spinner blades

[ia eyes]

i have started to build some of my own spinners, can anyone tell me the diff in blades (colorado, indiana, willow) and when i should use them as far as clear water vs. dirty water and time of year? i hope this make sence. thank you for your help and time.

[early007]

I'm not an expert by any means when it comes to spinners, but I'll tell you what I know. When tying spinner rigs the two most popular blades are Colorado and Indiana. Colorado has a wide round shape to it. It displaces the most water and needs to be run the slowest of the three styles in order to achieve optimum performance. Indiana is similar to the colorado but is slightly narrower, which allows the angler the ability to run a bit faster. The third is the willow, which is long and narrow. It has a very tight wobble and can be run very fast. It is a great minnow imitating blade. The willow is very common on spinnerbaits used for bass and pike.

Size can vary but the most popular sizes in our store have been #2-#4. I am referring to only the colorados and indianas, used mostly for walleyes.

In darker water I've always heard use a bigger and brighter baits. Colorado blades may be the ticket here. On clear lakes such as many that we have here in the Brainerd area, I've always had the best success using natural colors and imitators. So I always recommend metalic color patterns. I think they will best imitate shiners. I guess it depends more so on the forage. Perch=Chartruse/Green/Orange or Crawfish= Brown/Orange. I think white is always a good baitfish imtator, look out for the northerns.

I think others can give you some better insight, I really don't use them that often.

Jason Erlandson