Spinnerbait and chatterbait upgrades

[happyfriggincamper]

During the off season, wanted to take on a few projects to set up for the coming season. One was upgrading my cheap ass aliexpress spinnerbaits and chatterbaits - aiming to give a bigger profile, help strike up rates with a trailer hook and get a better range of colours to choose from.

I got a few hits on the spinnerbait in their original form over the 1000+ of casts in the yarra last summer - so hoping the larger profile, better colours and trailer hook will see those be more frequent and turn into something to hand. Ditto on the chatterbait, but it actually got my first lure yarra cod to hand.

Spinnerbaits got a 6/0-8/0 trailer hook, 4-5" zman SP, size 6 colorado blade, trailer blades + new skirt. Colours i went with were a range of naturals in different shades for clearer water (green brown, redfin, white/silver) and some fluoro options for dirty (orange/chartreuse, green/chartreuse).

Chatterbaits got a much bigger front blade, trailer hook + plastic, might do the skirts later.

Gave them a run down at a local swamp/pond - the spinnerbaits roll well and have a better balance on the y-axis than they did in the original form. The chatterbaits absolutely thump with the bigger blade, the original would always be hard to kick-start and drop out of vibration quite frequently. Overall, the spinnerbaits cost me <$10ea to put together and even less for the chattetbaits.

Got a few months to dream up false expectations of how my pimped up baits are going to have cod jumping over each other to have a go at them, then looking forward to getting on the water and reality smack of racking up the donuts and lost lures haha

Cheers, Chris

Originals - measly in size

Silver/white

Redfin

Green/brown

Green/chartreuse

Orange/chartreuse

[Sebb]

They look great and pretty, go get them cods! :a_goodjob:
And they cost less than $10, doesn't hurt as much losing in comparison to $20+ lures :thumbsup:
Make some extra orange/red, you know what I mean :super:

[piscateur]

Are you using circle hook for your trailer on the SB?

[Lightningx]

They look great mate! Nice work
Good luck with them.
Cheers :thumbsup:

[happyfriggincamper]

Cheers guys

Are you using circle hook for your trailer on the SB?

Yeah they are circles. I wanted to use weedless shaped hooks, but couldnt find any in stores and didnt want to buy online - cos i needed to see them in person to be certain the eye of the trailer hook would fit over the barb on the front hook.

The way they ended up sitting on the front hook, they ended up being able to be rigged in a weedless style as the extra curve on the circle compensated for the dropped angle of how the trailer hook eye/shank came off the first hook - if that makes sense.

[Sinsemilla]

They look the goods mate, hopefully this season you can pull a few.

The only criticism i would give is the circle hooks as trailing hooks.. Not sure how they will go improving your hookup rate. Stingers are usually for when a fish just nips at the back of the lure which is why a straight J hook works well. Circles need to be taken and as the fish turns it rolls into the corner of the mouth.

i was at aussie angler in monty last week and they had a good variety of weedless hooks.

Cheers, Anth

[happyfriggincamper]

Cheers for the reply and feedback anth - i hear ya and had the same thoughts. Will be a wait and see, im cautiously optimistic they will be ok - if i get a few hits and no hook-ups ill reassess. Got a good deal on the circles, so they can just be distributed through my other tackle boxes if not suitable.

I did look at trailer stingers but the ones i saw were attached to a split ring, so couldn't figure how to put them securely on the main body hook (the circles i fed onto the hook followed by 2 bits of clear vinyl tubing - seemed to be what alot of the US bass guys do). Did consider tying my own with braid to the main hook, but wasn't entirely confident on that approach either

[piscateur]

Cheers guys

Are you using circle hook for your trailer on the SB?

Yeah they are circles. I wanted to use weedless shaped hooks, but couldnt find any in stores and didnt want to buy online - cos i needed to see them in person to be certain the eye of the trailer hook would fit over the barb on the front hook.

The way they ended up sitting on the front hook, they ended up being able to be rigged in a weedless style as the extra curve on the circle compensated for the dropped angle of how the trailer hook eye/shank came off the first hook - if that makes sense.

Yeah, I haven't tried this but logically in my mind I don't reckon you'll get a good hookset, circles work by the angler not striking, and the fish swallowing the bait and swimming away and the hook works its way to the scissor of the Jaw, all of that is working against ya.
Also the Zmans may affect/react the skirt

[Sinsemilla]

The ones i saw at aussie angler were Decoy Dream worm hook or Decoy KG worm hook. I can't remember exactly which ones but they definitely didn't have split rings.

Anth

[happyfriggincamper]

The ones i saw at aussie angler were Decoy Dream worm hook or Decoy KG worm hook. I can't remember exactly which ones but they definitely didn't have split rings.

Anth

Yeah, those were the weedless i were looking for. When you mentioned stinger, i thought you were referring to this style of trailer specifically.



My terminology could be off - but thought stinger generally related to those, see them on those ecogear vibes and such.

After a bit of googling, looks like there were a few options i could have gone. Will see how the circles go - gotta get a take or two first. If no good, oh well - fishing, always bloody learning haha.