About a year ago, as a gag, I came up with a hookless spinner - just a big split ring on the end.
Forums continue to debate the merits of treble vs single, barbed vs barbless, not to forget lip hooking, gill hooking, and deep hooking. This spinner is a game changer.
Even made up a fishing game - Strikes and Spares. No catch and release. No catch and keep. No catch, just Strike... and spare the fish.
Here's how Strikes n Spares is supposed to work.
You get a point for each sighted strike and two points when the same fish hits it more than once on a single cast.
The splitring gives the fish something to chomp into, without getting hooked. Will they spit it out or run with it? Game on!
I decided to try it last summer up in Estes Park. Where? on Fish Creek of course.
Well, I got to tell you it was fun. Rarely did I only get a single point. Most fish hit it numerous times without fail, following and hitting it until I lifted the spinner out of the water. I lost track of the score. I didn't catch any, but I taught a bunch of brookies how to chase a spinner. I think they were having fun with it.
No fish pictures.No snags either. Got to try it yourself or rig a couple up for your kids try while honing their casting skills.
Not a spoof, seriously... it was fun.
Stop by Fish Creek Spinners Web Store and check out it's new format!
I might try to use some netting inside the splitring next outing. Kind of like the stuff an onion bag is made from. Just thread it on the ring and trim it down.
Think I'll catch one?
3 comments:
Now that is interesting. I have read that fish will spit a lure when they feel something hard when chomping down on it. On the other hand there are a lot of successful lures out there trailing bare hooks that catch many fish. I'm thinking in particular of Dick Nites, Thomas Buoyants, Lake Clear Wabblers...metalic spoons with bare I sometimes use in tandem with my own rigs.
With the netting, one might even land a fish that is a bit toothy and gets tangled in the netting.
Yeah, I think it might catch one, lol.
I saw a PBS show on catching Needlefish in South America. A tribesman technique passed down by generations. Needlefish have hundreds of teeth, but a very very small mouths. These guys collected a certain spiders web, balled it up on a bait somehow and it would catch these fish. The web strong enough to hold the weight. Fish looked about 3 feet long.
I saw that show too, and it was PBS I believe. I couldn't figure out how they made it work, but sure enough they were catching fish with that setup, and probably had been for a 100 years. Pretty cool.
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