Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Adrian-Webbs-Trout-Tips » Retrieve Tips
Retrieve Tips
By Adrian Webb
When spin fishing with metal blade spinners it's important to get used to the feel of a spinner working in a river. Once you've cast upstream and started the retrieve, you should feel a light drag as you retrieve it. This is a sign that the blade is spinning. If you don't feel this then your spinner is not working and you're not going to catch anything.
It doesn't happen all the time, but if and when it does this is when I tweak the spinner blade. To 'tweak' a spinner blade it's just a matter of getting the small bent nose pliers from your fishing vest (in which most trout fishers have) and place the blade between the open pliers and gently squeeze them as to flatten the metal spin blade. Most spin blades have a small concave to them and I have found that by flattening them, when you don't feel the slight drag on the retrieve, it will get them spinning again, especially with fast water fishing, when retrieving the spinner back downstream with the flow.
Another thing that happens quite often on a retrieve is that you may feel the drag working okay and then every now and then you may feel that the drag of the spinner stops and starts. Well, when this happens it's usually a sign that there is a fish up close to the back of the lure and this causes the blade to stop spinning occasionally. This is when I lift the rod tip slightly and then lower it straight back down again, more often than not resulting in a strike from the fish. Nine times out of ten the fish will take the lure as it drops because this creates a real flutter of the spinner's blade, enticing the trout to strike.
This is something that the more experienced spin fisherman will pick up in an instant, it can take the novice spin fisher some time to get the feel of this. Then they may never notice it either. The more one gets in a river and spin fishers with a metal blade spinner, the more they will get to know the workings of it a lot better. Never be frightened to try something different from time to time as you never know it may just bag you a trout.
Cheers,
Adrian (meppstas) Webb