Man, spinners are still my favorite and most fish-catching lure ever. As a little boy on vacation in Northern Wisconsin, I met my childhood fishing buddy who lived on a lake up there. I learned everything about lure fishing from him since my dad had moved to California while I was still fishing a bobber and worms. My mom would drive me and my little sister from Chicago to the lake up north where she’d befriended Jimmy’s parents and we rented one of their cabins every summer for two weeks. I was nuts about fishing and couldn’t wait to see Jimmy again. At 10 years old, he was a “professional fisherman” compared to me, since he lived on this lake. He didn’t seem to have any friends his age (I never saw anyone our age on the lake), so I really think I was his only real friend. Kinda sad but he really lived in the boonies with his family, miles from the nearest tiny town. I was from the big city and dreamed of living like he did. As soon as our car pulled up to their cottage, Jimmy would come running up. “You’re back! Let’s go fishing!” Jimmy was a spinner aficionado. Mepp’s was the top brand and he had a few of every size. I had a few spinners that didn’t have a brand name, but also a couple Rooster Tails, and Jimmy assured me they’d work as long as I could get them spinning. The trick was, to cast the lure out and give it a yank to get the spinner working. If you don’t feel any resistance and “hum” on the line, it’s not spinning and you just wasted a perfectly nice cast. So I learned how to get the spinner spinning and “perfected” the art like a 10 year old pro. We caught everything from bluegills, rock bass, crappie, and large mouth bass on spinners in that lake where trout didn’t live. Never caught anything on my frog lures, Rapalas, fancy spinner baits, but a simple Rooster Tail or Mepps 1 would always catch fish. Later in California, I caught trout on spinners. When I moved to Hawaii, nobody there had even seen a spinner before, and I caught Papio and Lai, in the ocean with them. So a spinner works everywhere. No question. I’ve gotten much more sophisticated in my fishing after 60 years but I started with spinners and they just work when so many other lures won’t. Thanks for the great content my friend and reminding me of my youth up in Wisconsin.
@@whitewhiteboy89 , Not sure what happened to Jimmy. I think I was around 12 when I saw him last. In the 70’s nobody had a telephone up in the woods. We just lost touch as everyone seemed to back then. But I picture him in his 60’s sitting on that same pier and wondering whatever happened to me? Life is fun my friend.
Always used straight fluorocarbon and no swivel for so long and only had the issue of line twist and caught plenty of trout just fine… watched this video and thought I’d try it on my St. Croix 6’6” Medium Light fast action. Have never used braid much I wasn’t sure what to expect. Long story short I went out and was super pleased with the cast ability of the 10 lb braid and also felt the spinner thumping much easier with the barrel swivel on and ended up catching a new PB rainbow! Thank you for the great information and helping me mix up my rig/tactics!
Started using Panther Martin’s a great many years ago on small, intimate streams and creeks in California’s Sierras. True ultralight rig: 4 1/2 foot one piece rod; Cardinal 752 or Black Max with 4# mono. Lots of underhand casting on deep pool heads, or longer, shallower runs punctuated with perfect rocks for voracious Browns (originally planted in ‘40’s!), Bows and Brooks. Browns dominate via aggression and smarts. One big change I make to the spinners is removing the trebles and replacing with single Siwash hooks. Does that make the fishing more productive and/or easier? Nope! But I find trebles make catch and release far more difficult in smaller trout tissue and lips, and I’m not out there to count catch, or return them exhausted. Those beauties pick the most beautiful places in the world to make a living, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of it.
The biggest game changer that I have added to all my spinners, tie on a tail, maribou, flash, synthetic hair, anything, I found gold spinners with with maribou have caught me the most fish consistently, the ones that come with a pre-tied 'tail' don't work very good or at all, I run size 0-2 and 1/32 - 1/4 oz on almost all of the rivers and streams in northern Michigan, I got my master angler brookie in the pigeon river forest, 16 1/2 inch with a number 2 gold mepps with a white maribou tail I tied on two years ago
Great video, I unfortunately didn't make it up to my northern Michigan trout steam this year to throw mine at them. Loved your content and will try some of your styles of fishing spinner baits for trout this coming summer. Getting ready to head up there to set up some deer stands now that trout seasons over here. lol
It’s a 20 minute video. If you had watched the whole thing and paid any attention whatsoever you definitely would have heard quite a bit about size choice.
