Tuning a spinnerbait

My spinnerbaits often retreive off-center; the blades are not verticle over
the skirt/hook. How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive with
the blades directly above the skirt/hook.

Also, is it really necessary for the skirt to be directly above the hook?

Thanks

Hey Paul,

Let's examine your questions:
Q: How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive with
the blades directly above the skirt/hook.
A: To tune a spinnerbait, hold the lure out in front of you and sight the
R-bend up with the hook point. Is the jig head perfectly split in half by
the wire. If not, bend the wire coming out of the jig head until it does.
Now with the R-bend and hook point lined up, look at the blade bend. Is it
also in line with the hook point. If no, hold jig head and the lead wire
coming out of the jig to the R-bend firmly and twist the top wire until the
hook point, R-bend and blade bend all line up.

Q: Also, is it really necessary for the skirt to be directly above the hook?
A: I'm thinking you mean the blades and not the skirt, and the answer is
yes.

Now you can have a perfectly tuned spinnerbait and have it run on its side
if the blade or blade are too big for the jig weight, or the swivel is not
spinning freely. Easy enough to fix. I place a drop of graphite lubricant
on both ends of the swivel and then just spin the blades until the lubricant
is thoroughly worked in. Some anglers trap their spinnerbaits in the
windows of their vehicle and then take a ride. But you will know if the
blade is spinning freely enough by simply blowing on the blade. It should
spin quite easily.




--
Craig Baugher

Paul G. Mowrey wrote...
My spinnerbaits often retreive off-center; the blades are not verticle
over
the skirt/hook. How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive
with
the blades directly above the skirt/hook.


That depends upon your itended retrieve vs. the configuration of the lure.
Spinnerbaits roll over because blade resistance excedes head resistance. You
can cure this by...

(1) Adding weight
(2) Reducing blade size
(3) Slowing the retrieve

....oh wait, another thought...

(4) A thin wire frame is susceptble to abuse; could be cheap wire, lousy
production, poor packaging, or negligent handling. You can bend and rebend
the wire frame until it runs true, then hold your breath when a fish strikes
and hope it doesn't snap.

--
Shawn

I would recommend reading the article in BASS from this month. They had a
great article about spinnerbaits. I probably learned more from that than any
article they have done in the last 5 years.

The answers to your questions are in this article. For example if the blades
should be directly above the hook, well apparently there are several types
of spinnerbaits that work for different applications, so that distance may
and will vary according to Terminator.

---
Chuck Coger
http://www.fishin-pro.com



"Paul G. Mowrey" wrote in message
...
My spinnerbaits often retreive off-center; the blades are not verticle
over
the skirt/hook. How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive
with
the blades directly above the skirt/hook.

Also, is it really necessary for the skirt to be directly above the hook?

Thanks

Paul asked: "How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive with the
blades directly above the skirt/hook?"

Mistracking, and the resulting constant retuning, is one of the problems
that haunt the older, first-generation design spinnerbaits. The Secret
Weapon design has totally eliminated this problem, among others. See our
website for details.

--
Bob Rickard
www.secretweaponlures.com
--------------------------=x O')))


"Paul G. Mowrey" wrote in message
...
My spinnerbaits often retreive off-center; the blades are not verticle
over
the skirt/hook. How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive
with
the blades directly above the skirt/hook.

Also, is it really necessary for the skirt to be directly above the hook?

Thanks

"Bob Rickard" wrote in message
...
Paul asked: "How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive with
the
blades directly above the skirt/hook?"

Mistracking, and the resulting constant retuning, is one of the problems
that haunt the older, first-generation design spinnerbaits. The Secret
Weapon design has totally eliminated this problem, among others. See our
website for details.



Really? I have a bunch of SW spinnerbaits, and I have noticed almost all of
the larger ones miss track if I try to burn them.



