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spinner baits are a versatile way to catch fish. they flat out work. colors and sizes available to match every possible condition, they are baits that you can fall back on when nothing else is working.

i find them fun and relaxing and its pretty hard to fish them wrong. with that, heres a few things ive noticed while using them.

awesome for clearing pike off of a reef you want to catch walleyes on. simply use a spinnerbait for the first few casts and enjoy the fight. they are pike magnets and the heavy wire prevents bite offs.

willow (long skinny) blades for clear or shallow water. silver is my favorite, but i also use white on occasion. they throw off a lot of flash. willows have to move faster through the water to stay moving, so they are better in warm water.

colorado have a distinctive thump. they work best in cold/dirty/deeper water. they can be fished much slower as they have much more drag. i like these blades in gold, orange or chartreuse. the hammered finishes are nice for these blades also.

indiana blades, something in the middle, a mix between the two. i dont really find them useful as they do some of both, but you dont get that bright flash of a willow or the vibration of a colorado.

spinner baits are reaction strikes. they see/feel them coming and ambush them.

they cast really well, even with wind.

trailers are key, in my experience. twister tails and paddle tails add bulk, add some color, and add a bit of customization to your presentation. i bring a few white and a few chartreuse spinner baits of assorted sizes everywhere i go. then by changing the trailer, i can change a portion of my presentation to match the current feeding patterns.

over rocks, i run the chartreuse spinner with an orange or brown trailer. over mud i run the white spinner with a black or red trailer. around wood and weeds, i use both white and chartreuse with green or blue trailers.

with willow bladed spinners, i find paddle tails make the best trailers. something about all the flash from the blade and then the thump from the tail really makes them bite.

with colorado, you already have the thump, so twisters is where its at. a little extra wiggle draws them in for the strike.

they simply dont get snagged. running around weeds and sticks and bouncing over rocks, you can get where the fish are without fear of getting snagged and without having to move the canoe over a good spot by getting snagged.

a friend turned me onto strike king mini-kings many years ago. a downsized almost pan-fish sized spinnerbait available in a wide array of colors weighing only 1/8 oz. they work really well on walleyes. they fit nicely in the little nooks and crannies in your already stuffed tackle boxes

2 blades are better than one. my favorite spinners all seem to have a small colorado blade in front of a larger willow. i tend to fish spinner baits on the faster side as i use them as a search bait or when paddling along a shore where long slow casts arent overly efficient. i target big underwater rocks or submerged wood.

you can troll them too! this last year i decided to bring a dedicated trolling spinnerbait. its a 1oz monstrosity with double willows and a 5 inch long white skirt. i was able to get it down to 15 ft deep (looking at a 1oz sinker dive chart and figuring it would go about 75% that depth per the drag from the blades) and managed to pick up some walleyes trolling over open water.

i prefer the northland style spinner (pictured above) as it has the complete loop for a tie on location. you can cast it with a fast snap or any swivel without the tie on moving and getting tangled in the blades.

I personally don't use spinner baits.  I have nothing against them and I am sure they are great lures.  But how do spinner bait fit in with the school of thought that a lure should be natural and resemble a natural food.

I always do bring one with me.  I like to use them in shallow weedy water where I retrieve them fast and shallow on the surface.  Don't recall catching a lot with it, but don't use it that much either - still, something different to throw at the fish from time to time