A spinnerbait is a spinnerbait, right? Well…Not really. There are different wire thicknesses, different hardware,different blade sizes, different head shapes, different weights and different kinds of skirts. Brothers Bait Company proved that different arm materials, like cable, can make them more effective too. Different can be better!
There have been some very unique nuances in spinnerbait designs over the years that companies have tried. For example, Lunker Lure created the VibraTron bladed spinnerbait that Elite pro Gary Klein believes is the best spinnerbait ever made. It had a very different style main blade that thumped like a teenagers car sitting at a stop sign. That one is for another “Under the Radar” down the road. The Stanley Wedge was different too. A tapered thin wire gave it more vibration. The Horizon spinnerbait incorporated a minnow shaped head into the mix and Terminator used titanium to create a completely new genre of spinnerbaits that consumers clammored for.
Louisville, Kentucky’s Brothers Bait Company created the Limberneck spinnerbait that used a cable on the blade end of the bait to undulate and be more weedless. Ken Montgomery was the designer of this very speical bait. They used the cable design in conjuction with an R-Bend that was relatively new to the marketplace as well. When they hit the market these baits were hotter than a two dollar pistol for several years. Not only did they look different but anglers saw that fish found them different too. They came in multiple sizes from 1/4 to 1/2 and the conical bullet shaped head, also very different from others on the market at the time.
The Limberneck was very unique for several other reasons as well. No one had ever used cable for the arm before, several major tournaments were won on it because of its action and weedlessness. The skirts were hand tied with a waterproof thread that gave the skirt a much different look in the water and it was one of the first spinnerbaits that combined subtleness with an agressive technique. On a stop and go retrieve it pulsed. Not just the skirt, mind you, but the entire bait. Combined with a Limberneck split tail trailer this bait ran true and several of the blade combinations gave it different actions. For instance, the Colorado/Indiana blade combo was great for flash and matching the hatch. The hammered willow leaf combined with a Colorado blade worked great around grass and the single willow worked great around rocks and brush. The single spin Colorado was great for muddy water and was a go-to bait for river anglers.
What happened to the Limberneck?
Brothers sold to Luhr Jensen several years ago and the marketing of the Limberneck went away. Luhr Jensen had hundreds of skews, mainly aligned in the trout and salmon industries, and the Limberneck spinnerbait and Buzzard Buzz Bait, another cool Brothers creation, went into the bit bucket. Luhr Jensen was then sold to Rapala. The Limberneck was discontinued before they were sold to Rapala.
The Limberneck is very difficult to find but if you have some of them you know just how good they can be.
A spinnerbait isn’t just a spinnerbait and Limberneck proved that different can indeed be better.
