Tying Your Own Spinners

[Stick in Mud]

I've been told numerous times that buying spinnners is less effective than making them, especially as the days of July and August set in. The number of combinations possible on a spinner rig, from the number and size and color of beads, snell length, snell material, size and color of blades, shape of blades, size of hooks, etc. seems a little daunting, however, so I thought I'd ask the experts for a little advice concerning the best combinations to get 'eyes. I imagine with the fishing now it doesn't much matter, but I've been told that small adjustments can pay big dividends when the fishing slows.

A loosely related question: When using beads, is there a difference between glass and plastic? And what about faceted beads...are they any better?

My own thoughts: about nine foot Vanish snell (10 lb.), size 2 or 3 chart/gold/silver blades, four or five 8mm red beads, two gamagatzu red or chartreuse hooks.

I haven't actually tried this out yet because the stor-bought ones were working, though i think this time of year you could catch them by putting a treble hook on a pop can.

Carmike

[TrophyEyes]

Make your own. Play around with colors of beads, hook colors, but most important Size and Shape of the blades. A bigger blade will attract more attention to vibration and would be a good choice when they are aggressive. A smaller size blade will put off less vibration, but will spin faster depending on speed. I use smaller on leech rigs and bigger on crawler rigs, but that may not be necessarily right. Also the shape (bend) of the blade can change the spinning action (vibration).

What you need to Buy:

Variety of beads (Red, Glow, Chart., Blue)

Variety of hooks (Red, Chart, Green) Sizes as well.

Quick snap blade attachments

A variety of Colorado blades (Firetiger, Green and silver, pink and silver, Hammered, not hammerd, Red and white daredevil, and anything else you like)

Get a variety of blade sizes (3,4)

Knots are very important, so ask someone to show you how to make the correct knots.

[92python]

I've been tying my own spinners for years. The most surprising thing I have learned is that heavier line works just as well as the light stuff. I started out using 8 lb Ultrathin, then went to 10LB XT and have since gone to 16 lb test. Spinner fishing isn't really a finnese method so I don't think the line visibility matters as much as when rigging. The heavier line resists line twist better and is less likely to wear down where the clevis is spinning on the line. Try the quick change clevises to swap blades out.

[TrophyEyes]

I would agree with that. I use 10# XT. It seems like is is less likely to get fowled up, you don't have as much stretch when they pound it, and nicks and abrassions are not as much of a worry. I also use fireline from my reel to a 3 way swivel and a 12" mono leader to the weight, that way the weight brakes off, not my spinners.

[ASMOLEY]

With your spinner rig are you fishing it like a lindy? Do you still give the fish some line before the hookset or just lace right into them? I am usually a jig fisherman and do a little lindy riging, but spinners are kind of new world for me.

[Fredd]

Right now the bite is so hot that you don't need to feed line on the bites (just follow the bite back with the rod and sweep set). This has been the case for me even with crawlers on single hooks. I have been on the mud and not on many keeper fish. It might be different on the gravel, but I doubt it.

[TrophyEyes]

Usually you just let them have it right away. Its a lot like pulling cranks that way. However, if you see that the crawler is being eaten from the back and they are missing the hooks it is one of three things: Your going to fast, it is perch that are biting, or they are not very aggressive. You can do a couple things, slow the boat a bit between 1-1.5mph, or just give them the tip. By giving them the tip, I meen when you feel the bite you bring the rod towards them, which allows them to inhale the bait, then you brush their teeth. Always have your reel in gear.

Another trick, if you see bait fish on your electronics. Raise your spinner the the bottom edge of the bait ball. That will give you the best chance of hooking up. Mille Lacs is known for these bait schools out in the open, especially during the summer. That is where you are going to see the big hooks coming from the depths on your electronics. If you find the bait fish, you will find a nice group of walleyes and they don't have to be on structure.

[Fathead]

I have been making my own for years. Here are a few tips that have worked well for me.

First, Buy your beads at Jo-Ann Fabric. Sounds silly, but they have a great variety and are ALOT cheaper than the bait shop and sporting chains.

I have played around with different colors, but honestly, the most effective colors I have found for Mille Lacs are Gold, Silver and Red combinations. I use this in conjunction with a #4 Gold or Silver hatchet blade. I like Gold on cloudy days and Silver on Sunny ones. Don't ask me why, but this seems to work best.

The key to making your own rigs are using heavier line (10#). Heavier line does not twist as easy, and hey, you are targeting more aggressive fish anyways. You don't need to finess them with smaller od line. I like Flourocarbon here as well because of the lower memory and lower stretch features.

You also want to make your rigs with enough beads so your back-end of the blade does not touch your first hook in the rig. Some of my buddies are sold on 3-hook crawler harnesses, but I have found that 2-hook setups work just as well. I use number 4 hooks for crawlers and 6 for leeches (unlike livebait rigs where I use #8 hooks). My rigs are usually 5 to 6' for these setups.

