By: Mark Romanack
The SpinFish is a unique cut-plug design that allows anglers to stuff the lure with cut bait, scent products or a combination of both.
The SpinFish a rotating style plug produced by Yakima Bait Company is quietly becoming one of the most productive ways of catching salmon and trout. In the Pacific Northwest the SpinFish is already legendary and here in the Great Lakes more and more anglers every year are discovering how to boat more fish by implementing these cut-plugs into their trolling program.
FEATURES
What sets the SpinFish apart from other cut-plugs is the two part design that allows anglers to pop the SpinFish open and fill the cavity with cut bait, scent products such as Pro Cure Super Gel or a combination of both. The scent stream in the water created by the SpinFish is a powerful reason why this product catches so many trout and salmon.
SpinFish is also produced in a host of excellent colors designed for targeting chinook salmon, coho, lake trout, brown trout and other salmonids. A few of the colors that have consistently worked for the Fishing 411 crew include Double Trouble, Silver FireTiger, Silver Blue Scale and Silver Chartreuse Scale.
The SpinFish also comes pre-rigged in the package making it super easy to fish in combination with popular attractors such as the Fish Flash, dodgers and a host of rotating paddles.
SpinFish comes in several sizes, but the three inch size is hands down the best overall producer on salmon and trout in the Great Lakes region.
RIGGING DETAILS
The SpinFish produces best on salmon when the harness is cut to approximately 30 inches in length and fished behind a 11 inch rotating paddle. The rotator and SpinFish combination can be fished on downriggers, diving planers and also sinking lines such as lead core, stranded copper wire and weighted stainless steel wire.
This monster chinook salmon was caught recently by Jake Romanack using a 3 inch SpinFish in combination with an 11 inch Pro Troll paddle. A downrigger was used to deploy the rig.
TROLLING SPEEDS
The SpinFish produces consistently good results at 2.0 to 2.5 MPH, but the best trolling speed is often 2.2 MPH. Because SpinFish works well at a variety of speeds, these baits can easily be mixed into a trolling presentation that includes plugs, dodger flies, spoons, spinners and other popular salmon lures.
SUMMING IT UP
The SpinFish incorporates not only fish attracting colors and action, but also a natural scent stream that closes the deal on trout and salmon. An alternative to expensive meat rigs, give the SpinFish a try and see what all the excitement is about.