I'd like to pass along an old family secret. My uncle Bob married his cousin (oops..wrong secret!) :naughty: Anyways, this is the legit secret.....
Many moons ago (maybe 40 years) my dad came up with an idea to slow down the revolutions of a spinner blade. Given a choice, all salmon species along with steelhead and trout prefer slower moving lures. Slower moving targets imitate injured baitfish. Very few predator fish can catch healthy baitfish and they depend on injured fish to feed on. Commercially made spinners (in my opinion) generally revolve too fast, regardless of your retrieval speed. I've often thought that most commercial lures are designed to catch more fishermen rather than fish, with their fancy packaging and all.
If you make your own spinners, what I am going to say is easy. If you don't, first of all you should try it..its easy and very satisfying when you catch a fish on your own creation (just Google 'lure making' and you should find some good info or ask me). Even if you don't make your own, you can modify commercial spinners.
In order to slow the revs of a spinner blade down, you need to make it heavier and to do that, the simplest way is to solder a second blade onto the first one.
Again, if you make your own, just solder a second blade on. If you buy spinners, go to a sporting goods store and buy some spinner blades the same size and shape as the spinners you have... then just solder a second one on.
As far as colours go, fish GENERALLY hit a lure from behind. So you want the dominant colour to be the back blade. It therefore doesn't matter if you have a silver spinner blade to which you solder a brass second blade behind it (if you want brass to be the dominant colour). Having said that, fish will sometimes quarter into a blade from the front and will see only the front blade but thats fishing and guessing what colour works on any given day. Its highly unlikely though they will hit a spinner head on. Why? Because throughout their life, they have survived on stealth and surprise to eat and most baitfish would easily escape the predator if they could see it coming.
Blade colour is a whole new topic so the main thing here is, if you want to slow down the revs of a spinner blade to make it more enticing, make it heavier. Weighing the body down makes the lure heavier but does nothing for blade revolutions.
When you are on the pick and letting the lure do its thing in the current (which I like), the difference between a single blade and a double one is almost comparable to a sport boat prop versus a big ship one. If you can't count the revs, you are fishing too fast. You want that blade to almost hang at the top of the rev before slooowly sliding down and almost groaning to make it back to the top of the arc. When you have the spinner doing that, cohoes, springs and chums will go out of their way to smack it. Its not unlike fishing a colorado under a float..same idea.
Its been real tough fishing cohoes these past couple of years and this year appears to be about the same. Hopefully, this idea will help harvest a few more. :thumbup:
Many moons ago (maybe 40 years) my dad came up with an idea to slow down the revolutions of a spinner blade. Given a choice, all salmon species along with steelhead and trout prefer slower moving lures. Slower moving targets imitate injured baitfish. Very few predator fish can catch healthy baitfish and they depend on injured fish to feed on. Commercially made spinners (in my opinion) generally revolve too fast, regardless of your retrieval speed. I've often thought that most commercial lures are designed to catch more fishermen rather than fish, with their fancy packaging and all.
If you make your own spinners, what I am going to say is easy. If you don't, first of all you should try it..its easy and very satisfying when you catch a fish on your own creation (just Google 'lure making' and you should find some good info or ask me). Even if you don't make your own, you can modify commercial spinners.
In order to slow the revs of a spinner blade down, you need to make it heavier and to do that, the simplest way is to solder a second blade onto the first one.
Again, if you make your own, just solder a second blade on. If you buy spinners, go to a sporting goods store and buy some spinner blades the same size and shape as the spinners you have... then just solder a second one on.
As far as colours go, fish GENERALLY hit a lure from behind. So you want the dominant colour to be the back blade. It therefore doesn't matter if you have a silver spinner blade to which you solder a brass second blade behind it (if you want brass to be the dominant colour). Having said that, fish will sometimes quarter into a blade from the front and will see only the front blade but thats fishing and guessing what colour works on any given day. Its highly unlikely though they will hit a spinner head on. Why? Because throughout their life, they have survived on stealth and surprise to eat and most baitfish would easily escape the predator if they could see it coming.
Blade colour is a whole new topic so the main thing here is, if you want to slow down the revs of a spinner blade to make it more enticing, make it heavier. Weighing the body down makes the lure heavier but does nothing for blade revolutions.
When you are on the pick and letting the lure do its thing in the current (which I like), the difference between a single blade and a double one is almost comparable to a sport boat prop versus a big ship one. If you can't count the revs, you are fishing too fast. You want that blade to almost hang at the top of the rev before slooowly sliding down and almost groaning to make it back to the top of the arc. When you have the spinner doing that, cohoes, springs and chums will go out of their way to smack it. Its not unlike fishing a colorado under a float..same idea.
Its been real tough fishing cohoes these past couple of years and this year appears to be about the same. Hopefully, this idea will help harvest a few more. :thumbup:
but one that wobbles then flutters then wobbles again is even better.