--
Bob Rickard
www.secretweaponlures.com
--------------------------=x O')))


"Paul G. Mowrey" wrote in message
...
My spinnerbaits often retreive off-center; the blades are not verticle
over
the skirt/hook. How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive
with
the blades directly above the skirt/hook.

Also, is it really necessary for the skirt to be directly above the
hook?

Thanks

That is a problem of all spinnerbaits, but the reports we have received have
categorized SW's high speed performance as being less prone to this problem
than most others. All individual fishing lures, whether spinnerbaits,
crankbaits, jerkbaits or whatever have an inherent retrieve speed at which
they become unstable, and either roll on their side, or veer off sharply, or
exhibit some other form of highly erratic performance. This is referred to
as "instability." Mistracking generally refers to lures that erroroneously
run either to the left or right because of something being out of alignment.

--
Bob Rickard
www.secretweaponlures.com
--------------------------=x O')))

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message
...
Paul asked: "How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive with
the
blades directly above the skirt/hook?"

Mistracking, and the resulting constant retuning, is one of the problems
that haunt the older, first-generation design spinnerbaits. The Secret
Weapon design has totally eliminated this problem, among others. See our
website for details.



Really? I have a bunch of SW spinnerbaits, and I have noticed almost all
of
the larger ones miss track if I try to burn them.



--
Bob Rickard
www.secretweaponlures.com
--------------------------=x O')))


"Paul G. Mowrey" wrote in message
...
My spinnerbaits often retreive off-center; the blades are not verticle
over
the skirt/hook. How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive
with
the blades directly above the skirt/hook.

Also, is it really necessary for the skirt to be directly above the
hook?

Thanks

On Buzzbaits and Spinnerbaits I do the following. With needle nose pliers take
the part of the R-bend you tie your line to. Now bend it slightly to one side
exactly as you would the tie point of a crankbait. The blades will now be
slightly offset from the hook.

Bob - I took a huge bag of smallies by burning a SW up on Champlain
recently. I solved the problem you speak of by doing two things.

a) If you want to "burn" a spinnerbait use a damn heavy one. The bait I
threwwas a 3/4 ounce model I think.

b) If you downsize the blades a bit the big spinner runs truer as well. For
instance, if you're throwing a 3/4 ouncer use the blades that come with a
half ouncer, etc.

If you're trying to burn a 1/4 ounce to 3/8 ounce spinnerbait, and I suspect
you are, you're throwing too light a bait, plain & simple.

Warren

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message
...
Paul asked: "How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive with
the
blades directly above the skirt/hook?"

Mistracking, and the resulting constant retuning, is one of the problems
that haunt the older, first-generation design spinnerbaits. The Secret
Weapon design has totally eliminated this problem, among others. See our
website for details.



Really? I have a bunch of SW spinnerbaits, and I have noticed almost all
of
the larger ones miss track if I try to burn them.



--
Bob Rickard
www.secretweaponlures.com
--------------------------=x O')))


"Paul G. Mowrey" wrote in message
...
My spinnerbaits often retreive off-center; the blades are not verticle
over
the skirt/hook. How do you "tune" a spinnerbait to get it to retreive
with
the blades directly above the skirt/hook.

Also, is it really necessary for the skirt to be directly above the
hook?

Thanks

go-bassn wrote:
Bob - I took a huge bag of smallies by burning a SW up on Champlain
recently. I solved the problem you speak of by doing two things.

a) If you want to "burn" a spinnerbait use a damn heavy one. The bait I
threwwas a 3/4 ounce model I think.

b) If you downsize the blades a bit the big spinner runs truer as well. For
instance, if you're throwing a 3/4 ouncer use the blades that come with a
half ouncer, etc.

If you're trying to burn a 1/4 ounce to 3/8 ounce spinnerbait, and I suspect
you are, you're throwing too light a bait, plain & simple.

Warren,
Would this hold true if you also reduced the size/type of blades on a
smaller spinnerbait? Like maybe 2 small Colorado blades on a 3/8 oz?

pat