Spinner Baits

NOW I HAVE THIS ONE ON BOTH BOARDS

Putting the Spin in a Spinner Bait

The blade on a spinner bait provides flash, vibration, and water turbulence that activates the skirt. So we might think that it is the second most important component in a good spinner bait. Maybe not. Without a good swivel the best blade in the world will give only marginal performance. I think that was why my luck with spinner baits was only marginal for a long time. It changed when I started paying attention to the swivel.

Try this simple test on your spinner baits. Hold the bait by the main blade (the one attached to the swivel) so that the body dangles freely below your hand. Give the eye of the bait a good push with your other hand. The bait should spin for a few seconds if you have a good swivel. It surprised me how often swivels jammed or ground to a quick stop. That is what they will do in the water too. Replacing the swivel can make a big difference in how the lure performs.

If you have unlimited resources, Sampo BB swivels would be the way to go. Since close to $1 a piece seemed steep to me, I tried some other products. Though economy BB swivels worked fairly well, I still found a lot of them that jammed during my simple test.

Then I went American. Several catalogues had an American made swivel that sold without split rings for 40 cents each (50 for $20). See Barlow’s page 43 or Stamina p. 45. I bought some and a supply of matching split rings. So far these have been great. Everyone works. I use them for new baits and to upgrade older baits. They look like the same swivel that Strike King uses on their premium baits. BTW the suppliers show them in their catalogs but do not show them on their web sites.

So, if you want to get top performance out of baits that you make, or if you want to upgrade and old favorite, consider changing out the swivel to catch more fish.

Works for me.

Bear