Building your own fishing lures

Part1: Why build your own lures

There are actually a lot of reasons why avid fishermen make their own lures, often depending on the type of individual and time on hand.  Creative anglers with plenty of time to kill during, say, winter evenings, are the kind who will tinker more with making lures.  While many others make lures just for the sake of making something worth the while, most often the reasons revolve around the following factors:

Cost-cutting. You will agree that the price of lures can be prohibitive at times, particularly if you live far from the tackle stores and don’t have the dough to buy in bulk when you do visit one. And, you will admit, many famous brand lures, though effective, include in the price the costs of advertising and promotions, which is of no concern to fishing. 

In effect, you’re buying a portion of marketing even if it does not catch any fish (only fishermen), and that could be simply a waste of money as an opinion.

Making money. Naturally, you can sell what you made, especially if it has been proven to be consistently effective and catches fish with regularity.  Many now-large lure-making enterprises started out as garage affairs, begun simply to save money, test a theory, or improve some designs. 

Availability.  Sometimes the kind of lure you want is not what is sold, probably different in weight, colour or design. While lure manufacturers have their own design teams, —-who, for the most part, simply improve on proven designs—- you would have your own ideas about lures appropriate to your area. So what better way to prove them than to make the lures?

Personal satisfaction.  There is a kind of personal satisfaction when the lure you made yourself catches fish. It is an accomplishment in itself quite different and separate from just catching fish. You might call it, as many psychologists say, ‘psychic reward’, the fulfillment derived from having made something successfully, and maybe the pride that comes with it.

   

Part 2: Step by Step lure building

The first step in making your own lures is to conceptualize a design.  Most designs are based on existing ones, but there are those that are total departures, such as the Japanese Inchiku jig lures that do not generally resemble anything Western. But they were truly effective, and even spawned lures of similar designs such as the Asari and Lucanus jigs.     

Also, if you are familiar with the Gotcha lures, you can easily see that they were radical design take-offs from the conventional fish-like lures we often see in tackle stores. Yet they catch fish, and that is what is important.

After having a design concept, the next thing is to study whether the concept is workable by understanding the fundamental reasons why the lure could be effective. Body shape, appendages, parts, colour, movement and a few other factors in the water are all analyzed as to their probable effect on the target fish. Large lure manufacturers have laboratories to do these, but you as a home tinkerer have to make do with the local pond or swimming pool.

Next is creating a prototype or sample, something with which you test out your theories on what is effective by incorporating them into the design. You might have to make variations of the prototype to come up finally with a ‘proven’ lure design. Only then can you say that you have created a fishing lure.

1. How to make in-line fishing spinners

In this ebook, we shall deal with making in-line spinners (and spinnerbaits later), those thingamajigs of metal bodies and spinning blades made to look like fleeing baitfish like the minnow, at least to a predator fish. We shall endeavour to explain the various principles that operate in a spinner, and why certain components are used to make the thing work.

A1. The parts of a spinner

Essentially, an in-line spinner has five parts: body, wire form, blade, clevis, and hook. Some designs, include beads on the wire form and/or feathers or lure skirts over the hook. These additions are there to make the lure more attractive to the fish. For instance, the bead or beads are often placed right before the clevis to act as a smooth pivot or bearing for the clevis, so that the blade would spin faster or more precisely. You can also use a series of beads to form the body of the lure.  

Meanwhile, the feathers or lure skirt over the hook help disguise the deadly instrument and acts as a tail with enticing movements. It also acts as an attractant, giving the lure motion and colour.

Some spinner designs eliminate the clevis altogether, attaching the blade to rotate around the wire form directly, as exemplified by those spinners made by Panther-Martin. These ‘sonic’ design spinners have their own advantages and disadvantages like the others. 

Spinner body

The spinner body provides the bulk and shape for the lure as well as, in many instances, weight for casting and sinking. The sink factor is important in that it helps the spinner reach the desired depth more or less quickly, as needed, which translates to how long your lure will stay in the strike zone in the given time frame. Shorter time in the strike zones means less chances of hooking a fish.

Some spinner designs utilize plastic, metal or glass beads as their bodies. These lures are lighter than lures with metal or lead bodies and will not cast as far or sink as fast as lead. Often these lighter materials were chosen because they produce the desired clicking or clacking sounds underwater during the retrieve. They may likewise be of the desired colour to produce flash or mimic the baitfish’s coloration. 

Body styles are often differentiated by purpose: attraction or for weight. Attraction bodies are usually more fish-shaped, such as the bullet, tapered or cones, more often coloured or painted to simulate the prey fish or baitfish in the area. Sometimes coloured beads are also used for the same purpose.

On the other hand, spinner bodies employed as weight may just be a series of heavy beads, lead weights shaped and painted to look like fish, or a piece of metal like brass or stainless steel (which can double as an attracting body also). However, many materials used in spinner making are chosen for attracting and weighting purposes.

The spinner body is the part that gives the spinner its form, so that it varies according to the kind of fish it is trying to represent.  Most in-line spinners are made of brass, copper or stainless, since these metals are rust-proof and shiny. They likewise provide the weight needed for casting, sinking and running true when retrieved. 

There are spinner designs, however, that use lead for the body, often formed to resemble fish heads, complete with eyes and gill plate lines. Such designs can be more effective under certain conditions, like when the fish is more finicky, having been pressured heavily for a while, or when the water is a bit murky.

