The Mepps Aglia spinnerThis section includes inline spinners as well as the bent-wire spinnerbaits and buzzbaits
The Mepps Aglia spinner
The Blue Fox Vibrax spinner
Inline spinners are one of the best-selling baits of all time. I have caught one fish on them. I am not saying they don't work, just that my luck has not been so good with them. I think they work best for trout and salmon, along with really big ones for muskie. Allegedly, though, they'll catch pretty much anything. You retrieve these at a constant speed, after a brief quick spurt to get the spinner going.
Again, a very popular bait type. These are easy to fish, too, you just cast them and crank them in quickly. They are best-known to work for largemouth bass, but they'll also take smallmouth bass. They are excellent for northern and muskie as well.
You can get spinnerbaits from $1 to $20, from cheap leadheads with no eyes and one blade to titanium-wired, indestructible muskie baits. They will also work for big crappie. I included three regular spinnerbaits and one smaller one that should work for panfish with big mouths.
Soft plastic trailers are often used with spinnerbaits. They usually are simply long flat pieces with a split tail. Also, if you have problems with fish grabbing the skirt, you can get replacement skirts in different colors. You can also get trailer hooks that attach to the main hook, so that if a fish hits too far back to hook him with the main hook, you can get him with the stinger.
Largemouth bass, northern pike and muskellunge are the most common fish to get with buzzbaits. The blade in the front churns up the top of the water, drawing the attention of big predatory fish. I've seen northerns caught with these and it's a fairly spectacular sight. I've never used them myself. I believe that one simply cranks these in at a constant pace, much like spinnerbaits. I hope they work out for you-they always seemed like they'd be fun. I don't know if this is true for buzzbaits, but typically topwater baits work best at dusk, dawn, or during cloudy conditions. Just something to keep in mind.
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