A notable advance in the fishing lure art was the introduction of the V-shaped spinner arm to support a spinner connected near the main body of the lure. The basic spinnerbait is well described by Stanley in U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,041. Much effort has been devoted to improvements in spinner attachments—typically in the form of blades—for the V-shaped spinner arms. Although Stanley suggested that the portion of the V nearest the blade (sometimes called the “upper arm”) should be tapered to assume a diameter somewhat smaller than that of the portion (the lower arm) connected to the head, hook, or jig, little attention has been paid to the upper arm itself except for the occasional introduction of a clevis or swivel for additional blades, which tends to add considerably to the cost. The upper arm is usually made of straight wire, a unitary part of the V-shaped or L-shaped spinner arm as a whole.
Spinnerbait lures are generally designed to utilize the flow and motion forces—the drag—generated when the lure is moved through the water. The effects of water flowing around spinner blades have been described as shimmer, flutter, vibration, and other similar phenomena known to attract fish. The drag effects are complex, depending on numerous factors in addition to the speed at which the lure is moved through the water. Spinnerbait lures are typically weighted so they will remain oriented with the weighted head and hook on the lower portion of the V while the line is pulled at the apex and the spinner blade trails from the upper segment of the V; hence the term “upper arm.”. The shimmer and vibration obtained by structures of the prior art are primarily functions of the design and placement of spinner blades and other attachments. But see Johnson U.S. Pat. 4,011,681, showing a helical spring formed in the upper arm.
Many attempts to improve shimmer and vibration in the past have not provided results commensurate with their elaborate or costly design. There is a need for a simple, inexpensive improvement in spinnerbait design.