Hook

This is the most important part of the spinner, being the business end where the fish actually gets caught. Thus selecting the best hook to use is crucial in making spinners, and choices are varied and numerous. 

In-line spinners are more commonly equipped with treble hooks at their tails, attached to the harness through closed or open eyes, or via split rings, but some styles use single hooks either rigidly attached to the wire or by conventional means, i.e., split ring or eye at end of the wire. Single-hook spinners are easier to weed proof and thus are the preferred style for weedy areas.  

There are also many regions where only single barbless hooks can be used. If you use the lures you make in more than one region with different rules, it is a good idea to use a split ring to attach the hook to your lure. That way when you go to a different region with different rules, you can quickly change the hook to comply with the local rules.

Blade

After the hook, the blade is the most important part of a spinner, since it is the main component that ‘calls’ the fish, the attractant. Without its blade, a spinner is simply a moving object in the water, with exponentially reduced fish-catching capability. It means a blade-less spinner would still catch fish but perhaps only if you bump the fish in the noggin with the spinner.

The spinner’s blade attract the fish through its flash as it spins, reflecting light in most directions just like an injured small fish struggling in the water, and also via the vibrations it makes as it moves, which is felt by the predator fish (via its lateral lines) and taken to mean easy food. (At least that is what scientists say.) Thus, the choice of blade to use is very critical when making an in-line spinner or spinnerbait.

There are several types of spinner blades characterized mostly by shape, and further defined by colour or pattern. The most common ones at both extremes are the Colorado and the Willowleaf designs.   

 

1. Colorado design. This blade looks like a tiny spoon with the handle cut off: rounded at one end and a bit pointed at the other.  This design creates the most vibration because of its parabolic cross-section, and is thus favoUred for use when the fish’s vision is rather limited, such as at night or when the water is dirty or murky. 

Also, spinners with Colorado blades normally run shallower than those of other designs and the blades usually spin at slower speeds at an angle of about 50 degrees. 

2. Willowleaf. At the other design end is the willowleaf spinner blade, which, like its flora namesake, is long, with more flattish cross-section and pointed at both ends. Willowleafs are used when flash is most important like in clear waters.  They tend to run deeper and start to spin at faster speeds than the Colorado types, because of less water resistance, usually spinning at 25-degree angle, give or take one or a few degrees depending on factors other than shape. 

4. Indiana. A hybrid of the Colorado and Willowleaf designs, it incorporates some characteristics of both, such as the longish and narrow shape of the willowleaf, and rounded end of the Colorado. Hence it works with a little effectiveness of either, proving versatile and adaptable to most water conditions in virtually all seasons. 

 

It spins at 40 degrees, and its name originates from the state where its first manufacturer, Hildebrandt, was located.

4. Tomahawk. This design is a departure from the more common ones in that it resembles with some imagination an Indian tomahawk, and is also called sometimes as hatchet blades. Tomahawk blades are more erratic in terms of movement and thus produce a quite different vibration in the water during retrieve, attracting fish that would otherwise ignore the common vibrations produced by the more conventional spinner blade designs.  

7. Dakota.  Again, this design is an innovative one by having a split blade which creates more vibrations and flash, spins easily at slower retrieve speeds and at about 30-degree angle, shows the beads’ colour, and resists water less. The Dakota blade was invented primarily to catch Walleyes.

6. Oklahoma. This is a variant of the willowleaf design, being simply truncated and rounded at one end, thus falling somewhere between the Indiana and Colorado in style. Nonetheless, it produces a different sonic signature underwater which can be significant during heavy-pressure conditions.

7. French. The French style is rather oblong with a stamped dome bulge. They are often in diminutive sizes used to catch small panfishes and trout, though larger ones catch walleyes and bass.  The French blades are more widely used today than ever before.

8. Propellers. Some in-line spinners use propellers rather than blades to produce flash and vibration underwater, just like several designs of hardbody lures.  Propellers also create a buzz when in the water surface that can serve as a powerful fish attractor.

To complicate the subject of spinner blades further, each style may have additional features like dimpled surface (called ‘hammered’), scaled, fluted (with corrugations or flutes in the blade surface), painted, polished and prism-taped. Prism taping is the process of covering the spinner blade with a piece of highly reflective prism tape then covering the tape with a coating of lacquer to minimize water damage to the tape surface. 

Choosing the right blade design for your DIY spinner depends on the characteristics of the water you want to use it in. In predominantly stained waters, you would be better off with the Colorado types, especially in the yellow colour patterns such as gold, chartreuse or copper. And of course, in clear bodies of water, willowleaf styles will be much more useful.

Wire 

The wire harness or shaft is the unifying component of a spinner bait because all other parts are connected to it, from the hook in the tail to the clevis near the forward line tie eye. It also defines the lure’s form, establishing the basis of whether the lure will be an in-line spinner or a spinnerbait, which is generally a different lure.  

To make the spinner run true to form, strong wires are often used that resist bending or deforming upon pressure from a fish struggling to free itself or by snags. Stainless steel wire is the most common choice in various thicknesses (stated in gauge numbers) depending on lure size.

Clevis

This component is the U-shaped part that holds the blade and enables it to spin around the wire form. There are many styles including the shackle, wire, quick change, and folded. The most common is the shackle type –also called stirrup—, basically a bent piece of metal with holes at either end through which the spinner’s wire shaft is threaded. 

The choice of clevis type is mostly a matter of personal preference, and perhaps availability of the device in the locality.

