Spinner Fishing - 3 Of The Most Effective Inline Spinners

If you spend any serious amount of time on the water attempting to catch fish, you undoubtedly know how effective insects can be as bait, but unless you are a fly fisherman, insect imitation baits can be hard to find and difficult to use. This is where inline spinners and spinner fishing come into play. For spin fishermen inline spinners can be as effective as artificial flies for fooling hungry fish, whether you are talking about trout, large and smallmouth bass, pan fish or even steelhead.
While there are various spinner fishing techniques that can be employed while using inline spinners, it is vitally important that you have an effective spinner choice attached to the end of your line. I have been using these unique fishing lures for more than twenty years and in that time have tried what seems like hundreds of different inline spinners while spinner fishing. Below I will outline 3 of the most effective choices so that you can make sure you've got one or all of them available to you the next time that you head out onto the water.

1. Worden's Rooster Tail - The Original, Tinsel, or Gold Blade Rooster Tail's fish-catching ability and construction is legendary. Superb detailing, excellent coloring and the hand-tied hackle tail provide a bait with as much detail as a hand-tied fly, which can take virtually any spinner fishing technique "to the next level."


2. Panther Martin Spinners - Panther Martin Original, Red Hook, Dressed, and FishSeeUv spinners are time tested and proven as being some of the best fishing lures for spinner fishing that can be found anywhere. The blades of these lures have a convex/concave design that literally attracts fish to them.


3. Mepps Aglia & Black Fury - The Mepps Aglia spinner is the original French spinner and has caught more trophy fish than any other inline spinner. You can get them plain, dresses, or w/ their popular "black fury" blades, all of which are effective for almost any species of freshwater fish.

The bottom line is that inline spinners and spinner fishing need to be a part of every serious spin fisherman's arsenal and the aforementioned choices are all "must haves."

Casting Trout Spinners

For the spin fisherman who enjoys fishing for and catching trout, such as rainbow, brown, and brook trout, one of the most effective techniques that can be employed involves casting small spinners. Casting trout spinners effectively involves more than simply casting a spinner into the water and retrieving that spinner if you want to consistently catch trout and in this article I will reveal some tips and tricks that will help you take your spinner fishing to the next level.

The first tip is to always tie your spinner directly to the end of your fishing line. If you are worried about your line becoming twisted, a small barrel swivel can be tied onto the end of your line and then a twelve to twenty four inch leader should be added with the spinner being tied to the end of the leader. Try not to use a snap swivel as it can disrupt the natural action of the spinner.

Next, make sure that you are using very light fishing line (I prefer two or four pound test) anytime that you are casting trout spinners. Trout have very keen eyesight and will shy away from anything that appears "out of the ordinary" and visible fishing line would certainly qualify as something "out of the ordinary" and will cost you bites from inquisitive trout.

The depth at which you fish your spinner is of the utmost importance as well and there are two ways to add weight to your line anytime that you are casting trout spinners. One is by adding a little lead tape twelve or so inches above the spinner itself and the other is by adding a few split shot sinkers to your line the same distance from the spinner. Although it's sometimes more difficult to find, lead tape is the better choice as it gets "hung up" much less often than split shot sinkers.

Finally, make sure that you vary the speed and motion at which you retrieve your spinner. You never know what "action" the trout will prefer on a particular day, so experiment with your retrieve until you find the method that's working best for the day that you are casting spinners. As you are reeling your spinner in try "snapping" your rod tip from time to time. This action imitates a wounded bait fish and often triggers a bite from a hungry trout. Make sure that you add these simple tips and tricks to your trout fishing memory bank for the next time that you head out casting spinners for trout.

How To Use A Spinner To Catch Rainbow Trout

There are many baits and lures that can be used to catch a rainbow trout, but one choice has more versatility that most of the others, the spinner. In line spinners have been known to be effective fishing lures to use for rainbow trout for what seems like forever and in this article I will outline how to use a spinner to catch rainbow trout so that you can experience success the next time that you head out onto the water.

The first thing that we need to discuss is the rod, reel, and fishing line that you use to "fish" your spinner. You want to be able to cast your spinner straightly and accurately and some times need to cast long distances so an ultra light fishing rod that is at least six and a half feet long is in order. This rod should be matched with an ultra light reel that holds at least 100 yards of four pound test fishing line, which is the weight of line that should be used whenever you use a spinner attempt to catch a rainbow trout.

Next we have the spinner itself. I prefer Panther Martin or Rooster Tail spinners when it comes to fishing for "rainbows", and Mepps and Blue Fox make quality trout spinners as well. A key to success is having a variety of sizes and color/blade choices available to you when you are on the water so that you can experiment to find the best choice to use on a particular day of fishing. Some effective color choices to use when fishing for rainbow trout are blacks, browns, silver, or gold with blades that are silver, gold, or even black. As you experiment you will find that each spinner will perform differently under the water.

If you want to know how to use a spinner to catch rainbow trout you need to know how to attach said spinner to the end of your line. Inexperienced trout fishermen will make the mistake of tying a snap swivel to the end of their line and "snapping" their spinner to the snap swivel. This is a big mistake that should be avoided at all costs. You see attaching an inline spinner directly to a snap swivel will ruin the action of the in-line spinner and cost you bites from hungry rainbows. In order to not interfere with the action of the spinner, you always want to tie your spinner directly to the end of your line. If you do this the spinner will perform as it was designed to perform without any impediments.

What about the best size spinner to use when fishing for rainbow trout? In almost all cases the phrase "smaller is better" is something that should be kept in the back of your mind. 1/16 to 1/4 of an ounce is normally the size range to stay in when fishing for rainbow trout. Occasionally you may way to step up to a 3/8 or even 1/2 ounce but this is only if the trout are large and feeding actively.

Finally we have the way in which you "fish" the inline spinner. Whether you are using your spinner in a lake or a river, a straight retrieve is rarely the most effective way to use an inline spinner. Varying the speed of your retrieve and even using a stop and start action when retrieving a spinner is almost always more effective when attempting to catch rainbow trout. In rivers, casting parallel to the current and slowly retrieving the spinner back through the current is the most common technique. Some experienced trout fishermen who use a reel with a fast gear ratio will even fish spinners with the current at a very fast speed (normally the same speed or a little faster than the river is flowing) to trigger feeding rainbows into biting.

Whatever type of spinner or technique that you choose to employ, the bottom line is that you now know you know hoe to use a spinner to catch a rainbow trout.