How to find success on spinnerbaits

[Takemetothebank]

I know people can go out and kill it on a spinnerbait but despite countless hours throwing them i can never seem to consistently catch fish on them while I may get a random fish every once and awhile I just feel much more confident in other options as in swim jigs chatterbaits and underspin or regular swim baits. I’m not sure if it’s just the lakes I fish but like a good boy I pull out a spinnerbait everytime the water gets a little dirty but it always seems to come up short I have even spent a good amount of time slow rolling big colorados at night with little success burning willows above shallow rock nothing. What times of the year and what conditions do you guys find most successful for throwing spinnerbaits obviously a spinnerbait or chatterbait is for dirty water as opposed to a swim jig but even in dirty water a underspin or chatterbait just produces more fish for me. When do you guys throw spinnerbaits and when do you have confidence that they will produce more than the underspin and chatterbait 

[Jig Man]

Any time the water is +50° I throw one.  Clear water to muddy water makes no difference.  All I do is change the color, however, white and chartreuse seem to work in any color of water.

 

For me wind, sun, and time of day are the important factors, though I prefer the crepuscular periods if I can have them.

[detroit1]

Don't force it. If you can't get bit throwing a spinnerbait, my advice is to quit throwing it. Who says you have to?

[Captain Phil]

I throw a spinnerbait about 70% of the time. It is by far my most effective bass bait.  There are many variables to spinnerbait fishing.  You can't just chunk it out and reel it back up if you want to catch fish consistently.   With spinnerbaits, cadence is significant.  Every spinnerbait has a specific cadense where it pulls bass to it.  Most anglers fish a spinnerbait too fast.  I find a 5/1 casting reel to be my most effective spinnerbait reel.  Here in Florida, I like gold tandem blades.   My favorite bait is the 3/8 oz. Hildebrandt Okeechobee Special in chartreuse and white. I fish it on 20 pound mono and I always use a trailer hook.  The majority of the bass I catch on a spinnerbait are over 3 pounds.  A spinnerbait must be pulled close to cover.  2-3 feet is not close enough.  I love to throw these baits back into pads and bring it out.  Big bass will hit these baits in the middle of the day.  Like everything else, you must build confidence in a bait or you won't fish it.  If you want to learn spinnerbaits, leave all your other rods home and fish them all day.  They are deadly bass catchers. 

 

 

[DaubsNU1]

My uncle throws spinnerbaits probably 90% of the time here in Nebraska...and he just flat out catches fish! He doesn't have electronics in his boat, just casts to weed-beds and retrieves. Nothing special about his technique.  He does vary colors and blade types. 

 

I've had good success with SB's this spring, white and chartreuse skirt with gold willow blades. Fish on a bait-caster with 20lb green PowerPro braid. 

 

Lake has lots of standing timber... @Captain Phil has great advice...get it close to cover! 

 

Hang in there and keep throwing it.  

[roadwarrior]

 

[Bird]

This is surprising to hear and certainly hope you get it figured out.

For many many years and this year once again is no exception. I've caught more bass on a Spinnerbait then any other bait.

 

Only advice I can offer is throw them over submerged cover...... wood, grass and in between standing timber. Throw them in shallow coves.

They get crushed and hook up ratio is phenomenal.

 

That said, they are also very versatile as well.

On a breezy day with ripple on the water I may very well throw one all day.

 

Zman and terminator are the ones I've grown fond of.

[LrgmouthShad]

Ask @TnRiver46, he really loves em ?

 

A spinnerbait is my favorite lure. Prespawn, even very early prespawn, and fall are my favorite times to throw them. Summer and winter are okay, so long as the water is not absolutely frigid. Even low 40s is fine. But I most prefer them in relatively cooler water. There is no secret to fishing spinnerbaits other than it can take some time for you to figure out how to make them work for you at the waters you fish, given certain conditions and time of year. Simple blade changes and color changes can make drastic differences in how well your spinnerbait will perform for you. But, IMO, I’ll echo what Captain Phil said and say that I think the most important part of spinnerbait fishing, apart from selecting the right one for the job, is casting accuracy and a soft landing. For whatever reason, when you are fishing a spinnerbait, soft landings matter a bunch and you often have to land very close to your target. It is harder fishing from a bank because spinnerbaits can be hammers shallow, and you are at a disadvantage having to cast from shore with limited ability to move. But, I will still parallel banks or slow roll spinnerbaits from the bank. People like windy days for spinnerbaits and that’s all good, I do too, but really I like cloudy days for spinnerbaits. If it’s cloudy and I can’t catch em on a spinnerbait, something is wrong. 
 

I said spinnerbaits are hammers shallow and they are, but for plus sized bass, creep your spinnerbait along the bottom over structure. That technique doesn’t always work for me, but I have caught nice bass that way.

 

hope you have luck on spinnerbaits.