A2. Making the in-line spinner

Making the in-line spinner is very easy, even for mass-production, particularly if you have the correct tools and equipment such as wire former, jewelry pliers and end cutters. 

The first piece of equipment (wire former) is used for bending the wire into eyes —open or twisted— in the correct sizes consistently and perfectly. Hence it is most vital when making spinners en masse, when exact duplicates are needed. 

The second is just a pair of jewelry pliers with one pincer rounded and the other concave,  or with two round tapered jaws. These pliers are also used to form semicircles or half rings in wires or metal strips much faster than when using wire formers. 

It is also handy to have a couple of pair of needle nose or chain nose pliers on hand for the wire bending work. 

The end cutters or side cutters are used to cut off wire tag ends .

Step 1

First, make a ring or loop near one end of the wire using your wire former or pliers. The length of the wire may be two inches (2”) for small spinners to four inches (4”) for larger ones. Calculate the length but err on the long side because it is easier to cut off an extra length of wire than add some.

Most DIY spinner makers begin with the head ring or line end of the spinner. It is easy to purchase preformed wires with the line loop already formed. If you are using straight wires, form the loop about an inch or so from the end of the wire. Twist the wire around itself to form the loop that you will hook the lure to the line. 

Step 2

Insert a bead on the wire, then insert the clevis into the hole of the blade of your choice and thread the wire through the clevis holes, making sure the blade’s concave surface is inside. Thread another bead, and if you are using them, the lure body and the feathers or lure skirt on to the wire.

Step 3

Form the hook loop about an inch or so from the end of the wire, insert the hook and twist the wire around itself to close the hook loop. Snip off any extra wire.

You now have an in-line spinner ready or fishing.

   

You can also bend the end of the wire’s tag end to make a small safety pin snap that will clip and hold onto the main wire and prevent the loop from opening out under pressure. The snap makes it easy to change hooks should the need arises. 

However, the snap will place the hook much farther from the body and blade, which might reduce the effectiveness of the lure. 

Some spinners place the blade after the body, particularly the weight-forward spinners (see below for details on this type), but this is suited to more specialized fishing.  

A3. Selecting the components

Now that you understand the very simple process of making an in-line spinner, it is important that you choose the correct materials for your components. Although it is easy to make new ones to replace those you made incorrectly, you cannot do so in the field while fishing, plus you would be wasting time better used actually fishing, effort and materials if you make mistakes. 

Better do it right the first time. Here is how to choose the right materials, but remember that in the end, everything will still be a matter of personal choice. 

Wire

As stated above, a stiff wire is necessary if you want to have a good spinner. Using .024 gauge wire is recommended for all purposes, but there is no rule that forbids you to use heavier wire up to 0.26 if you so desire for medium sized fish like trout or walleyes. Smaller spinners may use .022 which is the lightest wire suggested for use, even in panfish-sized spinners, but again, you be the judge what wire to use based on the fish that you intend to catch. 

You may choose whether to use straight wire in pre-cut lengths, or coiled in a continuous roll you can cut as desired. Though it could be wasteful to buy wire forms that exceed what you need, but it is also difficult to straighten bent wire as those coming off coils. So again, your personal choice.

Preformed wires are available online or from tackle stores if you want to reduce work, but often it is important to perform the necessary process to have the feel for the thing. A lot of DIY anglers actually prefer to make everything personally because of this. Plus, there is the satisfaction derived from making effective and successful lures.

Hook

As mentioned above, in-line spinners are usually equipped with treble hooks, especially for the smaller sizes, but you can use single hooks just as effectively. In many instances the latter is preferred under certain conditions, such as in waters where weeds or underwater vegetation are plentiful. Single hooks are less prone to snagging as well as easier to make weedless.

Almost any hook style is usable for in-line spinners, although the O’Shaughnessy, Siwash and similar long-shanked styles are preferred. Some fishermen, on the other hand, choose to put short-shank hooks in their spinners, claiming that the catch rate increases when the hook is nearer the lure body or blade. Many anglers believe a long-shank hook is more likely to miss when the lure is grabbed sideways or from underneath, which often happens. 

Perhaps you can try both methods and see what works better for you.

   

A major consideration is that the hook should have a large-enough eye for the hook to move freely around the wire shank, except when it is attached rigidly as in some designs. A hook locked in some awkward angle to the lure body will make the lure move through the water erratically. 

When choosing hook size, just make sure the hook is not too large as to unbalance the lure, letting it sink butt-first at zero movement, nor too small that it altogether misses the fish’s mouth at the strike. Many lure makers use hooks whose gap is about as wide as the blade or just a smidgen less, a pretty good rule of thumb in any event.

Experts recommend, never using hooks less than size 10, even in ultralight fishing situations. Smaller than that and you’d probably be catching fingerlings or fry.

 

Body

For trout, avid lure makers recommend brass —not plastic, unless none are available— beads of 2 mm up to 6 mm sizes. The weight will help you cast the lure much farther than with plastic beads, and let it sink quicker to the desired depth. But you may add plastic beads also, particularly the bright coloured ones in yellow or white, which will enable you to see the lure as it is retrieved and react to strikes quicker. 

The beads used as spinner bodies are normally selected for three reasons: bulk, colour, and weight. Beads for bulk or spinnerbait body are more often plastic since they are there simply to give form to the lure. Although no fish resembles a truncated worm with wings, the beads may represent an underwater creature such as an insect nymph that is food to some predator fish like bass or trout.   

