Quick tips: Vary your retrieve speeds (go fast for reaction strikes); alternate your cadence with stop-and-go or jerking motions; reel from side to side for erratic swimming action and throwing flash in more directions; let the spinner drop to different depths, especially on drop-offs; modify your presentation with trailers such as bucktails and rubber skirts.
Picking the right lure can be compared to using the right tool for a job and one of the great things about inline spinners like Rooster Tails is that they can be so effective for many species in many scenarios.
A lot of anglers see spinners as trout lures, and they simply cast and retrieve them at a speed that’s just fast enough to get the blades moving.
While that’s a great way to begin and often enough to get bites, there’s a lot you can do to vary the presentation of this lure for better results.
Let’s go over some different approaches to working a spinner so you can make the most of what may be the most versatile and underutilized bait available.
Faster Retrieve Speeds
As mentioned, simply retrieving your spinner at a speed that’s just quick enough to get the blades moving is a good place to start. But there are advantages to picking up the pace.
Reeling a spinner faster causes more commotion in the water and gives fish less opportunity to inspect the lure. They have a brief window to hit the bait or not and this often triggers aggressive reaction strikes.
Professional bass anglers like Rick Clunn recommend burning large spinnerbaits just below the surface of the water, a position where bait fish are inherently vulnerable with no place to escape.
The top of the water also receives the best light penetration so you can maximize the flash on spinning blades to attract fish from a distance.
Regardless of the depth you’re fishing, don’t hesitate to move your spinner faster than usual if a slow retrieve isn’t producing, although you’ll have to let the lure drop periodically in deeper water if you want to stay down at that depth.
As a generalization, slow retrieves tend to make more sense in extremely cold and hot conditions when fish are more lethargic and less inclined to chase down their prey from a distance with a rapid burst of energy.
However, you can find many examples of experienced anglers achieving reaction strikes on fast moving spinners in both hot and cold conditions, especially with Florida largemouth and northern smallmouth.
Varying Your Cadence
Instead of reeling at a single pace during the entire retrieve, it can be highly effective to mix it up with varying speeds.
For instance, you might begin by reeling fast and then alternate with a few slower turns before speeding back up.
You can also find success with stop and go movements, allowing the spinner to fall briefly before reeling again. This can be maximized by physically moving your arms forward to give the line a little slack for a straight drop that looks more natural.
Perhaps the most successful technique I’ve tried is incorporating some jerking motions into the retrieve. While reeling, yank the spinner a couple of times with your rod tip, then return to a straight retrieve for a second or so before jerking again.
Some anglers also shake their rod tip while reeling instead of jerking, but the principle is the same in that you are creating more erratic action to the bait.
Adding variety to your cadence undoubtedly looks more realistic and does a better job of mimicking the frantic, bursty motion of fleeing bait. This plays on the instincts of predatory fish and draws those aggressive reaction strikes.
Side to Side Movements
A panicked bait fish is not likely to swim in a perfectly straight line for 50+ feet. Folks who troll will tell you that bites sometimes come when they start turning.
Along with varying your retrieve speed, you can emulate a more natural swimming pattern by reeling with your rod tip pointed to your left, then right, and then left.
This results in an erratic zig zag that not only looks more realistic, but if you’re working with shiny blades, it throws flash in that many more directions.
Most spinners only throw flash directly to the sides, even with tandem blades, because they are oriented the same way. Changing the angle of your retrieve can point that flash at fish which might not otherwise see your bait.
This technique is that much more effective with our spinners because the propeller on top already throws flash in more directions than the main blade can reach.
Covering Different Depths
While flash becomes less of a factor the further down you go, the action on spinners generates enough sound and vibration to attract fish in deeper, darker water.
If you’re working a dropoff and can’t seem to pull fish up toward the surface, don’t hesitate to open your bail and let the spinner drop as you come over deeper water so you can get closer where they are holding.
Sometimes that drop will trigger a bite, as will the sudden movement of you beginning to reel again.
In the case of our spinners, the drop results in a fluttering effect on the main blade that’s not much different to a spoon falling, and the propeller maintains a steady spin no matter what.
Although inline spinners and spinnerbaits might not be as effective as pumping a blade bait down the bottom of a drop off, you can certainly use them in the same way for targeting species such as walleye and bass.
Cast a spinner out to the top of the drop off, let it fall to the bottom, lift your rod tip to bring the spinner up a few feet off the rocks, wind your reel a couple of times to take in the slack, and then let the spinner fall again before repeating. Open your bail to let out line when necessary to get back on the bottom during big drops.
This approach has the benefit of kicking up sediment and clanking against rocks on the bottom, which is pretty dang effective at attracting the attention of nearby fish.
Jigging for Panfish
Again, while spinners might not be as known for their ability to get bites with fluttering presentations, they put off a similar appearance as shaftless spoons and can be used in a similar way.
If you find a school of panfish such as crappie, letting a spinner drop a just above the school and jigging vertically over them can be an effective way to fill your cooler.
There are specific tools for these techniques, but they are not always necessary, might not be tied on at the moment, or may not be available in your tacklebox at all.
Change the Appearance
Sometimes it can pay off to attach a trailer that changes the action, increases the visual profile, or simply adds some color that you know to is attractive to your target species.
Our spinners come with a split ring attached to the wire frame out of the package so you can remove the treble hook and swap in something more suitable.
That might be a bucktail, feathers, a rubber skirt, a worm, or even just a bare EWG hook.
If your inline spinners don’t have a split ring, you can always remove the treble hook with some wire snips and attach a split ring to the wire frame yourself.
There are countless potential combinations here depending on your conditions and intentions.
The Most Versatile Lure?
Although many anglers associate inline spinners with trout fishing, they are a highly versatile option for catching any predator fish.
Beginners can have a productive day with a simple straight retrieve, while more advanced anglers can find a higher skill ceiling by modifying their technique to target various species in different circumstances.
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