I wrote this piece last fall with late summer and early fall river smallies in mind however, due to circumstances most of you never saw it. I am presenting it here again to kick off the rapidly approaching trout season. Trout fishing is how I first got aquainted with the Thomas Spinner. They account for the lions share of my open water trout every year. They really are a broad spectrum general purpose lure, if you read the article below you will get an idea just how versitile they are!
FM

The Thomas Spinner is a spinner of distinction It is inexpensive, readily available, durable and has a unique finish. The Thomas Spinner comes in several styles and weights that yeild themselves to a variety of fishing situations and presentations. The styles that are available involve the spinner blade types: there is a willow leaf style a Colorado style and a tandom blade rig with two small Colorado blades. The finish on the blades is where I believe the magic lies. The finish is a mix of highly polished gold and silver. The center shaft of the spinner is flexible wire threaded on this are brass beads and a couple of flourescent red beads for added contrast. The willow leaf style is valuable in special situations such as deep or swift waters. The slim willow leaf blade slips through current without a terrible amount of resistance, slow down your retrieve and the spinner will sink deeper quickly.

I have, after years of using these lures developed a preference for the wider flashier Colorado style, Colorado blades seem to me to be much more controlable. The thing is the control, you can reel very, very slow and still have blade rotation and vibration. Another thing nice is that they seen to skip over rocks, the wide swing of the Colorado blade seems to hit the rocks and stall the spinner for an instant, you can definately read the rock hit and adjust your retrieve speed to raise the spinner a bit. The Thomas Colorado has become my go to lure for all my stream and river fishing between the months of May and the end of September, they will produce earlier and later than that but ultimately water temps dictate how active the fish will be. I have found that when the waters cool I do better with jigs or slowly cranked Rapalas.

Spinners fill a spot in my arsenal like no other lure, they get down to bottom and if worked right I can go for hours with out loosing one. This ability to work close to bottom with flash and vibration really comes in handy when working rock covered river bottoms, at about 2 bucks a pop a lost Thomas is much less expensive than a pricey Rapala. I recently came up with a new technique for working my spinners and getting them even closer to and hugging bottom without hanging up. Any of you who has fished with leadhead jigs probably knows that the way to tell the very instant that your jig hits bottom is to watch the line. As the jig sinks it keeps the line taught, when it contacts bottom the line goes slack. I have been doing this with the Thomas Spinners, I allow the spinner to sink straight to bottom then, begin to reel quickly for a few turns untill I feel the spinner blade kick in. Then, I slow the retrieve to the speed I want to fish it at. This works because the line is hanging almost straight down, when you begin to reel, the line lifts the spinner up rather than dragging it over the bottom and snagging. There is a lot to be said for sticking with a lure that works for you. As you use it you become familiar with the weight and feel of the lure.

Overtime, you will start to have insights into the relationship between yourself the lure and the fish. Need another reason to try the Thomas, it is made right here in Hawley, PA. No I do not have a relationship with the manufacturer, but I should, right. That's all the preaching for now, go fishin and enjoy the Spring weather.

FM