Coloured beads  may also approximate the coloration of baitfish on which the predator fish feed, so it will help to choose such coloured beads. As for weight, metal beads, often in the correct colours of flash, are the beads of choice.

Lure bodies available in tackle stores both off- and online are, to say the least, myriad, ranging in shape and form from barrels through torpedoes to bullets and everything else between. Some even look like a series of beads strung together or a stack of diminutive plates, in plastic but mostly brass. Choosing which to use can be bewildering at times.

However, the principle of balanced flash and weight will help you select the correct materials for the body, depending on the kind of fish you are after and probable sizes, and the average water depth you’d be fishing in. 

For instance, walleye fishermen in Lake Erie use weight-forward spinners much more than the balanced lures of trout fishermen. The reason is that this style of spinner works great for suspending fish, trolls superbly in the correct position and create minimal line twist. It consists of a molded head usually made of lead (painted or not), (commonly) French spinner blade, some hollow metal or plastic beads and the hook (single or treble) strung on a straight wire harness.

These lures are made using .030 gauge wire or thereabouts, depending on the actual size of the spinner itself.

Blade

Here we come into the most critical part of making in-line spinners. The choice of blade –style, size, colour, design— to use is not easy to say the least, but common practical sense will tell you to use a blade size that approximates the average size of baitfish in the area. This is because spinners are made usually to resemble, or give an impression of, a fleeing baitfish, an easy meal, although some kinds of fish habitually attack lures larger than what is expected. But of course you cannot expect a five-inch trout to hit a four-inch spinner, would you? 

So use a blade appropriate to the average size of predator fish you are after. 

As to style, you can refer to the above information to decide which design might be more suited to your kind of fishing and locality, based on water and maybe weather conditions. Generally speaking, colder weather calls for slower retrieve speeds, so the Colorado or a blade of similar shape with a lot of flash will be the one of choice. 

Conversely, in clear summer waters, the willowleaf design would be the appropriate blade, being made for faster retrieves in greater depths. 

Refer to the chart below to determine the best blade and hooks sizes.

Weight Forward Spinner Component Chart
Spinner	French	Indiana	Clevis	Bead	Hook	Hook*
Weight	Blade	Blade	Size	Size	Size	Style
3/8oz.	3	3	2	5mm	1/0 or 2/0	072 or 261
5/8oz.	3 or 4	4	2 or 3	6mm	2/0 or 3/0	072 or 261

From:  fishingarchives.info. *hooks are Eagle  Claw 

Clevis

There are many clevis styles, from the stirrup or shackle type to the quick change one made of plastic. Then there is the folded, wire, Dutch fork metal and rolled wire. Each type is usable for use in in-line spinners, but not all will be appropriate or truly effective. There are always limitations in applicability.

For instance, plastic clevises may be too large for spinners in the smaller sizes, whose blades will have difficulty spinning the relatively heavier clevises water resistance-wise. Better to use the finer and lighter wire or stirrup clevis. The idea is to achieve a good blade-to-clevis balance: blade not too heavy as to bend the clevis closed, which should not be too large as to resist the blade’s tendency to turn or spin.   

The folded clevis is basically a metal ring folded in the middle to create a U-shaped form, while the wire clevis has a coiled part through which the spinner wire is threaded. Some wire clevises have tiny locking hooks at one end to facilitate opening and closing and, thus, changing the blade. The Dutch fork clevis, on the other hand, has a sleeve for the spinner wire form, and another where the actual ‘D’ wire clevis is located. This clevis is also often made of plastic.

Take a look at the table below:

STIRRUP CLEVIS SIZE / BLADE TABLE

Use this table to select the right size stirrup clevis for your application.
This table applies to in-line spinners, spinnerbaits, lake trolls, and other applications

Stirrup Clevise Size	BLADE SIZE
	Colorado	Indiana	Willowleaf	French	Swing/Ripple	Mag Willow	Fluted	Hatch
1	00, 0, 1, 2	00, 0, 1, 2	0, 1, 2	0, 1	0, 1	n/a	n/a	n/a
2	3, 3½	3, 4	3, 3½	2, 3	2, 3, 4	3, 4	n/a	3
3	4, 4½, 5	4, 5	4, 5	4, 5	4, 5	4-½, 5	5	4
4	5, 6	6	6	6	n/a	6, 7	5, 6	5
6	7	7	7	n/a	n/a	7	7	n/a
8	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	8	n/a

 From: luremaking.com  

Other components

As stated above there are other components used in the construction of in-line spinners that differentiates an individual spinner from the others of the same general description. An example is the feather, lure skirt or hair used to dress the hook, both to disguise it as well as give it an enticing tail-like appearance. In some designs the feather or hair is replaced by a short length of coloured tubing, usually for the same reason. 

Other trout fishermen design the tail feathers to look like a flyfishing fly, while others even actually attach a whole fly to the spinner. Though the fly is technically not a true component of a spinner, the addition of the fly often makes a very effective spinner pattern: the spinner acts as attractant and the fly the bait. Which only proves creativity can be successful, and it should not be overlooked in making in-line spinners.

That about ends our discussion or tutorial on making in-line spinners. It is time to delve into the realm of understanding and making spinnerbaits. 

