Is it common for spinnerbaits to get bent up easily?

[Mike son]

I haven't fished spinnerbaits much until this year, would usually throw a chatterbait instead when I wanted some vibration and flash. I found that after every fish the wire arm of the spinnerbait is bent out of shape and I need to bend it back. Is this something that happens often or does it happen with cheap spinnerbaits? The spinnerbaits I own are made by Strike King.

[Clinton john]

It happens more with cheap spinnerbaits.

 

Some of the ones Strike king makes don't use very good wire.

 

I use mostly booyah and terminator.

 

It will be fine just keep bending it back, just don't try to use to much force to bend it back are try to bend it to far or it will snap.

 

Titanium wire is the best wire to use on a spinnerbait, try to find you some with that and it shouldn't bend as often.

 

My favorite spinnerbaits or the ones they sell at Wal-Mart that come three to a pack with some trailers I forget who they are made by but they work great just don't last long wire breaks kind of easy.

[Scott F]

Terminator spinner baits won't get bent out of shape but the wire can break.

[kickerfish1]

I have a few titanium spinnerbaits and they seem to last longer as far not getting bent. Any other spinnerbaits seems to get bent when enough fish are caught on it.

[Dtrombly]

I throw Booyah spinnerbaits and they hold up really well. 

[RoLo]

 

How well a spinnerbait resists bending depends on the wire used to form the frame.

Fat wire will resist bending, but it also tends to dampen the throb of the blade.

For this reason Stanley uses tapered wire, and other brands use thin titanium wire.

Titanium wire has virtually 100% memory, but over time the thin wire cam crystallize & break.

 

Roger

[Chowderhead]

35 minutes ago, Dtrombly said:

I throw Booyah spinnerbaits and they hold up really well. 

 

Same here - really like them and have had no issues. 

[A-Jay]

I'm a spinnerbait fan.  I like & fish them often. 

There are so many brands, makes & models of spinnerbaits.

Over the years I've tried many; including the titanium wire jobs.

Two things I've come to believe; most all of them will catch fish at one point or another and after catching some number of decent fish with one, it's going to fail.   That's just the way it is. 

So I've simply decided that this is the cost of doing business and no longer 'look for durability'.

Instead, fish catching, drives my bait choice.  The tricky part is knowing when to retire a bait BEFORE it fails in the Face of a Behemoth Bass.

Admittedly it's painful cutting off (and retiring) a bait that's still getting bit; but not nearly as gut wrenching as having a wire snap off in Old Big Head's face which I worked a season or two or six to catch. 

So, I'll did-assemble it, saving the blades, hardware & shirt (if decent) for use elsewhere.  

If you've fished around pike - you already know how very short  of a life span spinnerbaits can have as they are just brutal on them and rip them shreds.

 

A-Jay

[MassYak85]

It depends, some spinner baits purposefully use lighter wire arms, which will tend to bend more. I also generally have my drag on the looser side when fishing spinnerbaits. The hook is open and the bait is moving and doesn't take much to get them. Even if the arm does get bent though they are usually easy to fix by just bending them back. Too much of that can weaken it and cause it to snap though. 

[lmbfisherman]

Yes in general cheaper ones get bent easier.  My favourite SB is from Booyah, but I also buy cheap ones when I am specifically targeting pike.  No matter which SB they seem to tear it up easy.  One other thing that helps SBs last longer, don't flip your fish or try to lift them out of the water, this stresses the wire.  I see this all the time, use your free hand or use the net...that's why it's in the boat. 

[buzzed bait]

i mostly use the titanium terminators and never have an issue with the wire arm.  i also fish war eagles a pretty decent bit and don't have a ton of issues with them, but a mean spotted bass can make a mess of a spinnerbait from time to time.

[OkobojiEagle]

The time re-tuning a spinnerbait is the decompression time I need after catching a good bass!

 

 

oe

[earthworm77]

On 6/11/2017 at 11:14 AM, A5BLASTER said:

It happens more with cheap spinnerbaits.

 

Not just cheap ones, I throw Jackall's Eruption and it does that too some times.

[Lextauph]

From what I have heard, the light wire ones get bent easier, but also give off more vibration and movement in the water. 

