One key to success in fishing is selecting the proper presentation style. Many panfish anglers, especially those targeting bluegills and crappie, traditionally favor a finesse approach using floats. At times, though, using flash and vibration draws fish from cover and excites them to strike. If you fish slowly with a small livebait or tiny lure, fish tend to peck at it. But run a bigger, bolder bait by them, and wham—they eat it.

Witness Blakemore’s success with Roadrunner. Though not always the best approach, spinners allow you to efficiently cover water and find fish. In many situations, they provoke more strikes than quieter approaches. At other times, a few strikes may reveal a concentration of fish that can then be worked with a slower tactic.

Lure options range from downsized bass-style spinnerbaits—effective for active crappies and white bass and can decidedly up the average size of your catch—to a small attractor blade clipped to a hook or strung on a leader, adding a bit of flash to a livebait offering. Understanding this range of action lets you match your presentation to the attitude of the fish.

A Look at Lures

Spinner Hooks: Spreader rigs are deadly for fishing schools of perch that wander vast flats in the Great Lakes or large natural lakes. The additional color and flash of a tiny spinner above each hook of the spreader draws fish to the bait, typically a small shiner. Eagle Claw offers the 2-Way Spinner for use on spreader rigs or under floats for crappie and trout, with a tiny Colorado blade of chartreuse, silver, red, or green on a clevis above an Aberdeen hook. As a minnow flutters and dives below a float, the blade shimmers or flaps, drawing curious panfish. Many anglers tie their own leaders, sliding a blade and optional beads above the hook.

JB Tackle’s neat little Flikker-Tail incorporates a small willowleaf blade on a split ring that also holds a barrel swivel to prevent line twist, and a #4 or #6 hook for live or artificial bait like Berkley Power Nuggets or Eagle Claw Nitro Paste. The blade serves as an attractor, pulling perch or crappie close enough to spot and sniff a live or artificial bait.

At times, you get more bites with a plain hook. The subtlest presentations tend to work in super-cold water (particularly when the water temperature has dropped drastically) or in other negative weather conditions. That’s the time for a small minnow subdued with lead shot set just above the hook, maybe the tail trimmed, as well. Or an invertebrate bait like a waxworm or wiggler.

Chin Spinners: This category goes by several names—underspin, horsehead jig, bladehead, and jig-­spinner. One brand illustrates the concept, though—Roadrunner. Bert D. Hall designed the original in 1958, and this bait’s among one of the deadliest panfish lures ever contrived.

A small blade hangs below the horsehead-style head, turning on a swivel. With the hook pointing up, chin spinners fish over vegetation and brush cleanly, so they excel for horizontal presentations across cover-laden flats. Crappies move toward the banks in spring and gather in protected bays with cover and baitfish. Chin spinners are a great tool to locate groups of fish that may be scattered across expansive cover, or to pick off individual fish spread over a large area.

Most chin spinners, including the original Roadrunner, use a small Indiana blade, a good compromise between flash and vibration. Some anglers favor a willowleaf blade for fishing deeper spots, since reduced water resistance makes it easier to fish at greater depths. Blakemore’s new Pro Series Heads have a Willow blade in addition to a Bleeding Bait hook.

The Roadrunner has evolved from the original chenille body and marabou tail to twister-tail models (Curly Tail Road Runner); the Turbo Tail, with a solid body and serrated tube-style tail for extra action and vibration; the Bubble Belly, with a Bass Assassin Tiny Shad; and Crappie Thunder, with a thick, ribbed body and flared tail for a slow fall and lots of action at slow retrieve speeds. According to T.J. Stallings of TTI/Blakemore, much of the Roadrunner’s expansion is inspired by anglers. “We get input about new colors and styles from crappie experts,” he says. “Our two latest colors, Churple and Electric Chicken, are the result of angler input.”

Considering that Stallings reports annual sales of Roadrunners surpassing 2 million lures and that there are many other chin spinners on the market, this popular lure is surpassed as a panfish favorite only by the simple tube. Other popular options include Blue Fox’s Panfish Spinner Jig, incorporating a realistic fish-style head and a small swimbait body with holographic foil, available in 1/8- and 1/6-ounce sizes, with an Indiana blade and 8 baitfish-imitating colors.

Charlie Brewer’s Slider Company has the Charlie Bee, with a minute willowleaf blade below a 1/32- or 1/16-ounce ballhead and a little ribbed boot-tail body, a favorite for bluegills. Al Patterson of ReelBait Company designed the Walleye Flasher for walleyes; but it’s worked well for smallmouth, white bass, and big crappies, too, so he now calls it The Flasher. This one features a hefty head that helps keep the lure deep for working points or along riprap banks. A tiny willowleaf blade completes the ­package. ReelBait’s metallic colors have been popular, but classic crappie colors like chartreuse, pink, and blue are also available. Flashers come with no body, so add your own plastic or try a small minnow.

Overhead Spinners: They’re also called spinnerbaits, jig-spinners, elbow spinners (since the removable spinner arm is L-shaped), or simply beetle spins, after the best-known lure of this type. Pure Fishing now makes the Beetle Spin under its Johnson brand, and a Rattlin’ Beetle Spin is available, in addition to the classic beetle body, available from 1/32- to 1/4-ounce in 19 colors. Northland Fishing Tackle offers Jig Spinner arms of various colors and sizes, so you can make your own overhead spinner of nearly any jig.

Northland’s Mimic Minnow Spin and Slurpies Swim Shiner are detailed minnow bodies with a boot-tail design (Mimic Minnow) or a CurlyFin teaser tail (Swim Shiner). The 1/16- and 1/8-ounce sizes are ideal for crappie, perch, white bass, and big bluegills.