration unless the arm length is around 2" or less, that is when you really notice the difference like the Zorro Short arm aggravator but they are meant to be fished as a drop bait, guys on Dale Hollow fish them at night and they cast to bluff walls and let the bait helicopter down and the rip it up and do it again, that is where the tight, lipless crank vibration really pays off. I'm sorry about the long rant, I get too deep into spinnerbaits as I have 2 full notebook pages of different size wire forms that I make for different reasons and I know some differences are slight and can be made with just a change in blade spacing but I like spinnerbaits so I get too involved.

[WRB]

Short arms are usually used for single Colorado blades and presented as a falling helicopter lure. Longer wire spinnerbaits are normally double bladed, the forward blade over the head, the trailing blade over the hook point and retrieved horizontally.

The blade shape/size and wire diameter or stiffness determines vibration; willow, Colorado, Indiana and willow/wedge.

Tom

 

[georgeyew]

I did a quick test last night. I cut about 1.5" off the blade arm and attached a size 6 blade. I wanted to use the large blade to imitate larger bait fish but did not want the extra lift. The shorter arm allowed me to run the spinnerbait faster without too much lift with the size 6 blade. So I think I found my solution. Thanks everyone.

[Jeff H]

On 5/18/2017 at 8:31 AM, georgeyew said:

I did a quick test last night. I cut about 1.5" off the blade arm and attached a size 6 blade. I wanted to use the large blade to imitate larger bait fish but did not want the extra lift. The shorter arm allowed me to run the spinnerbait faster without too much lift with the size 6 blade. So I think I found my solution. Thanks everyone.

What was the weight of your lure?  I'm guessing you used #6 Colorado??

[georgeyew]

No, it was a #6 willow leaf blade. The weight was approx 3/8 oz.

[smalljaw67]

You cut off 1.5" off the blade arm of a 3/8oz bait? The typical blade arm doesn't usually go longer than 2 1/2" or 2 5/8" so cutting off 1 1/2" off is going to leave you less than an inch after you make the loop to attach the blade. That type of bait is really unstable and I could be wrong but I'd be willing to guess that when you retrieve it bait will lay on its side with anything over the slowest speed to at least keep the blade spinning. I hope it works but that is a really short arm for a large willow on a bait less than 1/2oz, it least I have a tough time visualizing how it would work, good luck and let me know how it goes.

[Jeff H]

3 hours ago, smalljaw67 said:

You cut off 1.5" off the blade arm of a 3/8oz bait? The typical blade arm doesn't usually go longer than 2 1/2" or 2 5/8" so cutting off 1 1/2" off is going to leave you less than an inch after you make the loop to attach the blade. That type of bait is really unstable and I could be wrong but I'd be willing to guess that when you retrieve it bait will lay on its side with anything over the slowest speed to at least keep the blade spinning. I hope it works but that is a really short arm for a large willow on a bait less than 1/2oz, it least I have a tough time visualizing how it would work, good luck and let me know how it goes.

Pretty much what I was thinking... i was like that's gotta be a slow mover.

[georgeyew]

I will double check my measurements, but I am pretty sure I took off about 1.5". Yes the remaining wire is about an inch or a bit above that. Surprisingly, it does not lay on the side on a relative fast retrieve. I'll try it out this week and see if I get any fish on it.