says Colin Brown
SPINNERBAITS
ARE GREAT !
says Colin Brown
INTRODUCTION
by Deputy Editor, Brian Barwell
Spinnerbaits have been around now for a couple of decades or more
and, like many popular lures, they were originally developed in the USA.
Since their arrival in the UK, there's no doubt that they've become a vital part of many a lure-angler's armoury. Colin Brown raves about them: heres why:-
EARLY DAYS
I've been a lure-fishing fanatic for more
years than I care to remember although this is the first time that I've put
fingers to keyboard about fishing, prompted by another article that I read about
combination lures in which spinnerbaits were included, and rightly so.
Likewise I can't exactly remember when it was that I really got stuck into spinnerbaits but I do know that my interest was given a boost when they became more freely available in the UK through the then Ryobi, now Masterline, for whom Barrie Rickards was consulting at the time. Given a rather strange-looking lure, he obviously did very well with it because it was soon launched as a UK spinnerbait called Barrie's Buzzer.
After that, spinnerbaits seemed to go from strength to strength in the UK. Prior to that, I had made-do with some rather home-made Heath Robinson versions of my own, based around American jig heads. After all, that's all a spinnerbait really is, a skirted jig head and spinner blade(s) on a V-shaped wire frame.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
One of the main features of a spinnerbait,
its large, single introverted hook, is simultaneously both an advantage and
a disadvantage! This may sound an odd contradiction but it isn't really.
The
big bonus of this introverted single hook, as opposed to the usual trailing
trebles found on normal lures, is that it makes spinnerbaits pretty much unsnaggable,
if that's a word. This means that you can chuck them around with abandon almost
anywhere, into over, under and around weeds and snags, and with care, you'll
almost always get them back intact.
Even better is the fact that being able to do this means that you can cast to the more likely pike-holding places that you wouldn't otherwise be able to safely tackle with normal lures. These days though, there are spoons, spinners and plugs with weed-guarded hooks that are almost as versatile.
The disadvantage, if you can call it that, of spinnerbaits is claimed to be their poor hooking-rates compared with conventional lures. If this is true, personally I think this is a very small price to pay for all the other advantages that come with spinnerbaits. In what I think is a rather retrograde step, some anglers try to overcome this so-called problem by adding what is known as a "stinger" single, double or treble hook to the original single hook. While this may well increase the hooking-rate, it increases the snagging rate too.
TEMPTING PREDATORS
Their flashing blades and tempting skirted jig heads seem to be big attractions
for predators of most species and compared with plugs and even spoons, spinnerbaits
are relatively cheap, so they've got to be some of the most cost-effective lures
around.
In freshwater, where I do most of my fishing these days, I have caught pike, perch, chub and zander on my trusty spinnerbaits. I like the fact that I can bottom-bounce my spinnerbaits without worrying too much about losing them, something that's always in the back of my mind when I'm fishing with normal lures.
After
all, big predators such as pike and zander often tend to feed closer to the
bottom especially in winter and so that's where I like to put my lures. and
with spinnerbaits I can do this with much greater confidence.
Equally though in summer when pike and zander may be feeding closer to the surface, I enjoy skittering my spinnerbaits across the surface, with spectacular results if I'm lucky.
FAVOURITES
As for
my favourite spinnerbait, I haven't got one, I've got many, too many in fact!
Everywhere I go I take six or seven different spinnerbaits with me. There's
no real rhyme or reason behind which ones I use at any particular time; in fact,
I chop and change my lures at the drop of a hat.
I've
always been a big fan of spinners and spinnerbaits for perch; it's surprising
just how large a lure small perch will try to grab! Even so, I do tend to use
smaller spinnerbaits when I'm out on the venues that I know hold plenty of perch.
I've been using Worden's Sonic Rooster Tail spinners for quite some time but it was only recently that I realised that the Super Rooster Tails listed are in fact mini-spinnerbaits and not spinners! Since then I have been using them with great success - instead of a single hook, they've got a small introverted double-hook and this seems to be a good compromise between hooking and snagging if you think that's a problem ....... and they're great for perch & pike!
For
all-round general spinnerbaiting, I mainly use Northland ReedRunners, Bomber
Bushwhackers, an old Barrie's Buzzer and some of the latest spinnerbaits from
Masterline. They're all much of a muchness in my opinion - they all catch predators,
especially big perch, no problem!
I'm no expert on what colours you should use under what conditions and so on and so forth - I've no idea about any of that - I just stick one spinnerbait on the end of my trace and if that doesn't catch within a few minutes, I quickly change to something else, it's as simple as that, and I seem to do OK compared with other anglers I've fished with.
So like my fishing, my advice about spinnerbaits is dead simple - buy several of them and try them out! They won't break the Bank and I think that you'll soon find that they're some of the most cost-effective lures that you can get - can't say fairer than that! Colin Brown.