THE ANATOMY OF A SPINNER

Spinners are generally very similar. They all have a central stem, a weighted nose cone for casting, a hook and, of course, the blade itself. Here’s a quick guide to these key elements... 1 NOSE CONE: This adds casting weight and dictates how quickly the lure sinks. Spinners range from 1g to 30g-plus. When selecting the correct weight, ask yourself how fast you want to retrieve. As spinners don’t dive, the heavier ones will sink faster when you stop winding. The heavier the spinner, the further it will cast. Carry a number of different weight lures so you have a choice on the day. 2 BLADE: The blade is what makes a spinner a spinner! The smallest size is ‘0’, the most commonly-found largest examples are a ‘6’. The only downside with spinners is that regardless of the weight, they will generally only run to a maximum depth of around 4ft. This is due to water pressure acting upon the blade, which imparts lift, so a spinner, even if allowed to fall to the bottom, will always quickly rise as it is retrieved. You can stop winding and let the bait fall when fishing deeper water, but generally spinners are best fished in water less than 8ft deep. 3 COLOUR: This is a key factor. Traditionally, spinners were silver, brass and copper-coloured. These days, however, you get them in an assortment of colours. I think colour plays a big part in the effectiveness of a particular bait on any given day. In clear water I would start with silver or gold, while if the water was coloured I’d swap to something brighter, such as a chartreuse, orange or hot pink Certain colours work better depending upon what is naturally hatching. If a particular insect is emerging, an orange spinner could work best as it resembles the colour of the hatching bug. If the sun is bright and the water clear, a silver spinner could flash too much and spook fish rather than enticing them. In this scenario I favour a copper or brass spinner, because they are more subtle. 4 HOOK: Traditionally, spinners were always rigged with a single treble hook, but with recent advances in technology Blue Fox is starting to produce spinners with single hooks. These are easier for anglers to deal with, especially when handling fish such as pike. Trebles tend to bring more confidence as there are three points to grab hold, but I find ‘strikes’ tend to be so hard that a single is just as good.

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