I usually use a 3-way connection off of my main line with a 2-2 1/2' drop. I fish this on average about 3' above bottom, but this also depends on where the fish are staged in the water column (use your graph to determine this). The speeds you run them at depend on the outing. But a rule-of-thumb is 1.5mph in mid-June and 2-4mph during late July and thru August. Note, at higher speeds you should probably use a 3oz sinker to maintain a better relationship to where you are at from the bottom. At slower speeds I use a 1-2oz weight (Bell sinker).

Hope this helps!

[Schnauzer]

This is an interesting read. I see so many things similar or exactly the way I do it, but each person has a single detail or two that differ from me as well. It just goes to show that the little things can make the big difference and any one of these guys could be smacking the walleyes on a day where I am struggling... or maybe vice versa.

The one thing we all have in common is better luck creating our own spinner offerings than we do with the store bought ones. For me, I use 8# flourocarbin line for my spinner snell. I make it about 8.5' long and I use a dropper line of about 1.5 feet to my bell sinker for the three way. I like the #3 Indiana blades (I personally am not a big Colorado blade guy). With that setup, it usually calls for about 7 beads between the hook and the spinner, followed by an eighth bead in front of the spinner. As mentioned, you never want the back end of your blade to be long enough to touch the hook. Creating your own spinners can be fun... paying all that attention to the order in which you put the colored beads on makes it kind of a creative experience. And perhaps most importantly, it allows you to actively daydream about fishing when you are at home on the weeknights.

I troll my spinners anywhere between 1 and 1.5 mph. Perhaps I will try going faster later in the summer.

It is utterly amazing how one spinner combo can be hot at a given time. This past Sunday, I had one spinner that was ON FIRE, while the other two in the boat only boated a fish here and there. Murphy's Law dictated that the hot spinner was the only one of its kind in my boat that day. We litterally passed it around the boat so everyone could enjoy the flurry. The walleyes followed that one spinner regardless of who was holding it.

For hook sets, I either do nothing (if they smack it), or if I feel a bit of a bite, I will give them the rod tip. I imagine them getting their mouth shut on the back of the crawler so giving them the rod tip allows them to inhale the entire bait. The hookset itself should not be anything drastic. A simple rod sweep away from the fish should be sufficient.

I have some single hook offerings for leeches but mostly two hook rigs for crawlers, with the front hook being a #6 red and the trailing hook a #8 red.

[Stick in Mud]

Thank you all for the advice. I'll be out at Gander today picking up some stuff.

Hopefully I'll see you all out on the lake this weekend. I'll also be up on the northwest side of the pond all weekend; I'll let you know how it goes (though I can't imagine it'll go poorly

One final question, though: what is the single most important factor concerning spinners? Blade or bead color? Snell length? Location?

[TrophyEyes]

ALL. Time, place, what they want. Today, they are very aggressive, so it won't matter too much what you put in front of them. The Blade is my number one most important thing though.

[MuleShack]

What kind of a knot do you use on the home made rigs for the front hook on a double hook set up?

[TrophyEyes]

I don't know what the knot is called. But let me try to explain how to do it.

You have to tie the bottom hook on first. Put the line through the hole on the hook so when the hook is perpendicular to the line (like a drop shot hook), the hook is facing upwards. Pull the tail end of the line snug to the shaft of the hook. Wrap the top end around the shaft of the hook and the tail end of the line 6-8 times. Hold your "wrapped" line otherwise it will spin off. Then take the remaining end (the swivel end) and put it back through the hole (eyelet) of the hook. Tighten and then repeat again about 2-3" above the first hook. When you are dealing with 8-10' of line in can get a little interesting. Suggestion, keep the end that will eventually be attached to the swivel in your mouth, because when you are holding the "wrapped" line, any slip and you are starting over.

Hope this helps, and I am sure someone else will have a different way, but I have never had this knot fail.

[Schnauzer]

Trophy eyes explains it well. That is what I do and you can do 2 or 3 hook harnesses on the same line this way. You will see this is also the way the pre-rigged store bought spinners are tied. I found this illustration. It shows one hook but you can see how sliding a second or third hook and repeating the process would work...

http://www.fish4fun.com/snell.htm

[aanderud]

Definitely use the quick change clevis -- they cost only a bit more but then you are free to put different size/shape/color blades on at any time.

The hook set is simple. Do NOT reel up the rest of your line when you're pulling in one fish if you can help it -- put it in a rod holder. "rod holder" fish are not uncommon. My mom got 2 of these to jump on and hook themselves while netting fish for my wife last weekend. In fact, while holding the rod later in the day she was pulling it out of their mouth and missing them, so she gave up and put it back in the rod holder and caught more fish that way than anything!

[MuleShack]

Thanks for the info guys...!

[tom fellegy]

there is a relative of mine that has a dvd out that explains/shows you how to tie and pull spinners here on mille lacs. he has signed up to do some guide trips out of appledorn's resort this summer. steve can be contacted at [email protected] for further info about the dvd