Spinner trials lead to large perch

[J.A. Veil]

Last week I made a post about the various styles of spinners I have used to catch perch in the Severn. Today I spent 3 hours in two Severn tributaries testing out 4 styles of spinners. I used the Bignose single blade spinner as my control -- I have consistently caught with this lure, and today was no exception. Once I found perch in some of my preferred shoreline spots with that lure, I switched to other rods having the yet untested lures and cast to the same areas. Two of the lures did not perform nearly as well as the control, but one of them (the beetle spin style spinner made by Grady Black) caught well overall and landed the largest perch of the day (and my largest in the past two years to boot). That 12.75" perch was caught at about 1:30 pm in a shaded area of 3-4 ft water depth.

big perch closeup.jpg

Here is a photo of GB's beautiful hand-tied jig on the spinner arm. Thanks for letting me try it out, Mike.

002.jpg

During the course of the trip, I caught several dozen smaller white perch (up to 11") and one surprise 10" yellow perch. Although I had spare batteries in my pocket, I left my usual water resistant camera at home by mistake. I was able to get the photo with my cell phone -- I rarely take pictures with that phone and am pleased that it came out as well as it did.

[Mark]

John,

Good experiment.

What size jig head is the Grady Black spinner?

[J.A. Veil]

What size jig head is the Grady Black spinner?

It looked slightly larger than an unpainted 1/8-oz jighead. I don't know how thick the paint is. It may also be a 3/16-oz jighead.

[Grady-Black]

They are 1/8-oz jighead & #4 Blade
Thanks John for the comparison.
Thats a nice WP!
GB

[Mark]

Grady, John,

Thank you.

I really believe the blade is key on some days.

A month or so ago I tossed Clouser Minnows, which look very much like your dressed jig, until my arm ached. I caught only a few perch. When I switched to a bladed spinner my catch rate immediately improved.

I think if the water is slightly stained the blade helps immensely.

You do good work, Grady. Nice looking lure.

[Wavy Davy]

Grady, John,

Thank you.

I really believe the blade is key on some days.


A month or so ago I tossed Clouser Minnows, which look very much like your dressed jig, until my arm ached. I caught only a few perch. When I switched to a bladed spinner my catch rate immediately improved.

I think if the water is slightly stained the blade helps immensely.

You do good work, Grady. Nice looking lure.

I agree. The other day, I was catching one WP after the other on a Rooster Tail spinner with a yellow body and a brass willow leaf blade. When I lost it in the rocks, I switched to a Beetle Spin with a round blade and got nothing. After 10 minutes I switched to a Rooster Tail with a green and pink body and a silver willow leaf blade and began to catch fish immediately. When I lost that one, I went with a Rooster Tail with a brown body and a blade so tarnished I couldn't tell what finish it was and got fish on that too. When I next stop at the tackle shop, I'm going to get a half dozen Rooster Tails. Of course, the fish will probably change their preference by then.

[bignose]

So my lure was the "control?"
I was told that in my younger days, I was a bit out of control.

Just for the sake of comparison, my single blade spinner jigs are 1/8 oz. and use either a #2 Gold Colorado blade or a #3 Silver Diamond Colorado blade.
The bigger the blade, the more it thumps in the water, and it runs a bit shallower. If used on a dead drop, the bigger blade drops slower.
It looks like GB's spinner head uses buck tail and a little krystal flash, where mine are mostly Chartreuse Bait Flash Emulator (Bass Pro Fly Shop) and a little krystal flash for contrast.
No matter what material is used, I believe that Chartreuse is the hot color for perch.