Are all spinners equal?

Are all spinners equal?
by John McArdle


Tackle craft has been a hobby of mine for years so if I ever do buy a
store bought lure I love to dissect it, examining it down to the last little bead.
I always talk about fancy packaging catching way too many fisherman and not enough fish so here are some tips if your in the market for a trout spinner.

A spinner is made up of 6 basic parts. The wire, beads,blade, the lure body,the hook and most importantly the clevis. Lets start with the wire. All wire needs to be stainless of course and gauge size can vary but should be a least .024 . I have seen and bought spinners of .016 and lighter on eBay and the wire will fail after a few casts.The wire bends causing your spinner to stop rotating or worse case it breaks. All is not lost as I'll show you later.
Beads are all different and they all effect the weight of the bait. Some are plastic, hollow metal or solid brass beads. Some beads are crystal like Swarovski beads. These reflect more light like a diamond. Glass and brass beaded spinners tend to be heavier and usually show up in quality made baits.

Blades come in every shape color and style and everyone has favorites. The thing to keep in mind here is blade shape. The french style blades run higher in the water column
ccompared to the in- line blades. In french style blades make sure the hole is punched fairly central to the blade. In the picture on the right you can see that the hole is punched way off center on the left hand blade and will have a definite impact on how the spinner functions. I guess this is a good time to talk clevises. I find it extremely important for any spinner to have a stirrup style clevis. Folded clevises, pictured on the left, are very flimsy as there name indicates . They bend or fold very easy and pinch the stainless wire which in turn fouls the blade.I cant think of anything more frustrating than a fouled blade on that perfect cast.
Hooks can present all kinds of different problems for anglers. I could write two articles about treble hooks alone so just a few brief points. Today we have super choices such as VMC, Mustad,Owner and many more. They come in different colors and sizes . I usually find the hooks being undersized for the application more times than not. The small trout spinners have small hooks which does cause breakage and some missed fish . Look for a good bronze hook in size 8 or bigger and that will cover most stream situations. I will say when using trebles always carry a side cutters and a few extra hooks. If your unsure about getting the hook out of a small fish cut the treble with a side cutters and replace it with a split ring. Also, you never know it may be a ear or a finger your cutting the hook from.
Lure bodies also come in an array of shapes color and sizes. Most of the lure bodies that are painted are lead underneath . Others are brass or nickle plated and usually match the blades.
Here is where you need to pay attention to the weight that is on the package and match it too the type of stream you will be fishing. On small streams 1/8 oz lures are big enough to get into pools and pockets that are 3 foot or less deep. If you are fishing big streams 3/8 oz is the spinner size for you. Not only will it fish deeper you can cast them a country mile.
Lastly, If your a serious spinner fisherman you need to invest in the simple tool on the left and some good stainless lure wire. Its a round needle nose pliers and can be purchased at any hardware store. Making the wire forms is really very simple and after a few tries you will have it down and will be repairing all your duds. . Most spinners I buy I replace the clevis on so I cut the spinner apart even before it hits the water. I carry it with me on the stream with some preformed wire blanks. If I have a hot lure that is bent up I can fix it right on the stream. Lure components are too expensive to just waste so why not fix what you have.So remember when your shopping take a close look at your spinners before putting them in your shopping cart. Not all spinners are created equally.


stirrup clevis