Spinnerbait and Rattlebait Help

Two things I hate fishing are Spinnerbaits and Rattletraps.

Spinnerbaits I have confidence when it is windy and cloudy. But as a general any weather go to bait...I am not there. On days without wind or cloud cover...how do you fish them, where do you fish them, what are some tips?

Rattlebaits......I have little to no confidence in any weather other than cooooooold weather over grass. Teach me a few things here.

On days without clouds or wind, I downsize my spinnerbaits and go with a translucent/silver skirt and try to cover as much water as possible. If you have really clear water, take the skirt off and add a fluke on there. Also in clear water, try downsizing your blades. Just keep chunking it, sooner or later they'll bite it.

When there is clear water with little wind or cloud cover put you spinnerbaits as close to the cover as possible don't be afraid to hang it up, bounce it off of logs/boat docks, also go with a spinnerbaits that has small willow blades and burn it. Make the same cast to obvious cover more then once.

I really only reach for spinnerbaits when it's not windy when I need a moving bait to go where a squarebill can't. Short casts around cover. Other than that, there's plenty of better options on sunny calmer days than a spinnerbait. As far a the lipless cranks(rattlebaits).. best advice I can give is don't be afraid to bump it off of stuff. It will get hung, including in bass lips

Kind of agree with Mike. I would only fish a spinnerbait on a calm sunny day if I needed to run something over grass.

Agree with all of the comments above. There isn't anytime I don't have a spinner bait on my deck. For clear water and little wind- clear to translucence skirts and smaller profile (sometimes only a single willow leaf), but I slow down the retrieve to let the spinner bait get deeper and closer to cover. For stained water, I go with a Chartreuse/ white color in a tandem willow leaf.

Spinner baits and rattletraps/ red eyed shad baits are search baits and whether water is clear or stained cover as much as you can. You may have to fish a mile of bank before you locate a school in a 100 yd. stretch. When you hit one of these areas turn around and make a second pass thru it. IF no hits get on the trolling motor and cover more water.

Might try fishing a 1 oz spinnerbait on the bottom, let it sink and slow roll it with the rod-tip down. You can even yo-yo them up and down when there is a clean/ snagfree bottom. It will catch fish anywhere/anydepth.

As with any bait you cannot gain confidence in them unless you fish them enough! Many years ago I had no confidence in jig fishing. A good friend taught me to go to the lake and take nothing but a jig rod and jigs. After a couple trips like this I had a new go-to bait and has been for over 25 years now!!

This may help on your Spinner Bait:

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/11678771/#11678771

Good read on Sunny and Cloudy days:

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/11843513/#11843513

I always, always, always have a rattle bait tied on. Anywhere, any season, any condition they have always caught fish for me. Spinnerbaits on the other hand, I always have one tied on but don't get near the numbers but generally get better size. I like there to be a little more cover/structure around for spinnerbaits. Nothing like being on a good spinnerbait bite.

Another technique to try with a spinner bait is to allow it to flutter on slack line down dock post, stumps, and so on.... you'll be surprised...

you dont need to get too crazy with spinnerbaits. white heads, with either a smoky scale skirt pattern, two tone smoke / white, two tone white / chartruse. sunny days - chrome blades, cloudy days chrome and gold or gold blades. type and size of blades depends on water temperature and wind. calm day equals calm blades (willow) with some flash, windy days you can size up or change blade type to increase vibration.

I really like to fish spinner baits around any shallow cover regardless of the sun or wind. Key is to make it deflect off the shallow cover or jerk the spinner bait then pause it. Rattle traps are supper simple sling it out and reel it in usually fast implementing a stop and go action.

It looks like everyone hit it pretty much right on the head. There's no set answer except what the fish want on that day. Varied retrieves, size, color, etc. is what you want. Color seems to matter more with spinnerbaits than rattletraps but a spinnerbait you can throw into almost any cover and still get it back to the boat and you can cover a lot of water with both.
Go with whatever jumps out at you for the given day and water. Some times the magic works some time it don't.

Biggest take away, never burn the spinner at a perfectly consistent rate. Pump it, make it erratic, twitch it... anything other than a steady retrieve.

I catch most of my LMB on spinners or flukes.

I toss the #4 or #5 Mepps with white tails with silver blades in the spring or in clear water, switching to smaller #3 and darker tails in warmer or cloudy water. A #3 gold or silver with no tail is a good tool to search in unknown water as they will lure LMB, crappie, sandies, and most other species.

I find success with 1/4 ounce Rooster Tails in silver or yellow. I have caught so many cats on Roosters this year that I am never surprised when one hits, including an over 20 lb flathead on 10 lb test. Experiment with different colors--sometimes orange kills while black is best in near darkness. Last week I limited on rainbows with a blue, pink, and white combo within 20 casts. It may take some time to find the right speed and depth. All I can say is that I own over a hundred Roosters and pull them out to get the skunk off almost anywhere for almost everything.

I have no answer for Rattletraps or similar, even though I own many sizes and colors. I lack confidence and success. I have watched others pull in sandies and stripers with bone or silvers while I just wear out my arm casting blanks. After zero success with a couple hundred dollars of options, I switch back to spinners, slabs, or swim baits to catch up with those who kill with the rattlers.

Yesterday I fished two locations with Roosters all day, netting a total of 17 sandies, 5 LMB, and one catfish while a pal caught a sandy and a crappie throwing many options. Perhaps my success with spinners is from +50 years experience and confidence whereas I have neither with the rattlers. Good luck!