Anglers shouldn't overlook spinners during fall action
In an arena inundated with technically advanced artificial baits, it's easy to overlook the straight-shaft spinner, a lure that's been around since long before most of use ever wet our first line.
In fall's cooling waters, particularly on streams and rivers, spinners can be the best presentation going.
Fall often ushers in rain, which translates into murky water in the many streams that harbor good numbers of smallmouth bass. This is the perfect condition for using a spinner.Typically, creek and river smallmouth bass run in length from 12 to nearly 20 inches, so you should use a medium-sized spinner. A size 2 or 3 spinner.Whether you are fishing from a boat or kayak, or shore-wade fishing a creek, the basic presentation is the same.Casts should be made across the current. It's OK to angle the cast slightly upstream or downstream, but it's better if you don't cast directly in either of those two directions. It's difficult to get a spinner to "bite" in the current if you cast straight upstream and retrieve with the current.And casts made straight downstream will sometimes trigger fish, but they will often hit short, resulting in a poorly hooked bass. Many fish hooked in this manner will be lost.The best spinner water, smallmouth bass-wise, is faster to moderate current. Expect bass to be in the tail of a riffle, and even more so in the area where the faster water begins to slow down.Fish holding is this current are there to eat and tend to aggressively attack a spinner. As the water continues to cool throughout the fall, smallmouth bass will still hit spinners. But the fish will gradually relocate to slower current areas.
Many of our area's trout streams are scheduled to receive a light stocking beginning early next month. This includes the Delayed Harvest, Artificial Lures areas on Buffalo Creek, Oil Creek, Deer Creek and Pine Creek.The same presentation basics apply to stocked stream trout as with flowing water smallmouth bass: quarter your casts across the current. Anglers should expect feeding trout to be holding in rocky runs that offer ambush points where they can rush out of the current to pick off prey.Spinner size should be downsized for stocked trout. Sizes 0 and 1 provide the right profile of size, as well as the proper weight to fish the shallow depths in which feeding fish lurk. Mepps Aglias, Rooster Tails, and Panther Martins are all proven trout producers.
In the upper Midwest, muskie anglers regularly chuck big inline spinners, lures they call bucktails due to the hair dressing that commonly adorns the bait. But in this part of the country, bucktail spinners see comparatively light use by anglers. Around here, most muskie anglers troll, and bucktails are more of a casting bait.Any shortfall of use on the part of the muskie-angling community isn't because of a lack of effectiveness on the part of the lure. Bucktails are great for working around weedbeds, particularly over top of them. In the fall, weedbeds will begin to thin out, making a bucktail spinner a good choice to target the fish holding there.There are many excellent bucktails on the market. A good one to have in the box is the Blue Fox Musky Buck.Jeff Knapp is an outdoors columnist for the Butler Eagle.
