I almost feel silly posting this, because it's too simple.
I have been playing around with this roll-your-own lure for a while and have been absolutely killing the trout and bass with it, so I thought I'd share it since it's so easy to put together and it works.
The lure consists of a curly tail jig with an attached spinner on a safety-pin type hookup that makes it look in many respects like a small spinnerbait, but the action is quite different from a spinnerbait. Here are the parts:
The pre-rigged curly tail jigs I got from Wal Mart ($1.97/pkg), and the little gold spinners were picked up at Sportsman's Warehouse. There are four sizes of spinners, size 0, 1, 2, and 3. The ones shown are size 1. All you do is attach the jig to the safety-pin latch of the spinner and you are ready to go. For trout, use 1/8 oz. jigs and #1 spinners, as shown above. For bass, go bigger; use 1/4 oz. jigs and #2 spinners. Here are the finished lures, one of each size:
If they look a little "smashed" it's because I laid them on a scanner to take their picture.
You might think this is just too simple to be worth spending any time on, but these perform better than the original jig, and better than a same-size spinnerbait.
The magic is in the double action. On retrieval, the curly tail is wiggling and swimming through the water like a fish tail, while at the same time the gold spinner is fluttering and glittering just above it to attract attention. The action of the two parts together is just plain dynamite. I have been testing it on trout for maybe 10 days and have caught around 60 rainbows on it. I think small metal spinners (Vibrax for example) can do just about as well, except with the homemade arrangement I don't have to respool at the end of the day because my line got all twisted up.
I have tested the larger one on bass on two different outings. The first time I caught 15 and the second time I caught 23. No keepers. I don't think that was the lure's fault though. If you think that sounds like too many fish --- well, I just gave you the instructions to try it yourself. Nothing could be fairer than that.
The Roadrunner is a similar looking lure and is available in stores. It has a curly tail and a spinner blade permanently attached just below the jig head. It doesn't seem to give the same action. I have Roadrunners too, and the home brew lure outcatches the Roadrunners at least 10 to 1.
Another similar lure is the Beetle Spin. In fact if you would put a curly tail grub on a Beetle Spin they would be just about identical. That might be another path you could take to get the same result. But you do need the curly tail - which the Beetle Spin does not have - plus the spinner to get the best result. If you go that route, let me know what happens.
I like to fish these things at shallow depths, say 2 to 6 ft. below the surface. Fish that hang out at those depths are also the fish that are most likely to hit this lure. You don't need a fast retrieve, just enough to keep the spinner going is fast enough.
They are cheap to make, so give it a try. If you like the way they work, maybe we can think of a name for them.
The beetle spin depends 100% on the spinner for its action, and the little split tail grub they put on it just goes along for the ride and does nothing. You can double the action by substituting a Mr. Twister on there, as I tried to explain above. It makes a difference. Really.
Right! I don't know why I can't get them set up this way at the store because they make sense. The curly tail has its own kind of action, and the spinner has a different type of action, and it's the combination of the two actions, both going on at once on the same lure, that gets you the extra hits. I think I might make up a bigger one for northerns, though....
wal-mart offers a walleye package that contains the twister talls in an assortment of colors jig heads and the spinners. i have been using them all summer on navajo and valcetio. did really well at navajo on small mouth, capppie, and even pike. the kit sells for about 10.00. walking eagle if i send you some money would you pick me up a package of each size spinner in gold and silver if they have them. i live near durango and will not be makieng the trip up north until around cristmass by then it will be to late in the season.
walking eagle if i send you some money would you pick me up a package of each size spinner in gold and silver if they have them. i live near durango and will not be makieng the trip up north until around cristmass by then it will be to late in the season.
See also Fishingkats post about the Mr. Twister catalog.
I am getting good results with the #1 size for small 1/8 oz. curly tails and #3 for the larger 1/4 oz. jigs. #2 is intermediate in size and might conceivably work with either one.
If you don't like the looks of the on-line sources, let me know how many cards you want of each color and size (2 spinners on a card) and I will go get them and send them to you.
Hey, WE, I have been using this setup for years. Mainly for crappie but occasionly for bass and walleye. Here's another rigging kind of similar: add a curly tail to a bass spinning bait or a pork rind. Makes a deadly bait for bass, muskie, and pike.
It's remarkable how many have said they have used rigs like this. I think the people on this forum must be light-years ahead of the average fishing public. (And they should be.) This is a great place to talk fishing, and I am really glad to be here. Distinguished company!
thanks for the links WE and fishingcats i'll check them out the one bad thing about the durango area is the lack of a real good tackle shop. duranglers and the other sporting goods store down town have very limmited supply of lures. walmart is not bad for wal mart but still miss the "tackle shops" like budget tackle in granby tight lines all
thanks for the links WE and fishingcats i'll check them out the one bad thing about the durango area is the lack of a real good tackle shop. duranglers and the other sporting goods store down town have very limmited supply of lures. walmart is not bad for wal mart but still miss the "tackle shops" like budget tackle in granby tight lines all
I have offten thought of coming to Durango to go fly fishing I here it is the best! what time of year do you think would be best? And what area would I be most happy?
Not going to affect a lot of fishing areas, Clear Creek Reservoir is the only one I can think of. Camping should be better.
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