I have a love affair with those things

 

Edit, Clarification: said you have to be close to your target. I meant your spinnerbait should LAND close to your target

[Takemetothebank]

My lake doesent have any vegatation mainly only rocks and a few lay downs most of our fish are caught off docks points or offshore structure and I always find myself reaching for a jerkbait or lipless prespawn and will fish the jerkbait all through the year it is absolutely deadly if you see a fish chasing shad you can get them to hit a jerk-bait about 90% of the time. If I had to pick one hardbait to fish for the rest of my life it would be a jerkbait by far it’s a blast when you twitch into a 6-7 lb largemouth or a 12 -15 lb striper I catch most of my fish on a chatterbait super slow just barely dragging it until your blade engages then stopping it and reeling the slack it is absolutely deadly on points 

[Takemetothebank]

I’ll try out your tips and see if I have any better luck with them when I throw them i normally put a split tail trailer on them and will kind of hop my rod tip to make the skirt shift it may just be where I’m fishing or that I like to dissect a certain type of structure once I figure out where the fish are on rather than just cover water 

[Captain Phil]

When fishing a spinnerbait along a straight bank or weed line, most anglers fish at an angle with the edge as they cast to the shoreline.  This means your bait is only in the strike zone for a short period of time with much of the retrieve wasted.  It is much more productive to place your boat next to the edge and cast down it making your retrieve as close to the edge as possible.  This is a great way to cover water while you "search" for fish.  If you have a co-angler in the back of the boat, have him/her stand next to you in the front.  Obviously, this can be difficult when bank fishing. 

[gim]

I use spinnerbaits a fair amount. Unfortunately the pike up here love them too. I like the original T-1 terminator series with the titanium frame for durability.

 

Various colored skirts and blades based on water clarity and speed of retrieve. I catch a lot of bass right after the spinnerbait has bounced off something like a dock post, log, or weeds.

[N Florida Mike]

I’m not a spinnerbait expert but I do fairly well with them when I use them. I do best with a slow to moderate retrieve. 

The best fish Ive caught with them were on sunny days, same for numbers. I know this goes against conventional thinking , but that’s been my experience.  A little wind is also  helpful.

[GRiver]

I have never done well with spinner bait, but I think I’ll take everything here and give them another shot.

[Glenn]

 

[TnRiver46]

I would just give up now. I’m 30+ years in and I catch one dink per 10 years with them 

[DitchPanda]

5 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I would just give up now. I’m 30+ years in and I catch one dink per 10 years with them 

Because of your biased opinion you sir are not allowed to comment!

[Mbirdsley]

i had some success in the past with them but, I didn’t know there were finness spinnerbaits and such. 
 

also for whatever reason mono line  has worked very good on spinner baits and chatter baits.  It changes my catch rate over flouro.  I don’t know if it causes a differnt vibration or what 

[Takemetothebank]

What type of rod are you using ? If you have a stiffer rod mono can help makeup a little bit of the stiffer action for example i gosh jerkbaits on a 6’9 medium fast and I use mono so I have a little more leeway when a fish jumps with those tiny trebles 

[Mbirdsley]

2 hours ago, Takemetothebank said:

What type of rod are you using ? If you have a stiffer rod mono can help makeup a little bit of the stiffer action for example i gosh jerkbaits on a 6’9 medium fast and I use mono so I have a little more leeway when a fish jumps with those tiny trebles 

I’m running a 6ft6 mh fast Falcon Jason Christie spinner bait/square bill rod that I bought at Walmart on clearance for $40. Paired with a 6:4:1 slx reel.  10 lbs big game mono 
 

I mean I’m talking I wasn’t even getting bites when using flouro for  spinner baits or chatter baits.   I dunno if mono makes everything vibrate just a tad different or if it’s somthing I do during my retrieval cadence  While, using mono 

[N Florida Mike]

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I would just give up now. I’m 30+ years in and I catch one dink per 10 years with them 

put a speed craw trailer on one and see what happens…?

[Cgolf]

I use spinnerbaits a lot because they catch fish. One thing I have found is that lighter wire baits like a war eagle, get bit more often than say a SK bleeding bait spin that was my go to prior to finding the WEs. I have also found that unique blade combos like wide willows get bit too. It seems that the bass just want to see something different vs what is standard off the shelf that everyone tosses. I started to make my own now with wire frames from Barlows and it is a lot of fun.

 

I personally never use a trailer or a trailer hook. I do trim the skirt to be even with the furthest back part of the hook and this increased my hookup rate a lot. I have started to experiment with trailers, will see if it adds anything special or if I go back to not using one. As far as retrieve it is pretty much straight in just varying speeds cast to cast dialing in what they want. Sometimes a pause or slowing down during the retrieve will trigger a fish. I use the reel to alter depth, I don't move the rod at all to add action.

[DaubsNU1]

Old Bass Pro Terminator titanium shaft has been working for me this spring.

 

New skirt...couldn't find my trailers, so just used white power grub.

 

Seems to work just fine.

 

[Cdn Angler]

A lot of baits are situational/regional. It might just be that your circumstances/fish aren't conducive to catching them on a spinnerbait. Unless you know other people are killing it on the same body of water as you at the same time, I wouldn't stress it too much.  Maybe try it out here and there when you think it makes sense and experiment a bit, but it might just not be "the deal."

 

I wanted to fish a spinnerbait this past week, but a swimbait was outfishing it 5-1 so I had no choice but to switch. 

[FishTank]

At the lakes I fish we use to call them the "Stubborn " bait because if someone was throwing one,  whether they were catching fish or not,  they would stay with it all day. 

 

For me, I like them for windy days and stained water which is pretty much anytime but it's not a bait I am super confident with. The key for me is slow rolling and finding the right pop that gets the skirt to flare open.  I have a War Eagle that is white, yellow and gold.  It's usually money in early spring and late fall.