How many people on Big Bluegill use beetle spins or Blakemore Road Runner?

[jacob wilson]

i was just wondering how many people on Big Bluegill use beetle spins or Blakemore Road Runner? i think they are a wonderful bluegill lure and you can catch huge bluegills on them. what is your favorite color, where do you like to fish them, and what time of year? i would really appreciate your feedback.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I use Beetle Spins - but I've never caught anything on them. Ive heard there is really no wrong way to fish them. And I've tried most of the methods. My experience with them to date, however, is mostly based in Hope.

Ive tried big jigs with small spinner rigs, small jigs with big spinner rigs, grub tails and twister tails, various color combinations and so on. All to no avail.

The small brim, the little shoreside 'piddlers', seem to like them - they usually take a nip or two as the spinner passes by. But the bigger bluegill hardly notice them. I'll catch them on crickets or worms... but I think those honkin' big Beetle Spins scare hell outta them as they thump and flutter along!

Recently, I've made my own custom spin jigs, kinda like the Charlie Brewer's "Bee.". They are 1/32 oz ball head jigs with a swivel and "0" size Colorado spinner blade. My hope is the blade will slow the jig down and give it more flash. Like I said... Hope.

[jacob wilson]

oh ok have you tried the really small ones. the black jighead with a white body and a small gold spoon i catch pretty nice sized bluegills on em.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Thanks Jacob. Thats pretty much what I tried today. It was one of my small spinner jigs, with dark head, white body and gold blade.. It worked just fine with that curly tail grub, and looked good cutting through the water.

The small piddlers liked it, too. I think if I can get it on some decent sized fish, nearer to deep water, it might have a chance.

[clint johnson]

love to fish beetle spins in small creeks and rivers. they work great catch all types of fish on them

[Tom Beauchamp]

I mostly pull roadrunners for crappie, but will also catch the occasional blue gill. Problem with the ones I pull is the size and hook, a little big for the gills in my lake. You can tell the gills are trying to eat it though as the bodies on them look like they've been run through a sander. Was out Wednesday and pulled a small jig head with a white twister tail on it and caught fish. Didn't use it long though, had just run out of crickets and the heat was getting unbearable by 1:00.

[JC]

I tend to buy the spinner arms separately and combine them with marabou jigs or soft plastic bodies on small jig heads.  I mostly fish small curly tail grub bodies in white or chartruce.

 

I find them useful in at least 3 situations:

 

1. I sometimes use them when I am fishing an area where bass, sunfish, crappie, pickerel and perch are found together. I found that a curlytail grub on a 1/16th oz. head and spinner arm will catch any of the above species.

 

2. I use them in rivers and creeks where we lots and lots of stumps and downed trees. The spinner arm seems to deflect the jig and I loose less lures.

 

3. During the cold months, the spinner arm allows the jig to stay suspended at a slower speed, allowing slow moving fish the extra time to make a move. Beetlespins and other small spinnerbaits seem to really outfish other lures in these situations.

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

Thanks for that info!

I combine the spinner arms and various jig combo's, too. The variability seems to be one of the lure's strong points. Run it fast or slow, helicopter it or "bulge" it under the surface. You name it, these lures can do it.

As I watch them run in the water, I'm impressed with them. Virgil Ward was onto something when he invented them.

 

So far, however, I've not had any FISH recognize the spinner jig's excellence and actually take one. But I'll keep trying.

[jacob wilson]

thanks really appreciate the info. imma try fishin them around stumps when i go to percy quin state park. i fish them in small ponds and pretty good luck with them. i know green sunfish really like them lol

[Bill Purmort]

You can't go fishing without a beetlespin...if nothing else it gives me something to throw while watching the corks. 

[David, aka, "McScruff"]

I couldn't have said it better myself, Bill!

They are indeed fun to watch and I enjoy varying their action in the water. Most of the waters I fish have a lot of weeds or monster knock-down snags. I like to fish the B-S slow over and around the weeds, letting it "helicopter" into gaps and openings. Around the woody snags and stumps, I cast right past them and work the B-Spin in close around them.

But I have to confess that I also like to watch the little shoreside piddlers react when a Beetle Spin comes into view. They pounce on the thing with a passion, nipping wildly at it. This tell me they have what it takes to stimulate fish into biting - if you can just put one over a ready fish.

 

[david j huebner]

i started using them a few years ago at a couple farm ponds. been tearing up the big gills on them.

was catching to many small ones on live bait. the biggins have been smacking the beetle spin.

[Bruce Condello]

I've regularly had great luck with Blakemore Road Runners.  My favorite color is black body/green tail.  The 3-1 bluegill that I caught a few weeks ago was on a Road Runner.