solder wire spinnerbaits

[GonefishingLTN]

what size do I get to add weight to my spinnerbaits I have no clue what I'm looking for

Thank you

[Bushbeater]

Smallest you can find. I have some 1/16" that I use on various jerkbait hooks.

[Quillback]

I like lead wire myself.  BPS carries it in different sizes.  

Round Lead Wire Spools | Bass Pro Shops

[Champ188]

OK, I'll bite. Serious question ... not being a smarty pants ... but why weight a spinnerbait? You can buy them all day in any weight you want up to 1 ounce or heavier. Is it being able to make it perform differently? 

Back before the Corps killed every stalk of aquatic grass (it was a mixture of hydrilla, coontail and elodea) out of lakes Ouachita and DeGray in west-central Arkansas, we would slow-roll a 1-ounce Arkansas Hawg Caller spinnerbait over the deep grass (20-25 feet) in the winter. Best places were midlake humps, but long, tapering points were good, too. Caught some darn big fish doing that and for some reason, they would hit that bait so hard it would nearly take the rod out of your hands. Kinda like a big TR smallmouth hitting a Whopper Plopper, except 20 feet deep. 

Here's a little tip about fishing deep grass in the winter ... if your lure comes back with stringy, smelly, dead-looking grass, pick up the troller and go elsewhere. Where you will catch them is in the greenest grass you can find. The bait comes thru the green stuff very easily and comes back to the boat mostly clean on every cast. You'll even find that it feels different coming thru the good green stuff. I've also done very well in deep winter grass on an old Storm crank bait called a Lightning Shad. My buddy David Ashcraft in Bismarck, AR, played a big role in its development. With its flat-sided design, it ticks the top of the grass just right and comes back to the boat clean nearly every time. Don't look for them in tackle shops ... they didn't catch on very well. Might find a few on eBay. 

We now return you to our regulary scheduled programming.

[dtrs5kprs]

On 12/29/2021 at 9:17 PM, GonefishingLTN said:

what size do I get to add weight to my spinnerbaits I have no clue what I'm looking for

Thank you

Lead wire works, or you can use the crimp on weights made for swimbait hooks. Split shot, or a rubber core weight (with rubber strap removed) will work too.

Sometimes you do get caught without the right size. Or you need a heavy head, but small blades and frame.

[Champ188]

17 hours ago, dtrs5kprs said:

Sometimes you do get caught without the right size. Or you need a heavy head, but small blades and frame.

The 1-ounce baits that we slow-rolled over deep grass as described above had nothing bigger than a No. 5 willow main blade. Usually a #4 main blade and a #2 kicker.

[jdmidwest]

On 12/30/2021 at 4:53 AM, Quillback said:

I like lead wire myself.  BPS carries it in different sizes.  

Round Lead Wire Spools | Bass Pro Shops

They use that for flies, should be able to find at any fly shop also.

[tjm]

If you know anyone that trolls, it's real easy to strip the sheathing off of lead core, it's what I've been using to weight flies for ~45 years.  The soft lead wire resulting weighs ~11 grains per foot.

[dtrs5kprs]

On 1/2/2022 at 6:36 AM, Champ188 said:

The 1-ounce baits that we slow-rolled over deep grass as described above had nothing bigger than a No. 5 willow main blade. Usually a #4 main blade and a #2 kicker.

I have an old Bassmaster show Shuffield did on fishing deep grass at Ouachita. Have used a lot of the same concepts successfully on many lakes with deep grass, north and south.

 

[Champ188]

Shuffield and I fished quite a bit together. Did the first color sports pics with him ever published in the old Arkansas Gazette during a trip on DeGray. That guy was just made to fish grass.