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.

Models with a detachable arm are versatile and also create helicoptering action on the drop, as the hinged arm folds upward to allow a straight fall. Small, fixed-arm spinnerbaits come through cover well and are a good pick for big spring crappie. Talon Lures offers the Sac-A-Lait Plus, sized for crappie, while BOOYAH's Wounded Bucktail puts a hair skirt on a 1/8-ounce tandem model, and Strike King’s Micro-King and Mini-King match a single Colorado blade with the 1/8-ounce bait.

Jig Spinner Variations: There are other ways to combine a spinner and jig. Northland’s Whistler Jig has been a walleye staple for over a decade. The propeller blade behind the head turns with the slightest pull, and it whirls in a blur when retrieved steadily through any part of the water column. The blade also helps slow the Whistler’s fall, making it a good choice for working weedlines, bluff banks, or standing timber. The Whistler Screwtail is prerigged with a 11⁄2-inch twistertail but is also available with no dressing, so tubes, swimbait bodies, or livebait can be used.

The Slider Whirly Bee combines a flat Slider head with a tough grub body and an Indiana spinner, which hangs on the hook bend with a swivel. Slider’s new Lil’ Whirly Bee is a 1/16-ounce version sized for bluegills. Also new is the Slider Panfish Jig, a marabou model weighing 1/64 and 1/32 ounce. The company also sells spinner-swivel rigs with keepers so you can transform most jigs into tailspinners.

Spinners in Action

Crappie Approaches: Spinners come into their own during the Prespawn Period, when crappie move to the edges of weedy or brushy flats and into protected bays, where they find warmer water and baitfish. If the water is below about 50°F, a float-and-jig or minnow may be needed to tempt bites from lethargic or spooky fish. But when water temperatures rise and weather remains stable, spinners become a top choice, particularly in murky water or where cover is thick. Consider jig-­spinners a top pick for crappies that are at least moderately active.

The overhead arm of elbow spinners makes them a top choice when crappies hover in vegetation. Woodcover is a universal crappie attractor in spring, and the arm also helps deflect brush and limbs.

Chin spinners (also head spinners like Northland’s Whistler Jig and tail-spinners like the Whirly Bee) are versatile and can be cast, trolled, or fished vertically. Both in the heat of summer and in cold conditions, crappies often hold on bottom, sometimes within cover and sometimes hovering just above featureless areas that hold small bottom-dwelling organisms.

With the line-tie directly overhead, chin spinners can be tweaked along with slight jigging motions as the boat drifts, or fished vertically while the angler watches fish respond to the lure on sonar, similar to ice fishing. With its subtle undulation, marabou dressing is often the best choice in winter, while active tails of soft plastics are ideal in summer.

In late summer and early fall, groups of crappie often feed near the surface in natural lakes and vegetated impoundments, pushing baitfish toward weededges. Casting or longline-trolling little spinners is deadly: The blades keep the bait high in the water column and the flash excites feeding fish.

White Bass Action: Flash and vibration jig-spinners excel in current, making a great choice during the spring white bass run. Whites typically run into tributaries and offer super-fast fishing when timed right for location and weather.

As our most piscivorous panfish, white bass focus on flash. A spinning blade also helps keep a jig high in the water column, where white bass tend to feed during spring. They also feed near the surface in summer and early fall, usually in larger numbers and with greater fervor than crappies. Whities slash and cut, stirring the surface like the miniature stripers they are. It’s hard to beat a jig-spinner as long as fish stay on top.

Blades for Bluegills: Sunfish are perhaps the most curious freshwater fish, investigating every nearby object with a myopic stare. And that stare is usually accompanied by a tentative nibble. For active sunfish in shallow water, mini jig-spinners and small in-line spinners are fun to fish and effective. They typically select for larger bluegills, pumpkinseeds, ­shellcrackers, and redbreasts. Expect the best spinner bite from late spring through early fall, when shallow patterns prevail.

Blades are particularly effective in farm ponds that are fertilized to maintain a healthy phytoplankton bloom. Visibility is reduced in the greenish water, so the flash and thump of a spinner make it a great choice. While most anglers target shellcrackers with livebait, jumbos can’t resist a Beetle Spin.

Spinning for Perch: Traditional perch rigs are effective for drifting expansive flats of the Great Lakes and large natural lakes, often enhanced with spinner blades set above baits. In small lakes, perch feed along the edge of deeper weedlines all year, and heavier jig-spinners work in spots shallower than 10 feet or so. Note that the spinner’s ability to buoy a presentation also makes it harder to fish deep unless a hefty head is selected, such as a ReelBait Flasher.

While jig-spinners aren’t always the most effective approach, they’re hard to beat for ease of use and have a high fun factor when the bite gets going. With the variety available now, spinners should occupy plenty of space in your panfish box this year.