2. Spinnerbaits: their similarity with, and difference from, in-line spinners

Spinnerbaits are a kind of relative to in-line spinners, simply because both use the same principles of attracting fish through the use of a spinning flashy material while it is moving through water. (The other relatives are the buzzbait, which is an improvement of the spinnerbait, and the spoon.) Spinnerbaits also use clevises, blades, wire form, and hooks.

They differ from in-line spinners in terms of additional features present in a spinnerbait that are not in in-line spinners, mainly the molded-in weight head, skirt, swivel and the safety pin wire form. Some spinnerbaits also use two or even more blades and clackers that produce a different and additional sound. Many anglers contend this extra sound invites more bites than when absent in a spinnerbait.

B1. How spinnerbaits look like

Basically, a spinnerbait looks simply like a large open safety pin with a skirted leadhead and hook in the lower arm and a spinner blade (sometimes two or more) in the upper arm. The retrieve line is tied at the bend of the two arms. When the spinnerbait is retrieved, the blade spins just like in an in-line spinner creating flash and sonic waves signature, while the skirt in the lead head pulsates simulating some kind of food to the fish.

Spinner baits are used mostly to catch walleye and other fish while trolling in lakes and large rivers. 

B2. How to make spinnerbaits

Just like in making in-line spinners, making spinnerbaits is just as easy, once you understand the principles involved and the components that make up the spinnerbait. And, if you know how to make in-line spinners, creating spinnerbaits will be a breeze for you.

Step 1

First you need to have (make or buy) the lead head, the only component not easy to make but a simple thing if you have a mold. Different molds produce different head styles in varied sizes, so if you are buying one, be specific about what style and size you want.

Ready-made lead heads come attached to the wire form with the hook so you bypass two decision-making steps of what size wire and hook to use in your spinnerbait. But if you must mold the head, the do-it-yourself molds usually indicate what type and size of hook and wire you must use or it. Not very difficult, after all.

Step 2

Now bend the wire form into your desired configuration, whether the ‘R’ bend, twisted or safety pin type. It helps if you have something to pattern your lure after, or maybe even just a picture, because the wire forms have many different styles you can choose, so that sometimes the difficulty lies in selecting which to use. (See Tips below.)

Step 3

Insert the clevis through the blade’s hole and thread the wire through the holes of the clevis. You have now attached the first blade if you intend to use two blades or more. Now thread one or several small metal or plastic bead/s that will serve as the clevis’ anvil during the retrieve. (Some anglers also add a bead or beads below the clevis, but it is a personal preference for you.) 

Repeat the procedure if you will use three blades or more.

Step 4

To attach the last blade, bend the end of the wire form into a loop, circle or ring without closing it completely. Attach a small swivel to the ring before lock-twisting it, or just close it after. You can use a crane or bearing swivel, with or without a snap, whichever you are comfortable with. Snaps are a big help when changing blades.

Attach a split ring to the swivel and add the blade of your choice to the split ring. If you use a snap you won’t need a split ring to attach the blade to the swivel.

Step 5

Attach the desired skirt to the head, arranging the strands so that they are distributed evenly. 

You now have a ready-to-fish spinnerbait.

Tips:

1. Some anglers recommend using long-shank hooks for spinnerbaits to get the fish that bite short, i.e., just the trailing skirt strands. Others simply add a stinger hook point up to the main hook for the same end. The stinger hook is attached to the main hook by inserting the main hook’s point through the stinger hook’s eye so the stinger rests on the main hook’s bend or gap. 

But this raises the chances of the trailer hook snagging on some obstructions or weeds.

2. Likewise, there are those who suggest adding a trailer hook to the back blade to catch the fish that slams the blade itself. 

3. Three styles of wire forms are commonly used, the ‘R’ or open bend, twisted bend, and the safety pin bend. 

1. 1. 3.1.In the first, the wire is simply bent like an ‘R’ (hence the name) into the lower and upper arms. The open bend requires tying the line directly to the wire, since a snap might ride up or down of the bend, hampering the action of the lure. But this may be overcome by tying the bend together with a short line or adding a piece of rubber tubing to close the gap between the arms.

An open bend, however, eliminates the chance of the line wrapping around the lure and fouling its performance.  

3. 2. 3.2.In the twisted bend, the bend is twisted closed so snaps may be used, facilitating lure changing, but this increases the danger of line wrap, as stated above.

3. 3. 3.3.As to the safety pin bend, the wire is turned in a circle just like the fulcrum of a safety pin. This configuration has the same properties of the twisted bend.

4. Mind the length of the upper arm of your lure. Too short and it will hardly protect the spinnerbait from snags; too long and the fish may strike at the blade instead of the skirt (and hook). But a short upper arm is good for ‘helicoptering’, the technique of dropping the lure vertically, imitating something that fell from above water.  This technique is often effective for fish that takes non-aquatic foodstuffs like bass and trout.

4. 1. 1. 5. Too large blades may make the lure roll on retrieve, because the bigger blade has more water resistance. (See chart below for reference.) This pretty well spoils the lure’s action and effectiveness. Slow the retrieve speed to prevent rolling. 

4. 1. 1. 6. As in any fishing activity, choose the sharpest hook you can find when selecting or molding heads, or periodically hone the hook to nail-pricking sharpness. Your catch rate will rise accordingly.

4. 1. 1. 7. You may also DIY the lead head by hammering a lead tube into a fish head.

