When the high temps are below zero and the “Big Game” is a few hours away, what a perfect time to pull out the spinner tying gear and rig up some crawler harnesses. If you have ever spent a day in the boat with me up on Mille Lacs, there is a pretty good chance we dragged a crawler harness for at least and hour or two. One of my favorite ways to put fish in the boat. Very satisfying catching fish on tackle you designed and assembled yourself. Literally thousands of bead and blade combinations to come up with. Once you get into tying your own crawler harnesses, you will never go back to store bought.
Like anything else in fishing, you start out small and then things seem to balloon into quite the production. When I started out I had just a few beads and blades. Mostly remnants of store bought spinners that became un-usable after catching a fish or two. Over time you keep an eye out for sales and your collection will eventually consume several boxes. This first couple shots show one of my bead boxes and an assortment of blades I will be using today. Beads are mostly size 4 & 5 the blades run from small colorado’s all the way up to silver dollar size thumpers!
For line I use plain old Berkely Trilene XT (green) in 10# test. When I tie up rigs for other lakes like Little Bay de noc, I may go at high as 20# line. I tie all of my Mille Lacs rigs between eight and ten feet long. You can always shorten them up in the boat!
For hooks, I like a # 2 or #4 Gamigahtsu or other premium hook and a # 10 treble.
You will also see in the above photo that I “package” up my spinners in ½ size zip-lock bags. These ½ size bags are the perfect size for storing spinners until you are ready to use them. I’ll tie up 100 – 200 spinners and bag them up. These all fit nicely into a medium sized “Rubber Maid” type container. The day before I plan to use a spinner rig, I will transfer the spinner from the baggie and wrap it onto a pool noodle for easy access in the boat.
I’ll put about 25 ½ baggies into quart size zip locks, then 4 -5 zip locks in a rubber maid show here: By the time I’m done, I’ll have close to 200 rigs tied and ready for open water!
Putting it all together! There are instructions on how to tie a snell all over the internet. Just “google” up “fishing knots” for a lot of good illustrations. Just for the heck of it, I shot a short video (below) of how “I” tie up a snell for Mille Lacs spinners. This is just one of many color/bead/blade combo’s I like to use. Many Mille Lacs sharpies have some closely held “recipes”. It’s always interesting to see what guys come up with. In my mind, there is no right or wrong. If it puts a fish in the boat – it’s golden! But for starters, silver and gold #4 and 5 colorado or willow blades, both smooth and hammered are a great starting point.
Short video – Tying Spinners. Sorry, not the clearest image, but if you watch it a couple times, you get the idea….
Crawler/Spinner Harness Video – Click Here
Look for an on the water report when I put these baby’s to use. Can’t wait till opener!
been looking for something like this now
