I've been a big fan of R&B spinners for many years. They sell there blades and bodies in size 3-6 for example. All you have to do is pick a body color and then blade finish each in the same size. I use size 4 and 5 in the winter and size 3 for summers. I do know a couple guys that run a size bigger blade than the spinner body for a little more thump and R&B offers a 4.5 size blade to.

If your just beginning don't get carried away with colors. Pick a color and get multiple sizes in that color and go from there.

 

Are bodies labeled by size or by weight? If I buy a #4 blade, do I buy a #4 body, or is it something like a 1/4 oz. body (or gram)? How do I determine what size body to pair with a given blade size?

I will end up going thru DIY lure companies like R&B and First Strike, which will be simpler, but I've got some coupons for sporting goods stores.

 

I usually order torpedo type bodies in 1/4oz for size 4 spinners and fish that size most of the time.

 

Here are some weighted, casting spinners that are "architecturally correct".
Notice how the blade is about the same length as the body.
And they are basic in color.

 

Nice lures Shawn!

I chatted with a guy at Fisherman's, and his tip was that the blades should just cover the body, like in DD's picture. I picked up some #4 blades and 1/4 oz. bodies. Now I just have to figure out how to twist 'em up!

 

The body weight to blade size ratio has to be correct, or it will not work correctly. You can throw components together and they may look cool, but what you want foremost is that spinner spins as soon as it hit the water and you can feel the thump on your rod. If it isn't spinning, you won't be catching fish.

 

Do you have a rule/ratio for that?

Also, maybe a stupid question, but why/how would the weight of the body affect the ability of the blade to spin?

Thanks.

 

Generally, the heavier the body, the faster you have to retrieve it to keep the blade spinning because gravity wants to pull the lure down. Thus, heavier bodies tend to work better in faster water. I often pair a #4 blade with a #5 torpedo body when fishing big, fast water. The larger body allows for a longer cast, which is a hardware fisherman's ace up the sleeve. When fishing slower water or in real cold water, a lighter spinner with a lighter body and a thinner blade will outfish a standard torpedo type because you can slow it down, allowing a sluggish fish to catch up to it. I actually like Blue Fox spinners over torpedo types in slow or real cold water (like below 42 or so).

Another thing I'll mention is that the manufacturers who make torpedo bodies like Pen-Tac, R&B and RVRFSHR all make their #4 or #5 bodies at different weights; they respond differently. R&B bodies are ~ light for their size. RVRFSHR are comparatively heavy and Pen-Tac has 3 different weights for each size. Generally the lighter bodies yield a more responsive spinner (spins at slower speeds), whereas a heavier body casts farther and stays down better in fast water.

 

I myself have ventured into spinner building over the last year or so. Being the poor man I am, I just use a bullet weight as the spinner body. Paint em up with your favorite flavor and your good to go. 100 body's for 16$, you can't beat that. been mainly tying up #4's with a 1/4oz bullet. I've been using a 7/32 gold or silver bead that nestles perfectly under the weight, and a small 4mm of 6mm bead above it to help rotate the clevis. They seem to be working just fine:wink:

 

If your just starting though I wouldn't get to caught up with the fraction of weights making to big of a difference. Just buy components that work for a size 4 and fish them. Biggest thing that helped me was polarized glasses. I fish mostly shallow water and being able to see how your spinner reacts to what you do will help you get an idea of what it's doing when you can't see it. Like pointing your rod upriver will make your spinner rise a bit, point it down river and it dives a bit. Whatever size you use just make sure you cover lots of water and keep it near the bottom.

 

This is money. Don't overthink it. Yeah, you can get creative and customize extra heavy spinners or whatever for specific situations, but a standard #4 will do just fine in most cases most of the time; just match a #4 body (R&B) w/ #4 blade, or #5 w/ #5 for higher/colored water, it really is that simple. Once you develop some personal preferences, you can branch out and try different specialty combos, but that's just a recipe for unnecessary complication and wasting extra $$ in the beginning.

And if cost is an issue, the bullet weight advice is also spot on ~ I'll use 3/16oz w/ #3s, 1/4oz for #4, and 3/8oz for #5; also usually put a 5-6mm bead in the end cavity of the bullet weight for color and to space/balance the weight a bit further up the shaft. Nowadays you can get brass ones, or in various painted finishes, but back in the day I caught fish with just plain ol' raw lead bodies too. The fish don't actually care.

 

Ok. This was the result my first attempt #4 French blades with 1/4 torpedo weight, a little bitty bead and a #1 siwash:

I know the top loops need work; I need to get finer pliers. I'm sure it'll get better with practice too. Might look at adding a swivel up above.
Thanks for everybody's input. It certainly makes more sense to me now.

I was much more of a fly fisherman before this year, but decided to change over after fishing on the Wilson one day and having some guy come up with a spinner, cast into the pool five times and walk away with a steelhead!

I've mostly been fishing Blue Foxes, and have had good luck fishing this year, much more so than Rooster tails or Panther Martins. So far, just about everything I've caught on at least a dozen different streams has been on a #3 copper or #3 silver and blue Blue Fox; trout, steelhead and Coho.

