How to Build Colorado Spinner Blades

Colorado Spinner Blades are a metal fishing lure that mimic a spinner lure but with a much larger Colorado blade. The large blade has a wide teardrop shape which displaces a bunch of water when it rotates. Additionally, the wide blade produces a lot of vibration and thump when it rotates.

Colorado blades come in a variety of sizes usually 0 to 8 (0 being the smallest size). A size 0 is approximately 5/8″ long, and a larger blade size 8 is 2″ (see blade size & length diagram). They also come in a variety of colors, designs and finishes. From solid colors, mixes of colors, spray finishes, holograms, hammered finishes, and many more.

This versatility in size, color and finish offers a number of dynamic lure options. This tip article will show you how to create your own Colorado Spinner Blade lure.

Colorado Blade Spinner Components

To turn a Colorado blade into a fantastic fishing lure, you only have to add few additional terminal tackle pieces. Here are the full components of a Colorado blade spinner:

1 Colorado Blade
2 Barrel Swivels
1 Split Ring (optional to have 2)
1 Open Eye Hook (Sickle or Siwash hooks)

Sizes for each of these can vary. A middle sized setup would be a size 4 or 5 Colorado blade, size 8 barrel swivels, size 4 split ring and size 1/0 to 2 hook. If this is confusing, I’d recommend mimicking the included diagram sizes as the ratio between components is close.

Steps to Build a Colorado Spinner Blade

Step #1

Along with your components outlined above, ensure you have pliers (preferable with some sort of needle nose). It’s extremely challenging to work with the split rings without them. Check out my tackle guide if you need fishing pliers.

Step #2

Connect both barrel swivels to the single split ring.

Step #3

Connect the Colorado blade to the single split ring.

Step #4

Connect open eyed hook to one of the barrel swivels. Use pliers to close the open eye around the barrel swivel.

Important Note: It’s important to add the hook to the swivel that’s below the bottom side (belly) of the blade. The bottom side is often silver in color. It’s important to have the hook connected to this swivel so that the top side of the blade is being show correctly.

Tip: Recommend you clip your barb(s) on the hook(s) during this step as well.

Step #5

Tie your fishing line (or leader) to the other barrel swivel and its ready to fish!

How to Fish a Colorado Blade

Colorado Blades (“blades”) can be fished in a number of ways: drifted under a float, trolled, cast and retrieved, and likely many other ways that I’ve yet to try. These Colorado blades have a flutter action to them and mimic a fry or smolt (minnow). So this lure is likely to be more effective when there are more fry/smolts present in the water system. These blades can also act like an intruder in a fishes holding spot and I’ve seen them bite out of (what I believe was) strictly aggression.

I personally like to fish blades under a float in moving water or tide (usually a river). The blade should not be hitting the bottom but always drifting above (called “short floating”). In fact, this short floating approach with a blade was the setup I had when I caught my first ever Steelhead! I’ll never forget it. Anyway, this tactic on a river is a common setup for Salmon, Steelhead or Trout as the moving water imparts most of the action on the blade. To clarify, if I’m fishing faster water, I won’t impart any action to the float and allow the current to spin the blade. When fishing a blade in slower water I’ll add a little more tension and maybe include a slow retrieval to ensure the blade is spinning or getting some action.

Not Covering a Spinnerbait in this Tip

This fishing tip is NOT to be confused with a wire spinnerbait (commonly used for Bass, Pike & Redfish). This setup has the wire connecting a skirt and hook with blades on the other end. Here’s an example of a spinnerbait with a hybrid blade setup: Willowleaf & Colorado Blades.