I was skinning through the 1976 volume of Bassmaster Magazine recently and it dawned on me we haven’t seen nor heard from the once famous twin spin in a long time. For those of you who haven’t been bass fishing for more than 30 years, the twin spin might not be of much interest to you. On the other hand, if you have been bass fishing for more than 30 years (or longer), the bait might surely bring back some fond memories.
Pictured at the bottom of this Bomber ad from around 1975 is a good example of what I’m talking about. The bait resembles the common spinnerbait except for the fact that it has two blades attached via their own wires. In this example by Bomber, the blade arms actually rotated and as the bait would fall, the arms would ride up due to friction. Then when the bait was pulled, the arms would collapse back down and ride like a normal spinnerbait.
The first twin spin I ever heard of was a Shannon Twin Spin, originally invented around 1915. Through the 50s the bait style was an old standby up until roughly the mid-70s. Then the bait dropped off the radar and you’d be hard pressed to find anyone younger than 40 who knows what one is.
The bait is a lure that’s best fished deep. Yes it’ll catch fish fished as you would a standard spinnerbait but where it shines is in deep ledge fishing. As a drop bait, it’s hard to beat – which brought me to the question, “is anyone making them anymore?”
Well, a quick search on the internet proved that I was wrong in assuming the bait had been forgotten, at least by lure manufacturers. It seems that War Eagle brought the bait back to life around the 2010 timeframe and I found a few posts from then until about 2015. After that, it seems the web goes dark. I checked Lurenet’s website and there’s no sign of the bait anywhere. I guess in the purchase of the company, the bait didn’t make the chopping block. The bait was built on a 9/16-oz head and the wires appear to be fixed instead of the swivel action the Bomber model would have provided. I’ve seen other pics on the net where the head looks as if it’s a football head where in this picture, it looks like a standard spinnerbait head. Hard to tell.
It’s sad the bait appears to have been discontinued because in the right hands this style bait could be a menace. It’s been years since the fish have seen or felt this type of bait, especially in the depths, where is shines.
My next questions is, “did any of you readers use this bait?” If you did, how was your success rate? Inquiring minds are wanting to know.
Had a lot of fun rolling the Bomber Twin Spins by shallow stumps in the Kings River (Central California) in the late 70’s.
Dave, I had no clue you lived in CA? That’s cool. I never threw the Bomber bait but did throw another local bait made by Rip Nunnery called the Double Bass Boober.
Those were my Navy days at Naval Air Station Lemoore Ca.