Spinner Bait Design Flaws

[patrick reif]

I just bought a 3 cavity Shawn Collins hidden weight spinner bait mold in the 1/4 oz, 3/8 oz, and 1/2 oz.

 

I've poured about a dozen baits and painted them up.  This is my first attempt at a spinner bait.

I'm using a short shaft BLN Mustad 32608 hook in 3/0 on a .035 wire form to make a finesse spinner.  The blades come from Barlows.  I bought the premium Nickle blades in size 5 with the smooth quality #2 Colorado blades as the tandems 

 

What causes a spinner bait to roll at high speeds?

 

I can see too large a blade doing it if the body weight is too low.

Is a #5 willow too large for the 1/4 oz.  Should I go to the # 3 or 4 for that weight?

 

For the record, I will be using a premium bearing.

 

I guess the ultimate question is, what causes a spinner bait to roll?

[robalo01]

Looks like you did use blades that are too large. You might be able to fix it by shortening the upper arm (the one the blades are attached to). The shorter that arm in relation to the lower arm (the one with the head and hook), the larger the blade you can use. But you still may be a little bit too light for #5 and #3 Colorado.

[Tony Maxwell]

I have found that bending the upper and lower arms closer together helps some. Make sure the wire is in alignment with the head etc. etc. Good luck.

[smalljaw]

The simple answer to your question, the blades are too big period. 1/4oz bait you want no bigger than a #4 willow on the swivel and a #2 colorado on the shaft, and I often use a #3.5 willow for a bait I want to burn. There are a ton of ways to tweak spinnerbaits, I make baits for specific purposes like burning, slow rolling and everywhere in between but that is for another discussion, the  thing you want to do right now is downsize those blades.

[Saugerman]

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