INLINE SPINNERS FOR SUNNIES IN MOVING WATER

Spinners, Sunnies & Moving Water

Summertime gills are notoriously tough in southern reservoirs when the water temp gets high and oxygen levels are lower.  If it's getting tougher where you're fishing and you don't want to fish deep and slow with a dropshot and live bait, go to the river or a creek.  Those places have cooler water temps and fish are always more active not to mention shallow and easier to find. 

When fishing rivers, creeks and streams very few lures are
suited as well as an inline spinner for moving water.  Everybody that knows me knows I'm a beetle spin guy, but sometimes especially in open water with fewer wood cover snags and less grass, a inline spinner is golden!  The numbers of fish that commit to an inline spinner that won't touch a jig or other lures can be mind blowing at times. 

Rooster Tails, Mepps, Panther Martin and others are all
great and have different characteristics.  Some work slow better than others and some more shallow than others so don't just use one type.  Experiment with different blade shapes and weights.  Some of my favorites are the Blue Fox Vibrax spinner in a #0 or #1 size with a single hook.  You can add a soft plastic or tie a fly or piece of hair on them for more color/attraction.  Black, chartreuse and the minnow colors are my favorite.  Mepps makes a small spinner with a fly on a single hook.  It's a fish catcher for sure.  My son has so much confidence in a yellow rooster tail with a silver blade that it's the only one he buys.  And he catches tons of fish on it. 

I'm not crazy about treble hooks when fishing for Sunnies.  I usually cut one of them off to make a double hook.  They are just way easier to unhook that way.  Another inline spinner that is under the radar in much of the country is the Joe's Flies spinner, though it has a cult following in Appalachia. My favorite is black wooly worm in 1/8 oz.  It's bigger than most spinners I use for Sunnie's but it has a tiny treble stinger hook with a little puff of red marabou on it and it nabs gills that follow and nip at it.  Plus, the number of smallmouth and rock bass you catch is a bonus.  Some of my biggest redbreasts have come on this spinner.  I know I said I didn't like trebles but this one is tiny and doesn't fill their mouth so you can get it out easy enough. 

Too hot to fish? Nope, go slide into a river and wet wade in a old pair of tennis shoes and shorts with a tiny box of lures in your shirt pocket.  And make sure you got some spinners.  It's the best way to spend a hot summer day and sure beats work or sitting on the couch.

Shared by Troy Seal on Bluegill Network FB