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Six months ago, I made a DIY inline spinner for the first time and it was an eye opening experience. I’d fished with inline spinners dozens of times, but I’d never made one before.
When I tried it, I was shocked.
Within 5 minutes, I held a finished, fishable spinner in my hand!
5 minutes!!!!!
In 5 minutes, I made a fishing lure that would catch anything from bluegill to trout to bass.
“But Blaine, surely you bought some pricey tools to make this happen, right? You didn’t just build a spinner using common tools you had lying around.”
Actually… I simply bought the spinner parts and used my trusty pliers to put them together.
The best part? It only cost me $1 to make one spinner. 🥳
Here’s how I did it.
How To Make A Spinner
I cannot overemphasize how incredibly straightforward spinners are. This is true not only for fishing, but also for making DIY spinners.
Regardless of your lure making experience, you can make a DIY spinner in just a few minutes
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👉 Start with the spinner parts
The various spinner parts can be found at many lure making shops, such as Lure Parts Online or Barlow’s Tackle.
For the beginner baitmaker, I totally recommend buying an inline spinner kit.
These kits come with all the various parts of a spinner. They are huge time savers for those just getting started, who may not know what weight or what size spinner blade they need.
The spinner kit I’m using today comes from Mudhole.com, a fantastic online store for both rod building and lure making materials.
You can also get plenty of parts from Barlow’s Tackle, using the various product links below. 👇
Inline Spinner Parts
👉 6 steps to make a spinner
There are 6 simple steps to making your own DIY spinners.
1. Thread the treble hook onto the wire.
2. Thread the weight onto the wire.
Pinch the tag end of the wire and thread it through the weight.
This locks the hook safely into place below the weight.
3. Thread the first bead onto the wire.
This bead acts as a spacer, and protects the weight from the movements of the spinner blade.
4. Assemble the blade and clevis, and thread it onto the wire.
5. Thread the second bead onto the wire. Feel free to add any additional beads as spacers.
6. Using a pair of needlenose pliers, twist the end of the wire into a circle.
Then wrap the tag end around the shaft 2-3 times.
Trim the tag end of the wire so it is flush with the wire shank.
Congratulations, you have a finished spinner!
👉 (BONUS) Paint With Custom Colors
Although this spinner is pretty basic, it will catch oodles of trout, bass, and other species.
For those looking to customize their spinner even more, you can easily use powder paint to give your spinner some extra pizazz!
I powder paint my spinners using good ol’ Protec Powder Paint by CS Coatings.
Protec Powder Paint is used extensively for painting jigheads. With that said, this stuff works seamless for painting brass spinner bodies and nickel spinner blades.
To custom paint your spinner, simply apply heat for several seconds to the brass body or spinner blade using a heat gun.
Then lightly tap the powder paint onto the heated metal. The heat helps the powder paint to stick!
To make your paint job extra durable, bake the painted components in a dedicated toaster oven for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. And yes, I said a dedicated toaster oven – for proper safety, don’t use the family convection oven 😂!
Just like that, you have a custom painted spinner!
How To Fish A Spinner
The Inline Spinner is an insanely popular lure, and for good reason.
First off, they are incredibly easy to use. Simply cast one out and reel it back in!
Secondly, spinners are amazing multispecies baits. No matter where you are fishing, they flat out hook fish.
Trout, musky, bass, crappie … you name it!
I’ve personally caught six different species with spinners – rainbow trout, brook trout, green sunfish, bream, largemouth bass, and smallmouth bass.
No matter what you are fishing for, it’s hard to go wrong with an inline spinner.
👉 Tips on Color
As a general rule of thumb, I use unpainted spinners or spinners with muted black or brown colors when the water is very clear.
When the water is murky, I opt for flashier colors like chartreuse and fire tiger. These colors stand out a lot better and allow fish to get a better sense of where the lure is in the water.
Similarly, I use bright silver blades when the water is clear. In murky water, however, I opt for gold blades that have more bold flash, so the fish can easily find the bait.
👉 Tips on Size
What size spinner I use is dictated by the water I’m fishing and the species I’m looking for.
For instance, 1/16 oz is a very common size for panfish or trout in slow moving streams and lakes. If there is much current or if I’m fishing several feet deep, I increase the weight to ⅛ oz.
When fishing for large game fish such as bass or pike, it’s very common to increase the spinner weight even more. ¼ oz spinners come into the equation at this point. When fishing several feet and deeper, even larger spinner sizes such as ⅜ oz and ½ oz come into play.
👉 Spinning gear is the name of the game
The majority of anglers use spinning rods when fishing inline spinners. To put it simply, spinning rods are naturally equipped for casting light lures such as inline spinners.
In contrast, baitcasting rods are generally better suited for heavier, bulkier fishing lures.
My Fishing Tackle
I use a ML Berkeley Lightning rod for fishing spinners because it slings 1/16 oz and 1/8 oz spinners with great ease. On top of that, the rod has a lot of flex, which is a big plus for spinner fishing.
This flex in the rod helps absorb shock when an aggressive fish hits the spinner. In contrast, a rod without much flex may actually pull the hook right out of the fish’s mouth.
With that said, it’s hard to go wrong fishing spinners with any kind of a spinning rod. Simply grab a spinning rod, tie on a spinner, and you should have no problems catching fish!
Conclusion: How To Make A Spinner In Less Than 5 Minutes
Quick recap!
Inline spinners are wildly popular amongst fishermen, and for good reason.
They catch all kinds of fish – pike, musky, bass, trout, you name it!
They’re not only super easy to fish with, they’re incredibly easy to make – I made my first one in less than 5 minutes!
Wrapping all this up, if you’re looking to get your feet wet with lure making or if you simply want to save money on fishing lures, then this lure is for you.
Like I said, I can make a spinner for myself for about $1, and it takes me less than 5 minutes to do. #easydiy
Give it a try! You won’t be disappointed.
Have you fished with spinners before? Leave a comment below and tell what your experience has been with spinners!
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Awesome article— thanks I’ve learned a lot from you!
Very welcome! Learning more about fishing and luremaking is what this blog is all about 😊.
This is a great article. I just started making my own spinners and this was incredibly helpful. I would have never believed it was so easy but this article took me through the whole process. Thanks!
Awesome!!! You are very welcome, Tom!
Hi,
For in-line blades such as the ones on panther martins, how do you know how much spacing to put between the two beads? Also, when shopping for spinner parts online, is there a way to figure out what size of each part to get?
Hi Darren! Those are both excellent questions. The only real rule of thumb with beads is making sure you have enough beads there to give your blade space to spin on the shaft. As long as it spins freely, you are good to go!
In regards to finding the proper size for each part, it really depends on what size spinner you want to make. If you are making a trout spinner, you probably want as light a weight as you can get, thin wire (e.g 0.026″ diameter), and small size 0 or size 1 french blades.
If you are making spinners for bass fishing, you’d have to go up a size in weight, wire diameter, and so forth.