Confidence is a HUGE factor in our fishing, and not just on the water confidence. It all starts as soon as we embark on our trips to that pristine lake, river, or stream by getting behind the wheel of our truck. Whether heading north, south, east, or west, it’s a good… wait no, it’s a great feeling knowing that we will arrive comfortable and most importantly safe.
It is then that we can commence in throwing various presentations to our quarry with that same confidence we just experienced during the road trip.
Confidence is a great feeling when bookended from start to finish for the duration of a fishing trip.
In this Fish’n Canada Top 10 sponsored by Ram Trucks, we are going to break down what we feel are the best “spinning” lures of all time. Some you probably have heard of. Others you may not be familiar with. That said, the “spinner” is one of the deadliest fishing lures/baits ever invented… read on.
FRENCH SPINNER
The French style spinner is probably the most popular spinning lure worldwide. Companies like Mepps have created an empire on one basic style of lure. The beauty of this bait is its simplicity. One blade rotating around a steel shaft and either a plain or dressed treble hook trailing. That’s it. The variances are colors, blade styles, and blade sizes. Anglers can literally catch tiny little Trout and up to world class Pike and Muskellunge on a French inline spinner.
SPINNERBAIT
We feel that the Spinnerbait is gaining more and more popularity with every day of existence. Soon you may see it overtaking the French spinner in global domination. Until then, it is still one of the world’s most popular fishing lures. Spinnerbaits were designed for Largemouth Bass, but they quickly moved their way to the Smallmouth, Northern Pike, Muskie and even the Walleye anglers’ boxes. This versatile single hooked lure is surprisingly weedless. The normal sizes are 3/8 and ½ ounce however there are smaller and larger. Blade shapes are normally Willowleaf, Colorado and Indiana. They are often paired with each other with 2 being the normal number. If fish are missing your bait, add a trailer hook. The Spinnerbait is a beast of a lure!
WORM HARNESS
Talk to any Walleye angler and we guarantee they will have several harness style spinners in their kits. When it comes to a tough Walleye bite, a nightcrawler harness with a juicy worm dangling out back is tough to beat. The beauty to this bait is how slow the angler can “pull” it. From trolling the lowest throttle speeds on a tiller handle, to drifting a 5k west wind, when these blades spin in front of live bait, Walleye can’t help themselves.
SPIN N GLO
The Spin & Glow is a unique spinning lure that works as well for Trout as it does for Walleye. It may be the slowest of spinners available (slowest running speeds). We call it a line-thru spinner in where your fishing line threads through the center of the Spin N Glo and then a bead and hook are attached. As with the harness style above, the Spin & Glow is most often accompanied by live bait on the hook. The dead-slow speed, combined with the tiny undulating blades, make this “different looking” spinning lure a killer.
INLINE BUCKTAIL
The Muskie fishing fraternity heavily leans on the Inline Bucktail to put fish on the bumper board. Ottawa River Muskie guide John Anderson says the Bucktail is the most popular Muskie bait in the last 10 years and maybe of all time. John would know as he has boated and or netted a huge number of Muskie in his lifetime. Blade size is the key here with small baits having #6 & #8 blades and big baits having #10 & #12’s.
SONIC/VIBRATING
This spinner could be classed as an inline or a French, but it is the blade design that makes it different. The rotating blade emits a “sonic” like pattern that attracts gamefish. Panther Martin came out with this idea in 1958. They are known to be one of the absolute best lures in the world for trout fishing.
The Blue Fox Vibrax is another variation of the in-line spinner. Blue Fox says it “has a patented two-part body that emits low-frequency sound vibrations that attract fish and trigger strikes while virtually eliminating line twist”.
TAIL SPINNERS
This one may be the “odd duck” in the group in that many people haven even heard of tail spinners let alone used them. The first one that we ever used was from the Mann’s bait company called the Little George. They are made up of a lead body (basically a large head) a treble hook and a spinner blade. They were designed to imitate shad, but they obviously will fool fish that are feeding on other types of baitfish. They are great for simply casting (long bomb casts too because they are heavy for their size) and retrieving. They can also be used as a vertical jigging lure.
GANG TROLL SPINNERS
Here is an oldie that many of you have either used or at least seen. A gang troll Like the Gibbs Delta shown here, is simply multiple spinner blades on usually some kind of wire leader with beads to space the blades apart. The beauty of the gang troll is it normally has a snap at the back end so the angler can attach whatever bait or lure they wish. The line of blades attracts the fish, and the bait on the end catches em’.
UNDERSPIN
The Underspin has been getting a lot of publicity lately, especially in the Bass world, but we have been doing well with them on Pike and Walleye too. They are either a jig with a spinner blade on the bottom of the jighead or a wide gapped hook (usually weighted) with a wire and a spinner blade underneath. Again, the spinner blade here is simply an added attractor. It’s the body of the bait (like a swimbait) that will ultimately get hit by the fish.
BEETLE SPIN
This little beauty has not only been around for a long time, but we’ll bet every one of you has had one in your tackle box. A Beetle Spin is essentially a tiny single-spin spinnerbait with a jig body. These baits can be deadly on panfish especially when searching large flats seeking to discover a school. We have also done extremely well on Walleye with this type of lure.
CONCLUSION
Well, there you have it, our list of the top-10 spinners that we feel everyone should be using. Do not ever underestimate the fish catching power of the spinner.
Let us know in the comment section below your favourite from our list or an alternate type that we did not feature.
The bottom line here is, make sure you are using spinners throughout each fishing season, no matter what the species.