Bass Fishing Hacks
Simple Hacks and Tips to Help You Catch More Bass
What can you catch with a spinnerbait?
Bass love spinner baits but you can catch catch other freshwater fish predators like pike and muskies on them too. You can even fish them in saltwater and catch snook, bluefish and redfish with them. They are a very versatile fishing lure that can be used in both freshwater and saltwater fishing scenarios by both novice and advanced fishermen alike.
I am a Bass Fishing Charter Guide on the Treasure Coast of Florida. I have been catching bass in the lakes, ponds and canals all over Florida for more than 40 years. In the article below, I will teach you everything that I know about catching bass with spinnerbaits.
Let’s get started.
Who invented the spinnerbait?
It is hard to find accurate information on this subject but The House of Houser fishing company is usually that one given the credit on the invention of the spinnerbait back in the 1940s.
Then Strike King took over as the world’s leader in spinnerbaits with their marketing and different designs of this type of bass lures. Strike King is still a leader in the bass lures business.
Bill Dance, the legendary bass fisherman, and his partner Charles Spence started Strike King lures to sell spinnerbaits and other types of lures.
Why do spinnerbaits work so well?
Spinnerbaits work very well for bass and that is kind of counter intuitive when you think about it. There is nothing in the bass’ world that looks like a spinnerbait. There are no fish that have a big metal rod sticking out of there heads with little blades dangling off of them.
The reason that a spinnerbait is such a good bait is because those blades send out the perfect low frequency vibrations that mimic a fish in distress. Bass have a very evolved lateral line and can pick up this vibrations from at least 30 or 40 feet away. The lateral line is a network of sensory receptors that picks up vibrations in the water. They start at the head of the bass and go down their sides to the tail.
This gets the bass looking for the injured fish and then something comes moving by them that is putting out those same vibrations and they try and kill it. Bass hit lures for two reasons. The lure is bothering them or in their territory so they want to kill it or they are hungry and want to eat it. Either way is good for the bass fishermen.
They are also very easy to use so even first time bass fishermen can use them effectively and start catching bass on their first day. All that you have to do is cast out the spinnerbait and let it sink to the level where you think that the fish are. Then reel at a steady pace back to you and repeat the process. Talk about a no brainer bass fishing lure.
What are the best spinnerbait blades?
There are many different types of blades that are used in spinnerbaits. Each one of them sends out different amounts of low frequency vibrations depending upon their shapes and sizes. I will cover a few of those different blade shapes and sizes and talk about the pros and cons of each one.
Willow leaf blades are the long and narrow ones with a point on both ends of them. The white one in the photo above is a good example of a willow leaf spinner blade. These blades are great when the bass are willing to move fast to bite your lure.
When the water is warm the bass are willing to try a little bit harder to eat your lures versus in the middle of winter. Willow leaf blades are also better for fishing in cover like lily pads and other types of vegetation. The willow leaf blades are more weedless than most other blade variations.
The main drawback of a willow leaf blade is that it does not send out as strong of a vibration as other blades do because it has less surface area and less friction with the water molecules around it. That is why it swims through the water so well. It interacts with the water molecules less than a blade with more surface area and a less streamlined shape.
Colorado blades are the ones that pump out the most vibrations in the water column. The black spinnerbait in the photo above is a great example of a Colorado blade. When you want to fish our spinnerbait slowly the Colorado blade is the way to go.
The extra surface area combined with the less streamlined shape creates a lot of friction in the water and makes a lot of noise. This is a great spinnerbait for when the bass are lazy, when the water is dirty and when the water is very shallow.
When the bass are feeling lazy you wan to approach them more slowly than when they are full of vigor and ready to move fast. The winter months when the water is cold the bass do not want to move fast. A spinnerbait with Colorado blades is great for catching bass in that scenario.
The extra friction and the shape of the Colorado blades tends to keep them high in the water column. This is great for targeting shallow water bass.
The extra vibrations also help the bass find the lure when the water is dirty. The bass that live in dirty and murky water must depend upon their lateral lines more to find food. They really can’t see the lure very well in these conditions so the extra noise will bring them right to your spinnerbait with Colorado blades.
Watch the video below and catch more bass in the spring with spinnerbaits.
Hatchet blades are another type of spinnerbait blade that are gaining popularity these days. The blades look like a hatchet and are similar in performance to a willow blade. They can be fished in vegetation very well and they can be fished very quickly too.
Many bass fishermen think that they work better on bodies of water that get a lot of fishing pressure. The bass are not used to the different vibrations and look of those blades and are more apt to hit something new.
Many hatchet bladed spinnerbaits have 3 blades instead of the popular two or one blades. I have personally never used a spinnerbait with a hatchet blade but I am sure that they work just fine as long as they make noise and have a lot of flash.
Indiana blades are the in between from a Colorado blade and a willow leaf blade. They are not pointy like a willow leaf and not round like a Colorado blade. They are an in between version. What does this mean?
This means that they put out more vibrations than a willow leaf blade but not as much as a Colorado blade. This means that you can fish them faster than a Colorado blade but not as fast as a willow leaf blade. I think that you get the point.
Indiana blades seem to be losing popularity because bass fishermen usually pick a willow leaf or a Colorado leaf for their various bass fishing scenarios these days.
What is the best size of a spinnerbait for bass fishing?
In general, big spinnerbaits catch big bass. You can use it to weed out many of the smaller bass that you do not want to bother fooling around with. When you are searching for your personal best bass then a larger lure or live bait is the way to go.
Big spinnerbaits does not mean heavy spinnerbaits. Big spinnerbaits jsut ahve bigger blades than the normal ones do. You wand something like a number 5, 6, 7 or 8 sized spinnerbait blade to be considered large in my book.
What is the best color of spinnerbait for bass fishing?
The best colors for spinnerbaits in my opinion are white, chartreuse and black. The white is great for clear and clean water conditions. The chartreuse is great for slightly stained water conditions and the black is great for dark water conditions and dark skies.
What is the best time of the year for spinnerbait bass fishing?
You can fish spinnerbaits all year long. They are good from Winter all the way back through the Winter the next year. They catch fish 365 days a year and they are so easy to use. It amazes me that more bass fishermen don’t use spinnerbaits more often. They work fantastically.
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