Fishing a spinner in a river

[OldTimer]

I rarely use swivels on smaller spinners.

Here’s a few things I do to get rid of, or reduce line twist tangling problems:

I would imagine many of you if on a lake have done the speed dragging of your bare twisted line behind the boat to “unspin” twisted lines.

If you’re wading a river do the same thing using the river’s current – just remove your lure – open the bail and let out about 10 or more yards than your longest cast – the water will pull the line downstream and the drag of the current will untwist the line – takes only a few minutes. Giving a bunch of long sharp tugs on the line will speed the process.

You can do a partial job of minimizing twist if it gets real annoying if you are bank fishing and can’t let line run down the river – but have a clearing of about 30 to 40 yards long available on shore. Just hook your lure on a tree branch or such, open your bail and walk away in a straight line at least twice as long as your longest cast. Give the line five or six sharp tugs then rewind it in (you just spread the twist out along the line – cutting the problem by at least 50%). Not the best fix but can reduce the cursing when it gets bad and make things manageable.

The above tricks also help solve the problem of line getting too loosely wound on your reel when spinner fishing.

Or - On a weekend at home– do a version of the above on a local soccer field to actually reverse the line on the spool. Tie it to the goal post – walk the line off to nothing towards the other goal post, or around it (use a towel on the post to protect the line here) and back as necessary – cut it off – walk back to the other post tied end, then tie it on and wind it back on the spool. What’s neat here is that future twisting will actually be reverse to that on the line. This trick is also great for extending the life of old line by putting the seldom used backing on top.

Last option – carry a loaded spare spool for your reel.

Cheers,

OldTimer