Some 30 million spinnerbaits are sold in America yearly, according to a report published in Game and Fish magazine. Bass Pro Shops currently lists about 225 different makes and models of spinnerbaits and buzzbaits in their catalog, and Tackle Warehouse currently has models from 77 different manufacturers. It’s safe to say that spinnerbaits can be found in the tackle boxes of most Americans.
Spinnerbaits are everywhere because they just always seem to work. You don’t need any fancy techniques to fish them effectively, just cast them out and reel them back in. They can cover the water column from top to bottom, just by varying your retrieve. Snake them through cover, fish open water, rip them through the weeds. Wherever they are used, they just get bit.
But if they’re so damned effective, why don’t they work for me?
I’ve been using spinnerbaits since I was a kid, and I can probably count on two hands the number of fish I caught on them. I still remember the first one I ever bought, purchased from a lakeside gas station/tackle shop. It was a homemade model, designed by the owner of the shop. The hand-written sign said “100% Effective, Guaranteed to Catch Fish” which was all I needed to see to hand over some of my hard-earned snow shoving money.
I hit the lake with the new guaranteed lure, spending the better part of the next day casting and retrieving until my arms were sore. I beat a path up and down that bank, wearing a rut into the ground as I went. I cast into the weeds, I worked the edges of woody cover. I ripped it quickly across open water. I worked it slowly, ticking the bottom. But no matter what I did, I just couldn’t convince any bass to bite.
The experience left my confidence shaken, so I tied on ol’ reliable — a 6-inch Zoom Trick Worm in June Bug. After a handful of casts, it was engulfed by a healthy 3-pounder. I caught fish after fish on the worm, until the sun started to dip over the horizon. As day made its way to night, I experienced hit after noisy hit on an all-black Jitterbug. I switched back to the spinnerbait to see if my luck had changed, but I still couldn’t buy a bite on it.
That wasn’t the only time I couldn’t buy a strike on a spinnerbait. There was a hot evening bite on one of my local lakes in middle school. My friends and I would ride our bikes down to the lake after supper to get in on the action. The hot bait — for everyone other than me — was a downsized black spinnerbait, fitted with a single Colorado blade and fished slowly through open pockets in the vegetation.
But despite everyone getting bit on the exact same bait I was using, I couldn’t get hit. The worst part of the endeavor was probably the ridicule, and it didn’t do my pride any favors. Fortunately, I was able to catch plenty of fish on a Spook, but I still get teased for it till this day. There’s a few folks that call me, “Spinnerbait Boy” whenever they see me.
In spite of many incidents like that, I never gave up. After all, if so many people look to the spinnerbait as their go-to, it’s worth trying to figure out. I have boxes upon boxes of the latest and greatest spinnerbaits, that are certain to catch fish — for someone other than me.
Sure, I’ve caught some fish on a spinnerbait over the years. There was even a day where I managed two fish on one in a single outing, a BOOYAH Pond Magic. But I never could seem to replicate that “hot” day. I’ll keep at it, but I won’t get my hopes up.