Spinnerbait Component Chart
	1/8oz.	1/4oz.	3/8oz.	1/2oz.	3/4oz.
Colorado Size(1)	1 to 3	3 to 4	3/ to 5	4 to 5	5 to 7
Willow Size(1)	2 to 3	3 to 4	3/ to 5	31 to 5	5 to 7
Colorado Size(2)	0 to 2	1 to 2	1 to 3	2 to 31	2 to 4
Willow Size(2)	1 to 2	2 to 3	2 to 4	3 to 4	3 to 4
Stirrup Clevise(2)	1	2	3	3	4
Swivel Size(3)	12	10	7	7	5
Split Ring Size	1	2	3	4	5
Bead Size141	3/32″	1/8″	1/8″ 1/8″ or 5/32′		5/32″
Skirt Length	4″	4″	4″ or 5″	5″	5″ or larger
If You Plan to Mold Your Own Heads Use:
Wire Shaft Dia.	0.035″	0.035″	0.040″	0.040″	0.040″
Hook Size (5)	1/0	2/0	3/0	4/0	5/0

1) Blade size for the terminal blade

2) Blade size for the secondary blade. This blade should be smaller than the terminal blade. It is placed on the upper arm before the terminal blade using a stirrup clevis.

3) The swivel may be a snap swivel or a crane swivel with split rings. The advantage of a snap swivel is that you easily change the blade while out on the water.

4) These are usually hollow metal beads but you may use plastic beads as well. They act as a bearing and should be both above and below the clevis.

5) Use an Eagle Claw style 253 or 255 hook, or similar.

from: fishingarchives.info

B3. Choosing the components

Hook

You can use any style of hook you want as long as you can attach it correctly to the spinnerbait wire. Even the eyeless hook may be used with the wire wrapped around the hook shank like a snell. Ditto with turned-down, turned-up or straight eye hooks. But if you buy the lead head, you cannot choose which hook to use since ready-made heads already have hooks attached to them.

In many instances, when you can choose what hook to use, like if you have to mold your lead heads, it is better to err on the large side than use a too-small hook that is unable to find purchase in the fish’s mouth. For strange reasons, small fishes could get themselves impaled on a large hook more often than big fishes on small hooks.

There are spinnerbait styles that employ loosely-attached hooks, often when using jigs, plastic or soft-bodied lures at the business end of the spinnerbait. But more on that below. 

Blade

As stated above, the primary function of the blade is to produce flash to attract fish to it, and additionally to create sound that mimicks a struggling fish. In most cases and as a rule of thumb, willowleaf blades produce less sonic vibration but more flash, while Colorado blades has less flash but more thump. This might be because willowleaf blades spin faster than Colorado-type blades and thus present reflected light more often at a given time period. 

Also, contrary to what might have been implied by blade manufacturers, ‘hammered’ or dimpled blades produce less flash than plain ones, or at least are less visible at any given distance. Plain surface blades simply have more reflection surface facing a direction than dimpled blades. Finally, painted blades are generally non-reflective, and so they do the least in the flash topic, but they can resemble baitfish coloration more than any other style of blades.

When choosing blades for your spinnerbait, the location factor —where you intend to fish the spinnerbait— will count the greatest. Murky water requires more yellowish flash —gold, copper, chartreuse— and sound, and clearer waters white flash —silver, nickel, and stainless— but less sonic impact. You will have to experiment based on those general concepts what would be effective for your fishing.

As an item of information, there are now in the market plastic blades for spinnerbaits and in-line spinners that present different factors of interest to anglers like long useful life, light materials, various colours and designs, and lower prices. It is worth exploring.  

  

Wire form

Two general types exist for wire forms: short arm and long arm, and each type have its own advantages and disadvantages.

A short-arm spinnerbait, on the one hand, usually has its blade or upper arm short enough that the hook and/or skirt trails behind the blade. This is the type commonly used when the fishing area is a drop-off, pier or dock, or bluff where vertical or ‘yo-yo’ presentation is needed because it does not ‘nosedive’ and therefore presents itself hook-first to the fish, which often attacks from below.  

The short-arm spinnerbait is also good for dragging the bottom like a jig. It typically uses Colorado blades which has higher water resistance qualities and thus stays up longer at lower speeds. However, this type is less ‘weedless’ and more prone to snagging since the hook has less protection from the blade.

The long-arm spinnerbait, on the other hand, has the upper arm and main blade long enough so as to extend beyond the skirt. This is the type used for tandem bladed design or with larger blades when more flash is needed and thus usually sports willowleaf blades. It is generally effective in ‘waking the bait’ or fishing it just under the water surface that it produces a long wake behind as it is retrieved. 

Its main disadvantage is that the blade that protects the hook from snags may likewise prevent hooking when a large fish tries to engulf the entire lure, or the fish may go for the blade instead of the hook and skirt. Its tendency to ‘nosedive’ also reduces its effectiveness at that point. 

There is actually no wrong or right upper arm length for spinnerbaits; it depends on the area where you’ll use it plus your personal preference. If you will fish in areas where there are docks and drop-offs that are weedy or snag-prone, a compromise in arm length would be important so you don’t change lures too often on the water.

 Skirt 

A spinnerbait skirt is mostly either rubber or silicone plastic, though the latter is more in use today, because all sorts of colour, glitter, flakes or patterns can be –and are— molded into the material itself. Such features normally last longer than painted-on ones, while the silicone can stay good longer in use or while in storage. 

But it really matters very little to the fish whether the skirt is plastic or rubber: they see it as food or territorial intruder just the same.

