No. Not Bill's; but there were not many with the bent arm. The new one on the market today still has that same arm.

When I first saw the title of this post I read it as Spinner Bait Conference lol.

I mean, I would totally go to a spinner bait conference.

I can certainly try to make that happen. Sense it is your thought and Idea; I will need your help. Please run a pole to see how much interest you can generate. It will cost some bucks but I believe BPS would bring in there Pro's to give it with enough interest along with a small fee to get in. They don't seem to want to do things for free any more. The tank there would be a great place to view the action and techniques presented.

Great post, thank you. I love spinnerbaits. People seem to dismiss them pretty quickly. Makes me laugh inside. I caught some of my biggest bass on a spinnerbait. This is some good info, and I look forward to applying it. Thanks again.

A spinnerbait is one of my least favorite things to throw, but when they are eating it, I sure don't mind feeding it to them. These 2 fish were caught on texoma back to back trips on a custom built spinnerbait.
Okie blade combination.

Build these 1/4 oz. Confidence Builders for my Daughter. She wanted the flashy sissy silicone skirts; so I did it. In many aspects it will represent the bait fish better.

Tandem Spins:


Single Spins:

Good read!!

I agree, Mr. Harper.

I don't buy $10 spinnerbaits. I buy cheaper baits in bulk and then start the customization process.
Swivels, blades and my own skirts go on them to create baits that fish are not wary of but will readily attack.

A spinnerbait is one of, if not the most versatile lures ever created.
Bass love 'em, even real big bass.

Thanks for the post.

thats funny I caught 20+ on a spinner bait 2 years ago anywhere from 2-5lbs. I have some 1oz spinnerbaits with huge blades that I jig up and down that work well.

I love seeing good pictures of these old spinner baits that the early pro's won these tournaments on. Ricky Green won several times on the Vibra Queen by Cordell. If anyone has pictures of any of them please post. If have them in your collection please post them up. They are the greatest and we need to see them.

This one is not very good:
http://www.ebay.it/itm/VINTAGE-COTTON-CO...D-/252106738573

in all your photos i only see one "leg" of the pro trailer are you conserving your stock and using them a single trailer.

do you know anyone that has the rattles.

Mr. Harper-most of the posts on this thread are dealing with changing blades, skirts, etc. If you can, please give us your views on the thickness of the arm of the lure. Almost 30 yrs. ago, I bought some Stanley Vibra-Shaft spinnerbaits and was amazed at how much more vibration the lure had and how many more fish I caught on it. But every once in a while, they wouldn't hit the Vibra-Shaft. Years after I began to fish them, I discovered that many days when the bite was slow or non-existent that I could change to a 3/16 oz. Strike King which not only downsized the profile of the lure but had a stiffer wire and could catch fish on it when the lighter wired shaft couldn't buy a bite. Your thoughts on when to fish different lures with different wire thickness.

And another question-is there ever a time when you fish the old type swivels instead of the Sampo type ball bearing swivels? There are a lot of people here that like the old swivels for river fishing on the Red and Ouachita Rivers. I know because of the ones on here who have posted the old H & H that some still use them. But again, what are your thoughts on when to use the old type swivels?

Good job Donald.
When I first tried to learn them I must have thrown them three days straight, all day, without a bump. As you can guess, I had zero confidence, but heard how great they could be. I finally went to a catch and release lake that had more fish, and a friend also gave me advice I fished with. He had me hitting trees and letting it sink (they were in 8 to 12' or so, not far from deeper water). They would hit on the sink. You had to have contact with the bait so you knew you got hit. Also, I was throwing braid, and I could feel them hit it once or twice on straight retrieves, kinda nudging it to see if was real?, and then I'd get them seconds later. So much fun. They've even hit while I got out a backlash and it sat on the bottom! Bass are strange! I think the 2 pounder size will always hit, no matter what the style, they have not learned yet.

Lately it's a buzzbait bite, similar bait worked a bit higher huh? And they are funny too. I've pulled them over laydowns, decided to let it fall a bit and work it like a spinnerbait just because it 'seemed right', and got them that way too. (Guess that's how you know your getting it down, when you think out of the box on your own and it works). It's all so fun really.

Keep up the good work buddy, nice of you to share so much of your knowledge with everyone.

On all my large spinners I run the full Stanley Pro Trailer. On these small 1/4 oz. they are too long and wide to run a full trailer. Again small is about down sizing; so half is plenty to give it just the right amount of kick.

I have thrown and modified the Hank Parker Classic ever sense I got my hand on the prototypes back in 72. It has the lightest wire of all and gives off the best vibration. This just makes for a very expensive spinner bait as it cost $8 with tax; then I put $7 into customizing the bait. I have thrown this bait my whole fishing life. I have tried many of the others and had some success but never did much on the Stanley. Bill Dance and Charles Spence was selling out of their garage in Memphis in the early 70's. I was born and raised in West Tenn.; so we went there often. Most all of his early baits were .035 wire with a decent long arm. I still have the prototypes he gave me and caught many good Bass on them. I loved the flat minnow head and scale pattern they were using.

Those old school swivels are good for the small cheap baits. I have not had one to fail but just used them in small lakes. I truly believe if I had been banging it out on the Tenn. River rock and Buck Ball Bushes with that swivel that it would fail me in some way. They were thin wall and just couldn't take a lick which would cause it to fail. Over the years I have had a couple to come apart in my hand as I was removing it from a bait to put on the ball bearing swivel. I never could bring my self to trust them in a tournament.

P-L-T= Success or something like that was Al Linder's formula. Presentation, Location and Technique equals Success. The arms make a lot of difference in both presentation and technique; yes, there will be times that they want the stiff arm. I use these more on deep water baits and the Short Arm Spinner bait that I bought from Jackson Lure Company (Little Jewel) which was the best in my book. Family still runs it but many of Billy Phillips's old baits are not produced any more including the Short arm and Do-Drop-In. My deck was covered back in those days with 12 spinner baits for each technique and presentation I wanted to throw that day. You are right there were at least 3 different wire sizes involved.

When you have spinner bait fishing down pat and run out of fish; I do not believe it is the bait. It is the location.