One thing you cannot do with a spinner bait is pause it in front of a fish that is just nipping or nudging a lure with its snout in a taste-test or territorial manner. You could also add a stinger hook, which is a trailing hook, to a spinner baits skirt to help hook such fish. This however, this will however reduce the snag proof nature of the spinner bait!
An ideal feature of a spinner bait with a single hook is that you can cast it well into say an over hanging tree line or gnarly submerged timber mess with confidence. Simply let it sink straight down to where you think the fish are sitting, and then pull it straight back through the timber. This is not possible with a floating diving minnow, and a softie with a weed guard will usually get snagged more often than a spinner bait would. Compared with other lures I rarely lose a spinner bait to a snag, especially out of a boat.
A good technique is to cast over a tree branch and let the lure sink. When you draw the lure back up over the branch any attracted fish are usually hot to trot when the flops over and swims away. You can also let the lure flutter back down and catch fish on the drop. Golden Perch, Murray Cod, Bass, Bream and Barra are just a few examples of fish that will respond exceptionally well to the above technique.
I often use a spinner bait to "find" fish and if they don't want to bite the skirt properly, I switch to smaller spinner bait, softie, floating diver (if the fish is not to deep) or a bait! I must say though that if you are targeting a certain species in the right scenario with the right sized and speed spinner bait, a change is not normally needed.
You can sometimes fish for both big fish and small fish at the same time with the one spinner bait. For example I use a 2/0 spinner bait knowing that perch will hit the skirt, and when a big murray cod comes along the blade/arm is nothing more than a giant hook guard! I have hooked dozens of 2 pound golden perch this season alone, in addition 6 cod between 5 and 28 pounds also munched the same lure. I watched several of these cod inhale the whole spinner bait! Big barra often do the same thing!
I would not get too caught up on terminology with blades etc. Simply interchange various blades until you are happy. For example most spinner baits I have tried have to be retrieved way to fast for working over a perch or cod near a snag (in still water.) To get the blades spinning at a slower speed I put the two biggest roundest blades (Colorado) on the lightest spinner bait I had. Adding thicker skirts or bulking them up with gooey catch scents also slows the retrieve speed/sink rate.
On the other hand, bass anglers who find fish down deep on a sounder sometimes want a skinny blade (willow) with a heavier head and thinner skirt to get down to the bass quickly before the boat drifts off them.
For real fussy fish, add one of your favourite baits under the skirt. For natives I put a small yabby on spinner baits hook. This produces a deadly combination of searching power and real food in the one snag proof lure. It is not a guarantee of catching fish, but if all the other ground work is taken care of it is hard to beat!
People use spinner baits in the salt water with great success. Bream, flathead, salmon and practically any fish that swims will take one. I personally believe that the salt water is not the place for spinner baits though. They loose their shine quickly, and everything but the very best ones rust quickly. For me searching the freshwater structures are the domain of the spinner bait, that being said those prepared to maintain them do use then in the salt with great success.
Until next week, see you on the water.
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