Spinnerbaits
The lure that should not work but has never stopped working.
What it is
A bent wire with a weighted skirted head on the bottom arm and one or two spinning blades on the top arm. It looks nothing like a fish. The wire arm acts as a weed guard, which is why you can throw it into places that would eat a crankbait.
When to throw one
Wind and stain. This is the bait when the water is dirty and the wind has been blowing into a bank for hours. Colorado blades thump hardest and are the dirty water answer. Willow blades flash most and are the clear water answer. Prespawn and fall are the peak.
How to fish it
Slow roll it just deep enough to feel the blades. Bump it into cover on purpose. In wind, cast into it and retrieve with the chop. On a bluff or a drop, let it helicopter down on a slack line.
Gear that matters
A trailer hook stops short strikes and costs almost nothing. If you are getting hit and not hooking up, add one before you change anything else.
Fishing it on calm, clear days out of habit. That is when a spinnerbait is at its worst.
Spinnerbaits by the numbers
- Families in the catalog
- 134
- Individual variants
- 1,061
- Brands represented
- 28
- Weight range
- 1/32 oz to 4.5 oz
- Length range
- 1 in to 2 in
- Most stocked color families
- Chartreuse, White and Pearl, Black and Blue
A family is a product line. A variant is one color and size of it, which is the level the app actually reasons about.
What the shelves carry
Shelf availability, not a recommendation. Which color is right depends on the day, and that is the part the app works out.
Spinnerbaits with the deepest color runs
The families carrying the most individual variants in the catalog. Breadth of stock, not a ranking of which one catches more fish.
What a web page cannot know
Everything above is true of spinnerbaits everywhere, in every month, for every angler. That is exactly the problem with it. Cobia answers the narrower question.
Those four lines need a location, a clock and your actual tackle box. No website has any of them.
Spinnerbaits questions people actually ask
A bent wire with a weighted skirted head on the bottom arm and one or two spinning blades on the top arm. It looks nothing like a fish. The wire arm acts as a weed guard, which is why you can throw it into places that would eat a crankbait.
Wind and stain. This is the bait when the water is dirty and the wind has been blowing into a bank for hours. Colorado blades thump hardest and are the dirty water answer. Willow blades flash most and are the clear water answer. Prespawn and fall are the peak.
Slow roll it just deep enough to feel the blades. Bump it into cover on purpose. In wind, cast into it and retrieve with the chop. On a bluff or a drop, let it helicopter down on a slack line.
Fishing it on calm, clear days out of habit. That is when a spinnerbait is at its worst.
Know which spinnerbait to tie on
Scan your receipts, build your box once, and Cobia ranks what you already own against the water in front of you.
Android coming soon
iPhone, iOS 17 or later. Setup takes about a minute.