I gotta tell ya.....

[ctom]

Jim  is right. The skirts are simple silicone tabs from Do-It's store. Easy to work with and dress up a spinner in a hurry. Right now, I am doing the 1/16's up for adding plastic baits and doing silicone on the 1/8 size. The silicone tabs I cut in half at each end so the skirt doesn't get so bulky. I tie the skirts on using a high-quality jig tying thread.

Try checking out siliconetabs.com if you want to get an eyeful.

[bigjim5589]

Tom, that's where I've been getting mine. Great color selection.

I also tie all the skirts on using Danville 210 denier flat nylon thread. Have been using that thread now for a lot of years, and it's available in many colors. I probably use the Fl. Fire Orange color the most on spinnerbaits.

They also carry some decent ball bearing swivels in the smaller sizes. I use Worth ball bearing swivels on the bigger spinnerbaits.

Crane swivels are cheaper and work fine, but ball bearing swivels seem to spin much better at slower retrieve speeds.

[ctom]

I think that even a small ball-bearing swivel is too much for the 1/16 spinners, so I plan to use crane swivels on those.

[bigjim5589]

Perhaps! I've only used the BB swivels on the 1/8 oz. and size 12 crane swivels on 1/16 oz.

I bought a bunch of size 12 crane swivels one time to use on the smaller pony head type jigs, and used them on the lightest spinnerbaits too.

[Shaunm81]

Thank you guys.  I think I'm going to pick everything up soon and see what I can put together.   I think I will mostly make the 1/16 ones mostly.  I  wish these were in the 1/32 size also but fishing in deeper water the 1/16 oz should be alright hopefully.

[bigjim5589]

Shaunm81, it would be easy to make a 1/32 oz spinnerbait with most any of the round head jig molds. The problem would be the wire forms as you would have to make them too. I think the small wire forms used in the Crappie Spinner mold, may be too big & too much weight for 1/32 oz, once a blade & swivel is added, and they might not ride properly.

I recall that's .029 size wire for those forms, and you could use it, but may have to scale down the size of the form. Balance & weight of the components can be important to achieve proper tracking. Otherwise a spinner bait tends to lay on it's side if the upper weight is more than the jig end.

Also, most folks don't consider, that a rotating blade, tends to want to make the entire lure spin. There's a scientific principle that involves rotating bodies, but I don't recall the name of it. When the balance is off, even if the spinnerbait appears to ride properly, once that blades gets spinning faster, particularly if you use a larger blade, it can cause it to ride on it's side or even upside down. So, something to consider.

I generally use size 2 blades on the 1/16 & 1/8 oz spinnerbaits, and have used that size blade on the safety pin style spinner frames with crane swivels on 1/32 oz jigs & plastic baits. I've used size 3 blades too and that size can cause a 1/32 oz spinnerbait to ride on it's side. 

Plastics added also add weight to the lower end, so it's the total weights top & bottom that create that balance and should be part of your thinking process for spinnerbait assembly.

[ctom]

I use #3 willow leafs on all of my 1/8 spinners and they ride nice and retrieve beautifully. The 1/16 headed spinners are getting plastics in lieu of silicone or crystal flash and are going to get crane swivels instead of ballbearing,  and #1 or @2 colorado blades instead of willows. I'll play with the two blade sizes with the 1/16 heads to see which size blade action offers the most action and still not affect the disposition of the spinner or cause it to roll or ride up excessively.

[bigjim5589]

Tom, you and I are basically saying the same things here, so thanks for adding that. Experience certainly counts!

As much as we would like to think that we can do anything we want, there's limits.

I have some large plastic Colorado blades, that are possibly size 4 or larger and I thought I could use them on some lighter spinnerbaits, since they're much lighter than metal blades. That's how I learned about that rotation issue.   

[ctom]

I really like willows on spinnerbaits and the #3 is a nice fit for the 1/8.... spins easy and the amount of drag from the spin doesn't overwhelm the spinner and make it do weird things. The #3 willow on the 1/16 is a bit much so I am going to try #1 and #2 Colorados using crane swivels and #1 split rings but am also going to order some #2 willows to try, thinking they'll be a good blade size with a bit less drag.

I've been trying these on the rod in water with a temp of about 35 degrees and the air at 40 when I try them and have noted that they seem to do best with a light braid. I am using 4# Clam Frost braid and they are running super nice. When I drop to 4# mono, the line diameter and stiffness in the chill really starts to throw the tracking off and its likely due to the line's coiling/memory from the cold. I run 4# Trilene XL mono mostly in warm weather and don't have any memory or coiling issues so I'm hoping what I am seeing here now is just the chill. I have separate rods set up to run the frost so if I need to run that its no biggie.

I had to wait 2 years almost for everything to come together with the mold. If the mold wasn't available, other components weren't, so I'm anxious to get these critters in fish. Hopefully the big river won't be a mess of high water this spring to make fishing ugly again. I've been following the predictions and right now things are about normal for this time of year, but the northern third of the state has less than normal amounts of snow on the ground following a dry summer so hopeful the ground up there will such us the melt water. Central and southern parts of the state are dry again too with hardly any snow. We had some rain followed by an inch of snow, then cold. Ahead of the rain we were dealing with upper thirties to mid-forties for temps with even higher temps tossed in. I had 62 here one afternoon. Since the snow, we've been chilly with temps in the teens here this am but tomorrow we're supposed to shoot right back in the mid-40's for three days. Lake ice is suffering big time here and some of our retention ponds are opening up along with the rivers and streams. The stream behind the house that I've been tossing these spinners in has yet to freeze up solid this winter so I'm hoping for an early crappie start-up without having to play games with high water. You'll get fishing in earnest before I do Jim so here's me tossing some good luck your way.

[ctom]

Here are 4, 1/16 size spinners minus any dressing. These are done using #2 nickel Colorado blades, #10 crane swivels and #0 split rings. These seem balanced but I’ll stuff some plastic up on the hub and walk them down to the river behind our home for a test swim. Also, these are done using the #2 hooks in lieu of the #4 the cavity calls for.



I have some other Colorado blades coming in both gold and nickel finish in sizes 1 and 2 just to check for fit, plus I have #2 willows in gold and nickel coming for the 1/16 variety.

I'm not certain how others feel about the way the wires and the hooks are connected to go in the cavities for casting, but I've had the hooks slip off the loop in the wire inside the mold. I take time now to put the appropriate hook on the wire and then close the loop ahead of the hook so it cannot slip or come off. Takes only a few minutes to crimp up 25 assemblies. Works very well and makes casting a breeze as long as one doesn't put all the hook/wire units in a pile prior to casting. Ask me how I know this.

[ctom]

I took this guy out for a test drive in the river behind us. Tied onto 6 pound line, Trilene XL,45 degree air temp, 38 degree water temp, and it swims great and tracks true. The 1.5” Thump-It is a mite short for the #2 hook the bait sports but it sure has got a nice tight action!

I’m going to tie a couple colors up with silicone to try, just for kicks.



You can “just” see the line still tied to the eye loop.

[ctom]

On blade size, there’s an unfinished 1/16 with a #3 Colorado and a 1/8 finished spinner with a #3 willow blade shown with unfinished 1/16 spinner's wearing size 2 willows and Colorados for comparison. I’ll be tossing both #2 bladed styles this afternoon to check for any glitches but I am liking the scaled back size of the #2’s. More to follow.