First Attempt at Inline Spinners!

[JLindsey]

The weather is putting a damper on my fishing lately, so I got myself a whole mess of components to make spinners with on the days when it’s too cold to hit the lake. I think my first batch turned out alright! It’ll take me a while to get the hang of making barrel wraps that don’t look like garbage, but other than that I’m fairly satisfied. I’ll most likely 86 the split rings going forward as well — they don’t seem to affect the action at all, but I don’t particularly like the way they elongate the profile. 

 

I took them out this morning to goof around and make sure they all spin correctly. They do, and I caught a couple decent chain pickerel on them. 

 

One thing I’m going to have to experiment with is weight — more specifically, the balance between castability and sink rate. I was able to cast them all a country mile, but there’s a ton of hydrilla in most of the lakes and ponds I fish, and I had a bit of a hard time keeping these above the grass beds. 

 

Now all I need is a wire former for my workbench. And maybe a fly vise and some hackle so I can dress my hooks. Some different body styles and some red tubing wouldn’t hurt, either. And a Lee pot, too, and some molds and some powder paint and a heat gun and...

[Scott F]

The split rings make it easy to change hooks if one gets too dull or breaks. 

[Brad Reid]

They look really nice to me, sort of similar to Mepps.

 

A plain Aglia Mepps inline spinner in silver, sometimes white, is a killer here in Texas for white bass. The white bass showed up at my boathouse Presidents Day weekend 2018 and I could just stand on my dock and catch them at will.

 

Brad

 

 

[Angry John]

If i was building them i may consider building in a ball bearning swivel into the top.  If you like to tie direct this would add another component and might not be something you want, but if you have line twist issues it will remove at least one component if you add them after the fact.  The cabelas or bass pro house brand ball bearing swivels worked just fine for me in most of the small spinner fishing i did.

[Scott F]

If you built your spinners correctly, only the blade will spin, not the entire lure so they won't cause your line to twist any more than any other lure.

[islandbass]

On 11/21/2018 at 6:29 PM, Angry John said:

If i was building them i may consider building in a ball bearning swivel into the top.  If you like to tie direct this would add another component and might not be something you want, but if you have line twist issues it will remove at least one component if you add them after the fact.  The cabelas or bass pro house brand ball bearing swivels worked just fine for me in most of the small spinner fishing i did.

Great idea, and I add them to mine. 

 

The wire former is unnecessary and I can see from your pic your wire form is sufficient. Unless the lure making monkey is rattling his cage.   Well done!!

 

Although this is just a guideline and not set in stone, you generally want the blade to “cover” the body of the lure give or take a little, so a little short or long should be okay.  Honestly, I can’t remember the reason why, but I remember reading it in a book. 

 

Lastly, you might want to consider switching to a single hook if you realize that the grass is becoming a nuisance. I have not seen a decline in catching fish with a single hook. I actually think it’s better with a single hook, but that is my opinion and not a fact. One functional hook type is the siwash hook. They are strong and some even come open eyed which is a plus.