Length is another consideration when selecting skirts. Though the standard skirt length extends only about a quarter-inch beyond the hook bend, some anglers prefer it longer or shorter. But if you find your skirt strands get nipped in the ends, the fish is short-hitting them, so cut the strands nearer the hook. It means you just have to experiment what will suit your needs.  

Clevis

As stated above, a spinnerbait uses a clevis only for the secondary blades attached to the upper arm; the main blade spins via a swivel. The clevis is actually used only to allow the secondary blade to wobble and create flash; the blade does not spin unless likewise attached to a swivel connected to a clevis. Therefore it is best to select a clevis that lets the blade do its duty, and, if in doubt, choose a larger clevis over a smaller one which can restrict blade movement.

Bead/s

The beads used in spinnerbaits are merely to separate the secondary and tertiary blades (there are spinnerbaits that use three blades) from one another or from the arm ends so the blades may spin or wobble more freely than otherwise. Therefore one can use plastic or metal beads in the arms although small metal beads are the preferred ones.

Swivel

The most common type of swivel used in spinnerbaits is the crane swivel, the one without the eye twists showing (these are barrel swivels) as the best compromise between price and functionality. The best to use is the ball bearing swivel, which, as its name indicates, contains ball bearings in its body that enables the eye to turn much more freely than in other styles. But naturally they are more expensive and rarer to find. (More on this below.)

The common sizes relative to lure weight may be #2 swivel for spinnerbaits of quarter-ounce or thereabouts, and #3 for anything bigger. However, since the swivel is attached to the blade, it makes more sense to size the swivel by blade size. In this wise, the #2 swivel is used for blades of #4.5 willowleaf or the equivalent #6 Colorado. Larger blades are paired with #3 swivels.

Remember, however, that a too-large blade may not turn freely with a too-small swivel, because the tension from the heavy blade may jam the swivel’s arms into its barrel, creating too much friction for the blade to move.  Better to have a size too-large swivel than a size too-small.

About swivels:

There are several types of swivels based on how they were constructed: crane, barrel, tuna, ball-bearing, chain and three-way swivels are the most common.

Crane. This style looks like a truncated tube tapered a little at both ends, with looped eyes. Rather inexpensive compared to others because of less manufacturing steps, but as strong if not more.

Barrel. Sometimes confused with the crane swivel, this one is actually very similar to the crane swivel except for the twisted eye wires and more tapered body form. 

Tuna. Resembles the barrel swivel but with an open body exposing the knobs on the eye wire that allows twisting but prevents them from pulling out.

 

Ball-bearing.  The most expensive but the most efficient of them all. It consists of a barrel with welded rings on both ends. One ring is attached to a tiny rod with the bearings located inside the swivel body, and the other ring is connected to the swivel body. The bearings enable the rings to turn very easily, minimizing line twist. 

Chain. This is just a series of swivel bodies strung together much like the common ball chain, although the bodies are elongated and with eyes at the ends. 

Three-way. A ring with three twisted-wire eyes connected to it so that three lines may be tied to it. Often used in bottom bouncer and single-hook pater noster rigs.

Drop swivels. This is just a swivel (crane or barrel) with a third eye going through the body. A new innovation over the three-way, this is mostly used in attaching sinkers to trolling lines but is just as effective in rigs where three-way swivels are used.

All swivels function the same way: preventing line twist by letting both tie eyes to turn. The variations in effectivity occur in the individual designs, which follow the same general principle of allowing spinning movement by the use of knobs inside a body or form connecting the line tie ends. Hence you can even make a DIY swivel using two common wire nails and two short lengths of wire, but that would be for another ebook.

B4. Conclusion

That about ends our tutorial on how to make spinners and spinnerbaits and we hope you gleaned some knowledge from the discussions that can make you a better spinner angler. The thing to remember is that there are no hard-and-fast, etched-in-stone rules on making spinners and spinnerbaits, and that means you have to experiment on components, colours, sizes, retrieves and other factors to find the most productive lures  you can make in quantity. 

But while you can actually let your imagination truly loose in making lures, one very broad principle governs lure making no matter the type: the lure must look, move, and appeal to the fish as something it eats, abhors or plain wants to destroy. 

Not all fish strike out of hunger, but also by anger (as in area intruders) or hate, such as against egg predators. These are called reaction strikes and are usually provoked from the fish by some types of lures or lure movements. Examples are lizard lures which, when cast near a bass’ nest during spawning time, will draw from it a reaction strike to eliminate a predator of fish eggs from harming the nest.

Can one make a spinner that looks like a lizard? Why not, if you attach hair to the spinner body that looks like appendages, and a long tail, maybe you might create a lizard spinner bass will always strike at during spawning time. And there is only one way to find out, don’t you think so?

3. Additional information

The lures discussed above in no way are the only forms of spinners or spinnerbaits in existence or used by fishermen. The additional forms are often ‘improvements’ made by inquisitive angler-tinkerers on existing lures that resulted in better efficiency as fish-catcher, so that they were adopted by others and eventually became commonplace or popular. 

Among these newer-fangled lures are the tailspinners, jig spinnerbaits, double-arm spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and the Alabama rig. 

1. Tailspinners

As its name indicates, tailspinners are simply regular spinners with the blade moved to after the body, nearer the tail. Usually the blades used in this spinner form are smaller than normal, though many are of regular size. Furthermore, these spinners have some form of head such as painted fish head, coloured bead, or others. The idea was to present to the fish an impression of some kind of food, rival, or intruder to induce the fish to strike it, just like a regular spinner.

