I was freshening up my spinnerbaits this morning with a little Reel Magic and came across this one Jimmy Houston gave me about 20 years ago when I fished with him on Lake Texoma. He gave me the spinnerbait and a piece of bubblegum. I think the color was called bubblegum.

Terminator was started by an Oklahoma dentist. They were one of the early sponsors of the TFF. Pretty cool origin story: https://www.oklahoman.com/article/2...lic%20fails%20to%20properly%20appreciate. Alan McGuckin was a good guy to work with!




As long as we're talking spinnerbaits, here's one KVD gave me that's on the bulletin board by my desk. He clipped it right off one of the rods on his deck and it still has the little bit of line tied to the wire. I asked him to sign the blade.

I knew nothing about the company. Only thing I knew was that Terminator made the best salt water inline spinner bait I've ever used for over 20 years. Just looked and can't find them but Bass Pro used to carry them at all their stores near the coast.


Best redfish bait I've ever thrown.. came in several different colors of bodies.

I still have a few of those inline spinners. Unfortunately, not enough to part with.

Excellent Mr. Greeson. Thanks for sharing your Spinner Bait knowledge.

Terminator makes some good spinnerbaits but certainly on the pricey side.

Hell, you only need one because they last forever even in the salt, unless something bit you off. The design of that bait was awesome. I think more of dentist's now that I know the story. Most weedless spinner known to mankind! True story... I'm a spinner bait guy and when I first came back to Texas was having a hard time on Murvaul getting a bite throwing spinner baits that day. Decided to throw the inline Terminator and caught one on first cast. Never used it again freshwater, but got me to thinking how those type spinner baits reminded me of the meps freshwater baits and why I quit using them when they worked like magic as a kid. Bought a couple of big meps the other day that I still haven't used and noticed Terminator was being sold at Academy in Tyler for the first time I've ever seen them there.

I still throw a Rooster Tail pretty often.

Cool story and photos

You put reel magic on your spinnerbaits?!

Keeps the skirts and other plastic accessories from becoming brittle and falling apart or sticking together and becoming garbage

Cool story. The old terminator titanium spinner baits were awesome. I still have a couple. I’ll fish them till the head breaks off the wire and I never had a wire break! They were fish catch baits! I bought a few of the newer stainless ones and they aren’t the same. The Titanium were expensive but worth every penny!

Hopefully, these will last till I can't fish anymore.





The open ones have seen some mileage. I probably need to replace the hooks.

Roys bait and tackle cleared a pile of those inlines out this year along with a lot of other good old obscure things. I grabbed 10 and am holding em tight...shhh they dont work on reds at all lol.

I think we can let the cat out of the bag on reds. You just can't find these baits anymore. The few that do will probably not impact where we are fishing. I can remember when these were given to me. I was told to try them on reds like it was a state secret they were letting me in on.

My favorite bait for reds for a long time has been the Stanley Wedgetail. I think Egret Baits bought the mold from Stanley - not sure, but they are making them now. The watermelon seed on a jighead kills 'em. I was following a guide one day with a couple of outdoor writers down near Anahuac, and at the end of the day, he asked me if I wanted to fish the Redfish Tour with him. I said, "It wasn't me, it was the bait."

I throw a beetle spin from time to time still.

Terminator used to be my favorite lure designer. Caught a lot of fish on their spinnerbaits and jigs. I see they’re back in business or the name is back. anyone tried the the “new” terminators?

Cool pics JP!

I still have about 25 or 30 of the original titanium Terminators. They were and ARE still awesome!

I think I may have lost one or two Terminator spinnerbaits to the lake. They pretty much last forever. Never lost one of the inline spinners.

I took this picture years ago... its all I needed to catch snook, reds, and tarpon. Had a few of each .. so simple back then.

I prefer the old, cheap Strike King spinnerbaits. Mostly single spin in 1/4 and 1/2 oz.
I make my own skirts and sharpen the hooks.

I've used them for over 25 years with great success.
The last I purchased was on Ebay for $1.99 each.

I may know a guy who makes something really similar! Didn't realize terminator used to make something like this until I searched it. This one will be good for bass with a swimbait on the back as well! I wanted to build these as a weedless alternative to the spinnerbaits I make that have smashed the reds and have great durability.

I've got a bubble gum one with a gold colorado blade just like that

You're exactly right, I still have one left of the old Titanium spinnerbaits and still use it here and there. The newer stainless ones are still pretty good but just not up to par with the Titanium ones.
I had a conversation with Jimmy Houston and his wife at a boat and tackle show back in the day talking about the night fishing I used to do on Fork using Terminator spinnerbaits because I was almost going broke from having to replace torn up Hilldebrandt spinnerbaits that those angry bass would annihilate back then. I loved how the wire stayed in place and held up and all you had to worry about is a fish breaking the line and heading off with one.

You know you are going to have guys like me bug you about seeing what it would take for you to let go of some of those.

+1 on this one. Loved the titanium wire spinnerbaits. You could literally tie the wire in a knot and it would still retain its shape. When they quit making them, I tried the stainless, but they were not the same. Had a stainless one cost me at a tourney on Livingston about 6 years ago when it broke on a 3-4 lb fish. The skirts were well made too. One of the first things I look for in a spinner bait is how the skirt "flares" or "pulses". I hate the ones that just lay there. The terminator skirts were rather rigid and stiff and had great a great natural action when they were in the water, especially on a stop and go retrieve. They were awesome baits and I would love to see the titanium wires come back!!

Jealous!!

When they first came out they cost about $10 which was an insane price for a spinnerbait at the time. I bought one and took off for a weekend at Toledo Bend. They crushed that spinnerbait that weekend.
I caught about 70 bass on it in 2 days, a 1/2 oz. chart/white with a large willow/small colorado. You could tell it was something different and attractive to the fish.

The next weekend at Sam Rayburn I was catching them again on it when a 5 pounder jumped and shook his head. The line went slack and the reason was the wire broke in the bend. Luckily I still had part of the wire tied on, I mailed it to Terminator and they sent me a replacement. Terminator was the only spinnerbait I threw for about 10 years or so after that.

Out in California they ate it up also, especially on the Delta. By then I had several colors and blade combinations. The Oklahoma blade became my favorite, my biggest bass on it was 12 lb 13 oz on a nasty, stormy day at San Pablo Dam letting it fall down the branches of a fairly deep lay down tree. I had fished that tree several times before on previous trips and had never caught a fish in it.

At Amistad I used to throw the 1 oz. size, I would let it fall to the bottom and rip it up in the grass. I caught a 10-2 there one day when it was about 30 degrees with a hellacious wind blowing.

I have at least 50 now, 30 or 40 are still in the pack. You can find them on Ebay and they are expensive. They are not as effective, at least for me, as they once were. Still a real good spinnerbait but man they were like magic that first 10 years or so.

I was gonna say the same thing, they don’t seem to crush them like they used too.

My go-to spinnerbait was always the 7/16 oz Skeet Reese Western Sizzlin

I used to have a lot of Bull Dog spinner baits. Remember those. I think they started the round needle point in hooks when most hooks were flat sides going to a point. They had super sharp hooks on them for way back then, many years ago. The head design on them looked more like it was designed for a jig instead of a spinner bait.


I also still have some of the Triple Rattle back spinner baits that had the weird twisted up rear blade on it.

Cool thread JP Greeson

Bull Dog made some great jigs too. They had the screw lock keeper on the hook. They were one of the first bait companies to use Gamkatsu hooks