 

I'm sure those will catch fish. I don't think the shape of the loops matters much, if at all. My only concern would be the distance between the end of the blade and the point of the hook. I think you might be prone to some missed fish. They often will strike at the blade. Jed Davis used to recommend tubing on the hook to attract the fish's attention further back. Are those Gami's? They have an especially long shank. I'd recommend Mustad 1084's personally.

For what it's worth, people: I know there's been talk of Jed Davis's book being sold out from Amato publishing. I just looked on Amazon and it's available there.

 

They are Gamis. Even these ones look a lot smaller than the single hooks that come with equivalent size Blue Foxes (I always switch the trebles out for singles after more than one lost fish).

While I have everyone here: What difference do different blade shapes make? Inline, Colorado, Indiana, French? Are some more for trolling? Does a wider blade cause more resistance and make it slower, or drop more?
So many questions!

I also saw the Jed Davis book on Amazon. Maybe Santa, or more appropriately Mrs. Claus, will bring that for Christmas.

 

French blades are most often used for casting spinners because they are responsive and provide the right amount of lift. We (and Jed) like .032 blade because it has an added degree of "thump" that you can see on a rod tip.

Last time I looked there were several of Jed's books on Amazon in the $20 range.

My torpedo and bell style spinner videos are below. The bell video goes into extra detail re the break off method.

 

 

http://youtu.be/5Lg7DOgvfLs

I used this video as my guide. Very clear explanation for twisting up a spinner! I left 1/8th-1/4 inch gap between the clevis and the loop, as per the video instructions. Maybe more wiggle room would cause more vibration, I'll be sure to experiment.

1) the stock singles that come w/ BFs are terrible. They're at least a size too big IMO for the size spinner they're packaged with

They seemed really big for the size spinner they're paired with. I replace them with size one Gamis, but I'll look into a shorter-shank hook.

 

Might want to leave a little room above the body also. Looks like some of your twist come down and near pinch the clevis to the top of the body. I'd just leave a skosh more room to ensure free spin of the blade. A lot of torpedo bodies also allow you to use you open eye wire preventing you from having to do wraps on the bottom. Just tuck both ends of the wire in the body. This is purely cosmetic though but I like it.

My question is where are you guys getting these 1084 Mustad hooks. I can't find them anywhere.

 

My question is where are you guys getting these 1084 Mustad hooks. I can't find them anywhere.

Fisherman's in Tigard has been a good source for me.

One other thing about the spinner shaft: I'm currently of the mind that a little longer shaft- like 1/4 to 1/3 inch between the clevis and the eye - convey's more thump (as long as it's straight as an arrow). I can't prove it, but I think there's some truth in there. Comes from examining spinners I've made from identical components where one is better than another. Any physics majors out there?

 

Mustad Ultra Point
#10848BLN

The best single hook for casting spinners and spoons available.
Book 'em, Danno.



:wink:

 

I noticed that nobody actually stated what WEIGHT body goes with a given size blade. Some mentioned that you can mix and match blades and bodies (to a point) depending on what you are doing, but that you need to be careful that the spinner doesn't become unbalanced. Anyway, my rule of thumb is a 3/8 oz. body and a #5 blade. A 1/4 oz. body matches a #4 blade. I don't fish #3's so can't help there. For the record, a #5 R&B body is just under 3/8 oz. I consider the R&B to be the gold standard, and even if I'm not using R&B components I am copying them.

 

Post #4 pinhead

 

Kinda missed that. I do fish #5's, though, a lot.

 

I copied weights below from Pen-Tac's web site. They have 3 torpedo body types for each spinner size: standard (SL), heavier (SX), and super heavy (SS). I'll add that R&B bodies are nearly equivalent to the Pen-Tac SL bodies and RVRFSHR are nearly equivalent to the Pen-Tac SX bodies by weight, at least in sizes #4 and #5. The advantage of having the spinner body # the same as the blade # is that the length and balance of the body will be correct for the blade size. I use mostly Pen-Tac and prefer the SL bodies when I don't need extra distance or depth. If I do, I like the SX's. The SS bodies are a little cra-heavy for general use. Again, the heavier the body, the farther you can cast it and the deeper it will run, but also the faster you have to retrieve the spinner for the blade to spin. (responsiveness goes down as body size goes up) Having just finished my coho season, I can tell you without a doubt a more responsive spinner will hook more fish when dealing with salmon or cold water steelhead - they'll chase and try to bite it, but at their own slow pace. The longer you can keep that spinner spinning in their zone, the more likely they'll bite it because they have more time to catch up to it. Of coarse, the weight of the body isn't the only factor in responsiveness, but it's a big one. (Blade shape and thickness is another big factor)

SL; .2610 oz. #5
SL; .2010 oz. #4
SL; .0810oz. #3
SL; .0620 oz. #1
SL; .0450 oz. #0

SX; .3354 oz. #5
SX; .2753 oz. #4
SX; .1589oz. #3

SS; .4130 oz. #5
SS; .3442 oz. #4
SS; .1977 oz. #3