TackleTour

I have been a huge fan of spinnerbaits almost from day one of my bass fishing 'career'
I thought it would be fun to list the MOST influential baits in chronological order.
Please post pics of your favorite spinnerbaits over the years.

I love the spinnerbait too but I now make my own from bending the wire to molding the head and painting it plus making my skirts and tying them. The biggest reason why is I really got into modifying baits to make them do what I wanted and making them was easier but my favorite production models are the Manns Classic, the Terminator original and the Stanley ICON spinnerbaits.

I remember building my baits with plain flat rubber and unpainted bullet heads from The Tackle Shop when I was 12 back in the early 80's. Before this were the vinyl skirts and barrel swivels. You need a few of the "old school" baits with these skirts in your picture chronology for it to represent us "a little older" dudes. Many of the new baits are so pretty that it makes me laugh at what we used to throw.

toddmc wrote:I remember building my baits with plain flat rubber and unpainted bullet heads from The Tackle Shop when I was 12 back in the early 80's. Before this were the vinyl skirts and barrel swivels. You need a few of the "old school" baits with these skirts in your picture chronology for it to represent us "a little older" dudes. Many of the new baits are so pretty that it makes me laugh at what we used to throw.

Unfortunately in the early days we did not have a large selection of spinnerbaits available
I used the Mini Bushwackers for about 10 years from the early eighties.These early baits had the vinyl skirts and barrel swivels
The black color accounted for many a bass.
Memories,chasing bass before chasing girls...

Those Mini Bushwackers were great for our Yellow Belly bream , aka Robbies. Imagine you used them for smallmouth more than LMB.

The first spinnerbaits I used in the '70s were the Fleck. The Fleck Falling Star was a great bait. Cast, retrieve, pause. Bass would engulf them when paused, and the blades went into a helicopter like spiral fall. They also made the Fleck Weedwader, a killer spinnerbait.

Today I prefer thin wire tungsten, mostly War Eagle. Wonderful colours, and great materials. Unlike the mostly white/yellow combo of the Fleck skirts, that had to be kept in a ziplock bag with lots of baby powder, to avoid them becoming "chewing gum "

Shannon Twin Spins came out in 1917 and were probably the first overhead shaft spinnerbaits. They had feather or bucktail dressings on the head and hook. They are still popular today with some old timers.

Zimbass wrote:Those Mini Bushwackers were great for our Yellow Belly bream , aka Robbies. Imagine you used them for smallmouth more than LMB.

The first spinnerbaits I used in the '70s were the Fleck. The Fleck Falling Star was a great bait. Cast, retrieve, pause. Bass would engulf them when paused, and the blades went into a helicopter like spiral fall. They also made the Fleck Weedwader, a killer spinnerbait.

Today I prefer thin wire tungsten, mostly War Eagle. Wonderful colours, and great materials. Unlike the mostly white/yellow combo of the Fleck skirts, that had to be kept in a ziplock bag with lots of baby powder, to avoid them becoming "chewing gum "

I was remembering how bad it sucked to have to use the baby powder when I wrote my earlier post. I live in the super hot SoCal desert and even rubber skirts become a mess in a hurry. I love silicone skirts.

africanbass wrote:I used the Bushwackers for about 10 years from the early eighties.These early baits had the vinyl skirts and barrel swivels

whoa! me too! i loved those bomber bushwhackers and caught lots of fish on them, vinyl skirts and all. my favorite was the hot orange color although i liked the green/yellow shown in the pic.

Zimbass wrote:Today I prefer thin wire tungsten, mostly War Eagle.

does war eagle make tungsten spinnerbaits? i must be missing something...the only tungsten spinnerbait i'm aware of is the new eco pro one.

21farms wrote:

Zimbass wrote:Today I prefer thin wire tungsten, mostly War Eagle.

does war eagle make tungsten spinnerbaits? i must be missing something...the only tungsten spinnerbait i'm aware of is the new eco pro one.

You are correct 21farms. My post should state "Today I prefer thin wire tungsten, AND mostly War Eagle".

Shows how one word can be omitted to give a whole sentence a different meaning.

Bomber Bushwacker
Fleck Weed Wader
Sloan's SOB
Zorro short arm
Ricky Green's Bumble Bee
Early Strike Kings and Stanley baits

All fished on a 5 1/2 foot Lews Speed Stik, Lews BB1N and 14 lb. Stren. Those were the days. Guy Eaker was the spinnerbait king in the day.

1980s - Blue Fox Roland Martin special with over-sized willows

1990s - Paul Elias signature, Hart, Nichols, War Eagle, Terminator T1, custom build by a guy out in Stockton CA, Strike King, Stanley Wedge

Last 10 to 15 years - Dale Sellers, Hildebrandt, War Eagle, Nichols

Back in the 80s as a teenager with a jonboat and 5'6 pistol grip set ups, I remember favoring Strike King (the Bill Dance short arm model in particular), Okie Bugs, Blue Fox and the Charlie Campbell CC spinnerbaits mainly. Never had a whole lot of success on the Bushwacker and Twin Spins but still kept them in the box.

In the early 2000s I loved the regionally produced Viper spinnerbaits. The company evolved into VPR after an ownership dispute and the former partner branched out to form Revenge Baits, who also offered SBs similar to his original Viper design. I also liked the Terminator tungsten spinnerbaits (there were Bobby Barrack and Skeet Reese versions).

SLM, thanks for bringing up the VPRs...the first hidden head factory spinnerbait I can recall buying off the shelf in the early 2000s. I only ever owned a 1/2 in Chart/White, but caught lots of good sized bass on it. Only thing I didn't like about the design was the inability to run a bigger trailer due to the hidden weight/body design.

Thanks for sharing!