Welcome aboard, G&F. Glad you found us.
J-bass
I'm best on a river or a stream with my spinners, but I usually do alright on stillwater. The biggest "trick" I've noticed when fishing stillwater with a spinner (usually a Blue Fox #2 in brass) is to get an understanding of how that particular water wants me to retrieve. Sounds silly, but it's the major factor as to how well I do with my hardware.
At some waters, I have to reel in pretty fast and others will be slow. It also may change with the direction that I'm casting. If I cast to my left I may feel the action through my rod is just right at a slow steady retrieve, but to get that same feel through the rod on my right side, I may have to reel in just a little bit faster.
The only constant part of it (with a spinner) is to keep a firm grip with your rod hand and a steady crank with your reel hand.
With rapalas, it's an entirely different world. Sometimes a smooth retrieve is what works and sometimes you have to move your rod around or twitch the tip or walk with it...Open book that I'm not too good at reading yet.
A Jake's can score you some fish with a pretty steady speed interrupted with a couple of twitches and a short pause every once in awhile. Once you get a few hits, you'll get the feel of what's working on that water, that day.
On a river, tossing that BF#2 is solid gold for me. I catch fish casting upstream and downstream. Both take a different retrieve.
Casting upstream is usually the most effective because the fish can't really see you coming, usually. The key is to read where the fish will be in the current, but you can get this after a little while. Normally, hitting the invisible line where fast water meets slow water (often along side obstructions in the current) can produce. Also tossing into pockets of calm water behind obstructions (boulders, logs, shopping carts, corpses *Jordan River* :lol: ) and reeling in just faster than the current works well.
When you're going against the current, you'll have to be a little sneakier and you'll have to reel in much more slowly. If you see your spinner hopping on top, slow down or stop for a sec while the current spins it and lets it down into the column. Work the same types of areas and "swim" your spinner back and forth periodically until you can find your groove. If you swim it into bubbles and wash, you'll probably need to crank a little faster or swim it out to the seam where the bubbles end to get hookups. Those areas can toss your lure around and stop your blade from spinning sometimes.
Sorry to ramble. I should probably get back to work. :lol: