All Around Angler

Most of you who have a habit of reading the All Around Angler website on a regular basis have heard of Eric “E-Dog” Koenig. Eric is an avid finesse river angler of all methods. He’s willing to travel to find fish and he’s pretty darn quiet about his exploits. I always feel lucky when Eric sends an article my way. Enjoy!

“A nice bend on spinners”

By Eric Koenig

As I was beating some brush looking for some unfished water, in search of some silvers on my home river I finally came upon a pool with a few logs making some great holding water. I cast out my spinner behind the logs and methodically worked it back towards me. Just as my spinner was about halfway between me and the logs my line went slightly slack and just as it did I set the hook. Vicious headshakes and thrashing were followed by my hookset and the battle was very short and swift as I banked a blushed 10lb Hatchery hen.



This take on my spinner would have gone unnoticed to those who fish spinners very rarely but because of my soft and slow action rod I was able to feel the line go slack. Spinners are a very effective lure when fishing for any species of fish. They give off enough light to draw fish near in interest or in hopes to destroy this thing that has invaded their area. Spinners can be fished in just about any type of water. I love fishing spinners for silvers as most do here in the Pacific Northwest. I fish mainly blue fox spinners, Wordens Vibric, and mepps spinners. I always fish them with a single siwash hook. The siwash hook makes the hookups more solid and it is easier to release the fish I don’t want to keep. There is always a line twist problem when fishing spinners’. Line twist buildup can inhibit us from keeping our line in the water and ultimately leave us very frustrated at the end of the day.


The spinner on the left is slightly bent preventing line twist whereas the one on the right is straight and does not

There are many ways to counteract this line twist and one of them is attaching a swivel to the end of your line. Yes attaching a swivel will reduce some line twist and will keep you fishing longer. I used to have a swivel at the end of my line until I learned a trick about bending the spinners. A trick I picked up a while ago is to take the spinner shaft body and slightly bend it to one side as shown in the picture. When you bend the body of the spinner it reduces the line twist and only keeps the blade spinning instead of the whole spinner. Rarely with this little bend will you incur line twist and it will keep you fishing all day long. Do not bend the spinner shaft too much as it will not work properly. Another tip is to use a small mcman snap at the end of your line in order to change spinners when need be.

Tight Lines

-AAA Pro-Staff Eric Koenig