Spinnerbait Design

[Guest]

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[eric1978]

Here is the one that worked the best this season. The only problem that I have found is that the line occasionally wraps around the arms and can destroy them if you catch a fish while it is wrapped. I don't even bother painting the heads or blades, doesn't seem to make a difference in the amount of fish they catch.

I like that one. Those are the tiniest blades I've ever seen for primary blades. Have you tried larger ones? Am I correct to assume that you downsized them because bigger ones got hung up in the skirt and wouldn't spin? Looks good.

[Guest]

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[Al Agnew]

Siusaluki, the way to minimize the line wrapping around the arms (a common problem with twin spins) is to add a length of straight wire as long or a bit longer than the arms to the line tie, and tie your line to it. The old Shannons had it, and when I first experimented with my version I left that "leader" wire off, and had all kinds of problems with the line wrapping, so I added it and the problem was solved. The wire itself sometimes gets entangled with the arms, but far less often than the line did without it.

[Guest]

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[Al Agnew]

Solid wire, pretty thin. You can buy lengths of solid wire with an eye already formed on one end, just have to attach it to the lure.

[joeD]

That's what I love about the the twin-spin. Take a good look at Al's picture. Whoever thought that up must have been drunk (not you Al, the twin spin originator). "Hmm, how to catch smallies in the streams. I know, lets bend some wire around, hang some shiny blades off the ends, and, let's attach it to a bucktail jig. Oh, and let's dye the bucktail, I dunno, how about an obnoxious yellow. That'll catch em."

I wish one could interview a fish after it smashes ones lure (twin spin in this case) and ask it "what the f*** were you thinking?! Why would you wanna eat a moving, spinning, metal contraption like that?"

I think the beer advertisers had it right - "Why ask Why?"

I wonder if the smallies will be seeing a bunch of twin spins next year?

[Al Agnew]

Pete Kaminsky, an outdoor writer that I took fishing for a week for an article on Ozark smallie fishing many years ago, described the twin spin like this:

"His other favorite lure beggars description. It starts as a leadhead bucktail, flanked by two minispoons that spin on the retrieve; the bucktail is joined, by a tandem arrangement, to a second hook upon which he impales a jelly grub. What it amounts to is a lure that features a little bit of everything bass have ever been known to hit. I'm not totally sure whether the bass hit it because they like it or because it is so supremely hideous they want to chase it away before it depresses property values."

As I mentioned, though, there are reasons for the design. The twin spin arrangement makes the lure easy to make to run level on the retrieve instead of listing to one side or spinning. The whole bucktail thing we all know is a tried and true dressing for various lures, and was about the only game in town before the advent of various synthetic skirt materials. As for the color of the bucktail, as far as I know the fluorescent yellow/chartreuse might be my own idea...the old Shannons were never offered in those colors. In fact, Shannons came only in black, black and white, red and white, yellow, and natural brown. For many years the natural brown was my default color (with a white split tail pork rind). I actually got the idea for the chartreuse after having good luck with chartreuse on buzzbaits, and figuring out that chartreuse and fluorescent yellow are actually not highly visible colors when the fish are looking up at them against a background of bright sky. The brown was deadly on Big River when it was its usual murkiness, but light, bright colors, I found, work a lot better in clear water.

[joeD]

That's my point. One would think "natural" looking baits would be more effective, but sometimes the opposite is true. Chartreuse, white, even "clown colors" are staples in a lot of tackle boxes, yet those colors don't immediately come to mind when one thinks of colors in an ozark stream. Then again, I'm not a fish (though I drink like one), so I don't know what it thinks/reacts when it sees something "so supremely hideous." That's funny Al. Good memory.

I remember, not that long ago, when certain lures were deadly on the Big. Now, I don't even bother with it (the Big) anymore. So sad.

[eric1978]

That's my point. One would think "natural" looking baits would be more effective, but sometimes the opposite is true. Chartreuse, white, even "clown colors" are staples in a lot of tackle boxes, yet those colors don't immediately come to mind when one thinks of colors in an ozark stream. Then again, I'm not a fish (though I drink like one), so I don't know what it thinks/reacts when it sees something "so supremely hideous."

I think "reacts" is the key word there, Joe. I agree that when you're using faster moving baits in warmer water that the "natural appearance" of that bait is not as critical as action and profile. I think the chartreuse works well in clear water because, as Al's theory goes, it is actually less clearly visible to a fish under a canopy of foliage. Chartreuse doesn't look like an appealing color in clear water to me, because I'm looking down at it against a darker brownish background instead of looking up at it against a brighter greenish background, and it just looks like it doesn't fit. I've never seen any chartreuse baitfish, except maybe some streaks of it on a sunfish, but I've had tremendous success with a chartreuse/pearl fluke on clear streams, and I never had a reason why that color was so productive until I read Al's rationale behind it. Of course, if that theory is true, you have to wonder why more guys aren't using sky blue-colored baits on open water.

However, I think that when you are using a bait that moves slowly on the bottom, and you are targeting more sluggish fish in crystal clear colder water, colors are somewhat more important. When fish are reluctant to spend energy on eating, you usually have to slow down your presentation, which inherently gives a fish more time to consider your lure. At this point I think a natural looking bait is at least important, if not critical.