July, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
295 
that a fly-fisherman would have wound 
up his line in disgust. If you know of 
some trout stream where there is a con- 
siderable stretch of dead water filled 
with schools of fish that can never be 
tempted to bite try them some windy 
day with a spinner. 
Take your position facing the wind 
if possible; make a long cast and draw 
the spinner toward you, keeping the 
line taut by whirling your spinner. 
The fish will usually follow your spin- 
ner and strike just as you slow up to 
withdraw for another cast. I have 
yet to find the “fish that won’t bite,” 
that cannot be caught in this way. 
The spinner is the only lure I know 
that is never out of season. One year 
I was stationed on the North Fork of 
the Coeur d’ Alene in January. Some 
of the Finn lumber-jacks went out and 
made some good catches with white 
wood worms, fishing through the ice. 
I tried their system but had poor suc- 
cess. I then went to a riffle where there 
was open water, put on my spinner, 
and in less than an hour I had a string 
of fish that would have done credit to 
a warm afternoon in July. I could 
easily have had the limit but my hands 
got so cold I could not take the fish 
off the hook. 
I have fished with a spinner when the 
spring floods were at their height and 
the water so muddy that it hardly 
seemed possible that a fish could see a 
bait, and I have also fished in small 
streams where the water was so low 
that only the deepest holes would con- 
tain water enough to float a fish, and 
in both cases I have had excellent re- 
sults. 
On a small stream if the water is not 
swift and quite clear I prefer to fish 
up stream. The ideal stream for spin- 
ner fishing is the stream with a contin- 
uous number of shallow bars and deep 
holes. The most successful cast is 
made by throwing your spinner direct- 
ly across the stream if possible, having 
it strike about six inches from the op- 
posite bank and drawing it toward the 
center of the stream. Always be sure 
that a fish is not following it before 
you draw out for a new cast. The fish 
frequently follow a spinner the whole 
length of a cast and strike when you 
slow up to draw out. 
During the summer when grasshop- 
oers and frogs are jumping off the 
bank I find my trout that is ready 
for the spinner in shallow water close 
up to the bank. He generally gets the 
spinner the instant it strikes the water. 
A quick cast under a shady willow 
bunch or where the water riffles over 
a large rock will usually bring results. 
In most trout streams of the North- 
west salmon eggs are considered good 
bait, and I have tried them frequently 
with varying degrees of success. Once 
I spilled a can of eggs on a riffle by 
accident and noted that as they floated 
down into deep water they were eagerly 
devoured by the waiting trout. I bait- 
ed a hook with eggs but could get no 
strikes. I then put on a spinner and 
cast over the deep water just after 
throwing in a handful of eggs and 
caught several large fish. For late fall 
fishing I always carry a few cans of 
eggs and when I find a deep hole where 
a large school of fish has laid up for the 
winter I can aways make a good catch 
after throwing in a few handfuls of 
eggs. 
In the late fall I have also made some 
good catches of white fish on a spinner 
but one has to use a small one and fish 
deep. 
On Clear Creek, a tributary of the 
Clearwater near Stites, Idaho, I discov- 
ered, as I thought, some very large 
trout in a deep hole. The season being 
late I tried for them first with bait and 
had no luck. Then I selected a place 
where I could make a good cast and 
put on a spinner. When the spinner 
hit the water every big fish in the hole 
made a dash for it and I hooked one of 
the largest. He settled back to the 
bottom like a lump of lead. I pulled 
with every ounce of my strength. I 
thought the tackle would stand, but the 
fish exhibited no inclination to run and 
splash and try to free himself. 
I worked my way around to a bar di- 
rectly below where he was lying and 
continued to exert a steady pull on the 
line. After what seemed a long time 
the fish began to slip toward me an inch 
at a time. I kept up the steady pull 
and thought I would be able to drag 
him over the bar but when I had him 
out where the water was about six 
inches deep he gave one mighty flopi 
and the line broke. I jumped in front 
of him and began to kick and was suc- 
cessful in landing a kick that sent h i mi 
out on the bar in shallow water; them 
I threw myself over him oil all fonis 
and held him down with the weight of 
my body until I had squeezed the life 
out of him. I was somewhat surprised 
when I found that I had a large salmon 
instead of a trout. Thus I learned that 
salmon will always fight a spinner in 
the vicinity of their spawning grounds. 
Since then I have caught many salmon 
with a spinner. 
Over on the Gunnison River in Colo- 
rado I had excellent success with my 
spinners. I was there last year from 
the time the season opened until the 
middle of August. As a boy I learned 
to fish with flies on the Gunnison River 
but with a spinner I was able to outdo 
even my boyhood feats. 
The Tomeiche is one of the best 
streams for spinner fishing that I know 
of. The fish feed close to the banks 
and seldom bite on the bars as they 
do in most streams. A place where an 
irrigation ditch pours over a bank is 
sure to hold a large rainbow waiting 
for a frog to hop off the bank and a 
spinner will get him every time. 
I used larger spinners in the Gunni- 
son country than I have ever used any- 
where else because the streams are full 
of large Lochlaven trout and they have 
large hard mouths. Unless your tackle 
is strong you will come to grief. And 
it will be “the big ones that got away.” 
