Most fishermen first learned how to catch bass with spinner bait. They can be one of the most effective baits in putting a lure near as many potential fish holding targets. You can quickly cover water and cover several zones in the water column. One of the things that have happened lately is the introduction of Titanium. So what are the properties of Titanium that make it desirable? What advantages does wire give you? What advantages do heavier baits give you? Well the following will try and give you a good reference on what to use when and why.
Old style wire probably is still the most versatile of the types of materials in spinner baits. One reason is it can be manipulated to make bait run lower or higher in the water column. If you take any wire bait and open the gap between the blade and hook it will raise the bait in the column. Also it can help to bring bait just above submerged weed lines letting a bait skirt the top of the weeds. With just the opposite you can close the gap to make the bait fall lower in the water column. This is most advantages to put a lure in the portion of water that light last penetrates at its brightest. If fish suspend you can use heavier bait with a smaller blade and put bait right in the suspension zone. Clear water often needs a bait to move much faster so going to a heavier bait with a willow leaf blade of a mid size can make a bait run straight and let you real it as fast as possible to give fish in clear water only a glimpse of the bait. Just the opposite can be done to slow a bait down a lighter bait with oversized blades can slow a bait down to keep it in strike zones longer and to cause more vibration in stained or muddy water.
Titanium has properties that are very budget friendly. They last much longer than wire baits and can do most all of the above techniques except for widening or opening the gap. The titanium will stay in place unlike wire baits. This also is an advantage in that the bait will usually always run straight. Often on wire bait a crushing blow of a bass will get it out of shape and the bait will then have to be tuned to run correctly again. And the bait after sometime will just break after so many times being bent which is where titanium comes in as more budget friendly.
Finally, if you were to ask many fishermen to choose one bait to fish with and be versatile still by choosing one bait it definitely would be spinner bait. It can be fished burning it on the surface to slow rolling it on the bottom. It catches fish all times of year and is fairly inexpensive when compared to some other types of lures.
Chris Gable
chris.gable@ultimatebass.com