Another form of tailspinner consists of a lead body with a small spinner blade at the tail, a treble hook below or at the belly, and the line tie eye above or the back of the lure. Used as a vertical presentation lure, it is fished by letting it flutter down, then ripped upwards through the school of fish, simulating a bait fish trying to escape to the surface. 

It is heavy enough to be cast a fair distance even in windy conditions, but sinks quite quickly as well and thus in shallow water must be retrieved as soon as it hits the surface so it won’t snag on bottom debris.    

Mann’s Bait Company first introduced this concept via its ‘Little George’ lure in 1986.

2. Jig spinnerbaits

This ‘improvement’ on the conventional spinnerbait employs a soft-body jig instead of the head-and-skirt combination in the lower arm. The lower arm’s end is fashioned into a clip which is run through the jig’s hook eye so the jig faces the direction of retrieve. As such, this type of spinnerbait presents a more realistic baitfish idea than that of the skirt.

The jigs used vary per personal preference, including hooks dressed with bucktail and plastic tubes, although curly tail grubs are the most popular. The Johnson Tackle Company’s ‘Beetle Spin’ was the first and most well-known example of this type.

If you want to make spinnerbaits of this kind, you simply have to make the lower arm of your spinnerbait end in a loop either locking to the wire itself or locked by a bead. You can then attach to that open end the lure of your choice: large fly, softbait, feather or bucktail jig, hardbodied lure or even a small livebait or insect. In fact, anything you think that will attract or catch fish.     

3. Buzzbaits 

This one is a spinnerbait with a propeller or two instead of blade/s in the upper arm. Designed largely to be fished topwater, the propeller creates a noisy clatter at the surface during the retrieve, simulating the struggles of a baitfish in its dying throes, or an insect desperately fluttering to fly again, a clear indication of ‘cold meat’—food for the least effort— to the predator. 

Most buzzbaits have only one propeller, but many designs incorporate two, a few of them counter-rotating. Some designs even put the two blades alongside each other, one in each arm, and users claim they are more productive than the more conventional ones. Other anglers say, however, that the additional commotion the extra propeller creates may actually spook the fish. Experience would indicate which is correct.

There are also buzzbaits with three blades, blades with holes that create more topwater commotion, jagged-edge blades, stepped blades, equipped with a clicker or clacker that produce clicking sounds similar to what water bottom creatures make, and those that use soft-bodied lures instead of skirts. Just don’t be too surprised to see weird-looking buzzbaits, and if you do, just remember no matter their looks, they follow the same principle of making noise to attract the fish and lure it into striking. 

Buzzbaits of 1/8 oz. to half-ounce are the most popular sizes.  

When the buzzbait was first introduced in the bass fishing scene, it was considered as ‘too effective’ and was banned from the tournament circuit for a while until everybody caught on and learned the techniques, and the fish recognized it as only a lure. Its effectivity then depended on the angler’s skill and not on the lure’s novelty factor. 

4. Two-arm spinnerbaits

Unlike a tandem spinnerbait that features two blades in the upper arm, this design sports two parallel arms with a blade at each end. Proponents say they are good for lift-and-drop technique for fishing the ledges, and for slow rolling as well. The two blades produce twice the sonic vibration of a single blade and thus double the attracting power. 

Its main advantage is that the twin arms can be fitted with two blades each, and that gives the buzzbait the appearance of a small school of baitfish, with a shadowing small predator fish underneath it. The ‘bigger fish’ more often gets struck.

5. Alabama rig

Though not really a true spinner, the Alabama rig consists of several wire arms centered around a lead or plastic head, with soft-bodied lures at the ends of the wire arms in lieu of blades. In this wise, it resembles a spinnerbait, albeit with a multiplicity of arms.

The main intention of the Alabama rig is to simulate a school of baitfish to attract the predator fish, and allow it to select which individual ‘fish’ to strike at. Usually the upper arms of the Alabama are rigged with lures a tad smaller than those in the lower arms, so the predator fish will home on the larger ones, which it more often does. Multiple hook-ups —several fish hooked on the rig at the same time—are not too uncommon. 

4. Tools to use

To make the lures, you need to use some tools and equipment if you can afford them. They are listed below:

Pliers. At the very least you need a pair of long-nose, needle-nose or round-nose pliers, whichever is available, to bend the wire in forming the eyes. When using ordinary long-nose or needle-nose pliers, you are apt to form little corners in the bend, unless you are very adept in bending arcs in wires. Round-nose pliers, those with rounded pincers, and jewelry pliers –with one rounded pincer and the other concave— are better in forming round eyes.  

End snip or cutter. Just to snip off wire tag ends. You may also use side-cutting pliers.

   

Small file, sandpaper or whetstone. To remove the sharpness in the cut wire that may hurt you later. Usually not needed if you twist off the wire’s tag ends. 

 

Wire former or bender. A piece of equipment to form eyes and twist the wire perfectly and easily each time. Costs from a few dollars to hundreds for the more sophisticated ones. Optional but very convenient to have. You can DIY one easily with a little skill but that may be for another ebook.

Small ballpein hammer. For hammering DIY blades into a concave form.

5. How about it?

Now that you know how spinners and spinnerbaits are constructed and function, and how to make them using common tools, you could save by DIYing them. You’ll enjoy it, too.  

Good luck.