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A love for spinnerbaits is shared by anglers from coast to coast. My first experience with a blade dates back to 1980, when I spent some time on Cedar Creek Reservoir, a great little lake southeast of Dallas, Texas, with a friend of Jimmy Houston—then the crazy blond guy who cackled his way into the hearts of Texas anglers through his weekly fishing show.

Don Grogan, owner of a local gun shop, invited me to fish spinnerbaits with him in early April. “Man, I’ve got to show you what Jimmy taught me the other day,” he said, as we launched my 16-foot King Cobra bass boat with a massive Mercury 90-horse motor on the back.

Houston had been in Dallas on a promotional tour a week earlier and was able to slip off to the lake with Grogan for some bass action. “Jimmy showed me how to bring a spinnerbait right over the top of their spawning beds,” Grogan continued. “He just gets into good spawning water, looks for nests and starts running the bank; it’s a neat deal.”

Twenty minutes later, and after boating two 4-pound bass using the third-hand tip from Houston, I was hooked, and a 20-plus-year love affair with the spinnerbait began.

Though boats and motors have gotten bigger, better and a whole lot more expensive over the years, spinnerbaits have remained much the same as they were back then. To a lot of spinnerbait anglers, that statement might be oversimplifying a complex issue, so to prove the point, I took a 20-year-old, nondescript chartreuse spinnerbait and fished it head-to-head with the latest version I own. The results were almost identical—both baits caught fish. Over the last two decades, and particularly during the past five years, I have interviewed some of the best spinnerbait anglers in the world. Each one, to a man, shares with me the love of this odd-looking bait, and has tried to teach me some of his unique approaches to fishing “blades.”

“A spinnerbait is probably the most versatile lure I know of for catching bass in all types of conditions,” says Gary Klein. “You can fish them in all depths and in water color from clear to dirty; you can even fish them in cold water or warm.”

Klein believes an angler must spend enough time with the bait to know what he’s doing. “You must throw a spinnerbait enough to develop confidence in the bait...Every strike that an angler receives will lead to a better understanding of the bait.” After that interview, I summed up what I learned from Gary about spinnerbaits in my personal journal by writing: “Most anglers don’t use spinnerbaits enough to become proficient with them. Anglers must pay their dues to conquer this bait.”

I spent some time with Kevin VanDam on Table Rock lake in 2000, and I asked him what he thought were some important aspects of how and when he fishes blades.

“I really like to throw spinnerbaits when the fish are aggressive. On cloudy days when the wind blows, and especially when it’s a clear-water lake, the bass tend to become more active, and will react quickly to a presentation.”

VanDam believes in making accurate casts to specific pieces of structure, and knows that spinnerbaits allow that kind of cast. “By surprising a bass,” says VanDam, “with a bait landing right in its face, you’re in better shape than if you throw way beyond the target and bring the bait past it. The bass will react to the bait in its face, while if it has time to look the bait over, it might choose not to strike.”

In my journal I wrote: “Kevin believes in a fast retrieve, until conditions dictate something else, and in making short, accurate casts to specific targets. He really likes to fish around and through thick cover.”

John Murray, one of the brightest stars of the West, and a longtime contributor to Bass West, views spinnerbaits from a slightly different angle. He introduced me to the concept of using spinnerbaits as a “tool” in your fishing arsenal.

“I believe you must decide when a spinnerbait is the proper tool for the job,” says Murray. “If you need a hammer, you certainly don’t want to grab a saw out of your toolbox. For example, when I see cold, muddy water, I immediately pull out a spinnerbait. Then, it is my number-one tool; it’s better than any other tool in the box under those conditions.” My journal entry for the day went like this: “Murray throws blades in many situations and under many different conditions, but spinnerbaits are always considered a tool, nothing more.” If spinnerbaits are tools for specific conditions and circumstances, it stands to reason that all the variables in spinnerbaits, from the numbers of blades, their color and size, to the overall weight of the bait, along with skirt size and color must be pretty important.

Greg Hines shared with me some of his thoughts about the spinnerbaits we use here in the West, and those used by anglers in the East. He also explained why there are so many different ways to alter spinnerbaits.

“Back East, they fish spinnerbaits all day long in a foot or two of stained water. Blade size, the vibration, and the color of the bait are important, based on factors such as water clarity and depth. “In the West, especially in clear water, a bass may be holding at 10 or 12 feet, and you must make the adjustment for fishing that deep. I like willow-leaf blades on a little heavier bait to make sure the bait gets down. Also, in clear water, a more natural skirt color is important.”

Hines, like so many other pros, strictly believes that spinnerbaits must bounce off structure in order to be effective. “Whether it is a rock or a tree, a spinnerbait should bump into it, ricochet off of it; when that happens, the fish react to the sound and movement.”

In my journal I wrote: “Greg Hines wants his spinnerbait to be active in the water. He expects the bait to hit structure, and he wants to be able to slow-roll his bait in deeper water.

“As for why there are so many different blade and color combinations available,” he says, “each situation presented in a day of fishing might be bettered if an adjustment is made with the bait, either in color, weight or size of blade.”

Rick Clunn, the Golden Bear of bass angling, shared some thoughts he has about throwing Spinnerbaits. I caught up with him a couple of years ago.

“There is no question in my mind, that one of my favorite baits is a spinnerbait. The problem is, that you can’t win tournaments very often throwing them. You must adjust to the environment. If conditions are right, spinnerbaits are a great bait.”

Clunn, like others, seems to understand when and where to throw spinnerbaits, and, it’s not all the time.

This was my Rick Clunn journal entry: “Clunn says that he actually sees 70 percent of his spinnerbait strikes. He likes throwing blades but knows they have their place. His emphasis is to let the fish tell him what bait to use, including which spinnerbait and what color or blade combination to use.

Keeping a journal of fishing experiences both through interviews with the pros, or from my own time on the water, has helped me become a more proficient angler. Though it was Gary Klein who first mentioned time on the water, each of the pros I spoke with believed in what Klein had to say. When fishing a bait as versatile as a spinnerbait, there is no easy shortcut for passing through the experimental process — trying new combinations, and fishing under different conditions. It is by spending days with only a spinnerbait in your boat that will force you to learn what you need. “Find a spinnerbait that you feel comfortable with,” says Scott Nielsen, of Bass West. “You don’t need a bunch of different colors or blades. Just tie on a bait and learn by throwing it. And, pretty soon you’ll begin to know exactly what it can do for you and your fishing.”

I still haven’t been fishing with Jimmy Houston, but a couple of years ago, I met him in Chicago, and had the opportunity to express my gratitude for the tip he gave my friend Don Grogan so many years ago. Jimmy smiled, cackled, and said, “Yes, spinnerbaits are quite the bait — quite the bait. By the way, have you tried my Bubble Gum pink one?”