Spinnerbait with soft plastic trailer, Yes or No?

[SeeNoSun]

I use a Keitech 3.8 Paddle tail and no trailer hook on a 3/8 single willow blade spinnerbait. There is a big forage base of shad where I fish and this seems to attract some huge bass. 

[papajoe222]

I'll do it in a couple of different situations. The first is when I want to bulk up my presentation. That's normally in the early spring and late fall and a Kalin's Lunker Grub is my trailer of choice. It slows the retrieve down similar to using one with a Colorado blade, but you still have the flash that the willow blade offers. Yes, I only use single blade, short arm baits for this.

The other is when I feel the fish are hitting the blades and in that case, I'll throw a spinnerbait with the skirt removed and add a paddle tail swim bait. That big piece of plastic, I feel, will draw their attention away from the flash of the blades.

[scaleface]

I've been experimenting with a paddle-tail and no skirt . It hasnt produced  but it looks good .

[Bluebasser86]

If I want added bulk for a bigger profile or to allow for a slower retrieve I will add a trailer. I'll also add one for contrast at times. In the fall when the gizzard shad are big, I use a 4.8" Fat Impact for a trailer a lot. I like to use a white spinnerbait with a solid chartreuse trailer in really dirty and really clear water also, especially for smallmouth. Generally use a YUM Boogie split tail trailer for that. Trailer hook is always added when I'm using a trailer and anytime I'm around spots or smallmouth. 

 

Dirty water+smallmouth=white spinnerbait with a chartreuse trailer (for contrast) and trailer hook. 

[the reel ess]

13 hours ago, Log Catcher said:

I never use a trailer or trailer hook. I have my best luck slow rolling a spinner bait.

I have my best luck that way too. Even though I've always heard you should burn it (KVD) and keep it in your sight (Jimmy Houston), my best results have been slowly bumping it into stumps, limbs, dock pilings, etc. Houston also said that if the water is too cold for turtles to swim, it's too cold for bass to react to a spinnerbait. Not exactly true. I like the big single Colorado blade "night time" spinnerbait in the cold months. You just gotta reel it very slow and tap the bass on the nose with it.

[J Francho]

Food for thought....all on the trailer hook only.  I did change colors that day, but the blue/white produced around 25 fish from shore.  A very memorable pre-spawn day.

 

 

 

[the reel ess]

17 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Food for thought....all on the trailer hook only.  I did change colors that day, but the blue/white produced around 25 fish from shore.  A very memorable pre-spawn day.

 

 

 

I think that most people who don't use a trailer hook just haven't tried a trailer hook. A certain percentage of the bass I've caught on a spinnerbait were on the trailer. One of those could be your PB. People say they do this and that when they're short striking, but there are many times you'd never know they're short striking.

[J Francho]

These fish were crashing the blades.  If that is what is triggering the bite, then it's hit or miss without a trailer hook.

[Gundog]

I always use a trailer on my spinner baits and never a trailer hook mostly because where I fish is choked with weeds and a trailer hook would just get constantly fouled. As for what I use, that is a long list. A 3 inch Zoom Fat Albert Grub, a 4 inch Kalin's Lunker Grub, a 3.8 Keitech Swing Impact Fat boot tail swimbait, 4 inch Yamamoto Zako swimbait, Strike King Rage Tail Craw and Rage Tail Menace and Big Bite Baits 4 inch Finesse Grub. Also I have a couple of boxes of discontinued grubs that I use at random.  

[BASSnRacks]

2 hours ago, J Francho said:

Food for thought....all on the trailer hook only.  I did change colors that day, but the blue/white produced around 25 fish from shore.  A very memorable pre-spawn day.

 

 

 

i have tried a trailer hook on and off several times. I always seem to get that trailer hook stuck in the tongue or way in the back which makes the hook removal a pain for me, especially on pike. I guess i will give it another try. i think its KVD's burner or scorcher that i use that comes with one and always seems like trouble. Thanks for all the replies guys!

[J Francho]

3 hours ago, Gundog said:

never a trailer hook mostly because where I fish is choked with weeds and a trailer hook would just get constantly fouled

I generally fish in weeds or wood.  Fouling and hang ups are rare, if you leave the hook free swinging.

[the reel ess]

13 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I generally fish in weeds or wood.  Fouling and hang ups are rare, if you leave the hook free swinging.

Same here. I fish a place that's about 1/3 cypress stumps and I use the trailer hook all the time. The weeds are more likely to foul the blades. If you're in a boat or kayak, you can usually go get the bait if it gets hung up. If you put the hook on with the point up and you pull the bait over a limb, that's the straight side of the hooks.

[Ratherbfishing]

If I want a little more bulk, action, or decrease the rate of fall, I will add an appropriate trailer to my spinnerbait.  I usually avoid trailers that extend too far behind the spinnerbait-unless I also add a trailer hook.

 

Rarely do I add a trailer/trailer hook if I'm trying to work a spinnerbait through a lot of vegetation if I think the trailer or trailer hook will foul things up.

[Gundog]

59 minutes ago, J Francho said:

I generally fish in weeds or wood.  Fouling and hang ups are rare, if you leave the hook free swinging.

I'd like to know how you do that. My friend has tried with a trailer hook and the hook always comes back dragging 5 pounds of weeds. Does your trailer hook have a shorter shank or weed guard? 

[J Francho]

It's just a 1/0 Owner trailer hook.  If he's getting 5 lbs. of weeds with it, chances are he'd get 5 lbs. of weeds without it.  You can't just burn it through slop.

[Munkin]

1 hour ago, Gundog said:

I'd like to know how you do that. My friend has tried with a trailer hook and the hook always comes back dragging 5 pounds of weeds. Does your trailer hook have a shorter shank or weed guard? 

The trailer hooks I use are 2/0 short shank.

 

Allen 

[bassin is addicting]

The only trailer on my spinnerbaits is a trailer hook.

[Raul]

Almost never.

[WRB]

Rarely use a trailer hook and usually add a split tail spinnerbait trailer.

Tom

[Koz]

White spinnerbait with a white Keitech Swing Impact was a killer bait all spring and produced through the summer. I caught more and bigger fish with that trailer than without on the same spinnerbait.

[Bankbeater]

No trailer on spinnerbaits, but I almost always use one with a bladed jig.

[Boomstick]

If I am getting short strikes, I will generally add a trailer. In perfectly open water, I may use a trailer hook but I find that the spinnerbait becomes less weedless with a trailer hook and hooks more weeds, so I adjust per situation. More often than not, once I get a bite on a spinnerbait I also get a fish, so I fish them without a trailer or trailer hook.

 

I honestly focus more on matching the right blades and colors for the situation, usually a double willow or willow/colorado which seems to be the most effective in the clear water we have up here in the northeast (but I always carry some colorado blades for the cloudy days too!)

[river-rat]

I've used a 4" curl tail grub or a Zoom Split Tail trailer for years  on spinnerbaits. I use the following colors exclusively white/pearl, silk chartreuse, Yellow (in muddy water) or Glimmer Blue almost 100% of the time.