[Dens228]

I was fishing for bass in July using a 3/8 oz spinnerbait and caught a 38 inch pike.  Yes, it ruined the spinnerbait but was well worth the fun.

[king fisher]

My spinner baits catch lots of fish before retirement and I can still save the blades swivels beads and sometimes skirts.

     They will last as long as a few bags of soft plastics and I snag and lose my crank baits at about the same rate as my spinner baits get ruined.  Nothing last forever if they’re bent that means they’re working just like baits with scratched up paint those are the good ones.

[Jig Man]

I’ve never seen an R wire spinnerbait that wouldn’t bend out unless it is modified.  I use War Eagle or make my own.  I wrap the R loop with braided line or floral wire.  Then I cover it with heat shrink tubing.  They bend, but not badly.  I haven’t had a broken wire in years.

 

The top one is homemade.  The bottom one is War Eagle.

 

 

[the reel ess]

On 6/12/2017 at 9:33 AM, buzzed bait said:

i mostly use the titanium terminators and never have an issue with the wire arm.  i also fish war eagles a pretty decent bit and don't have a ton of issues with them, but a mean spotted bass can make a mess of a spinnerbait from time to time.

I've broken 2 War Eagle spinnerbaits. But my current PB, caught July 2020 was on one. Beyond breaking the arm off, the lead head gets loose after a good bit of use. I bought a Megastrike Roland Martin Big Bass spinnerbait and it seems very sturdy. The wire is thick and it's twisted into an eye for the line tie.

[scaleface]

They all break , even titanium . I pour my own and change baits every twenty to thirty bass , even sooner if it gets severely mangled . I dont risk losing a bass anymore because the wire broke .The components , even the hooks get reused off a retired bait . I've caught several hundred bass on the same set of blades .

[Cgolf]

Yes spinnerbaits get bent out of shape even when lifting a fish into the boat. I hate that some are using the especially the cheap ones phrase. My most expensive spins, War Eagles bend if you look at them funny and especially when you catch a fish. That said they out fish other spinnerbaits by a wide margin most days. The thin wire that allows them to bend so easily is the secret sauce that provides the right vibration/sound patterns that draws them in most days. Last year during frontal conditions bass were hitting them so hard some of the thicker wire strike kings were bending too. Just nature of the beast with spinnerbaits imo.

[QED]

Spinnerbait bending due to catching a large bass is a high class problem to have.  I am more annoyed by spinnerbaits that don't run true at high speed, which is common.  Specifically, I sometimes like to use a spinnerbait as a buzz bait such that it just creates a surface wake but stays underwater.  Old school spinnerbaits seem to have had better design/QA in that regard.

[Bluebasser86]

Even with them bending, War Eagles have been pretty durable for me. I have them get like this one where the wire looks like it's about to pull out of the head and they're still going, although it didn't last long after I took this picture.

[Captain Phil]

On 6/11/2017 at 2:41 PM, A-Jay said:

So I've simply decided that this is the cost of doing business and no longer 'look for durability'.

 

Amen brother!   The wire has a significant effect on the action and vibration of a spinnerbait.  The thinner the wire the more you get.  This also means you will be buying more spinnner baits.   Why is it that someone would invest hundreds of dollars in rods and reels and thousands of dollars in a boat and worry about a few dollars more for a spinnerbait?  The spinnerbaits I use cost about $8-$10 each.  I could go to Walmart and buy some for less than $5 that would catch some fish.  I don't want "some fish", I want them all.  

[LrgmouthShad]

30 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

I don't want "some fish", I want them all.  

And amen to that. Nichols are my favorite in the same price range as yours. They are quite durable, but that doesnt stop them from being absolute fish catching machines. I've got one running that has easily caught over 35 or so

[DitchPanda]

 Gotta pay to play. Like mentioned above every brand will eventually give up the ghost. That picture @Bluebasser86 showed has been my experience with war eagles. The baits are fantastic but I often questioned durability..so I posted about last year. He kindly posted reminding me that all brands not just war eagle will fail. Prior to that statement I hadn't had another brand fail in years. But he put some kind of gypsy curse on me because the next day I was throwing a booyah around, hooked a 5+, she jumped once and I came back with just blades.