Spinner falls

Jszczerba07

Jszczerba07

New member
Joined
Apr 26, 2022
Messages
3
Location
Wilmington, DE
This past week I was able to fish pine creek for a few hours. We missed the main part of the hendrickson hatch, but I still caught these two on duns. Later on I got one hookup on a rusty spinner, but fish were rising all over for about 45 minutes. Any advice on fishing spinner falls or certain patterns for it would be great.
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I think the rusty spinner is my favorite fly. The rusty spinner is a great pattern for a Hendrickson spinner and most any spinner fall. Pattern, size, action and time of the evening can be a factor. Good poly wings with some Gink keeping it floating works best. I always like a little bit bigger spinner pattern than you might think you see on the water like a #12 is good. If the trout are not taking your spinner fly quickly (they usually smack spinners pretty hard) try giving it some action. Jiggle it or even skate it a little. Certainly, I would be headhunting and going after a rising trout, but always give a good drift a shot before anything else.

As the season gets later and you see bigger flies start emerging like March Brown or Grey Fox (yes I know they are the same thing) up the size of your spinner to a #10 or #8. Often, the later the evening gets the better it can be if you wait long enough.

I use a rusty spinner anytime there is a hatch as a cripple and have done incredibly well.
 
Thanks! I did use a #12 poly wing rusty spinner and targeted specific rising trout. However I didn’t try twitching it at all. I will be sure to try that next time.
Do you tie yours sparsely with the yarn and use any hackle?
 
I love rusty spinners all the way down to 18 or 20 for BWOs. However, I have drifted away from yarn wing rusty spinners and use grizzly hackle wound and cut flat underneath. I can spot them better on the water and they catch fish well. Still have a couple of yarn wing spinners in the box just because. You can use stiff CDL hackles for larger MB spinners.

Places I frequent the fish tend to take spinners in the calm flat water at the tails of pools. Therefore, need better presentations. For years I out fished my buddy when the duns were hatching in the riffles but he out fished me by a mile with the spinner fall. He always lengthened his leader to 15' and used a nice downstream reach cast to get a great presentation. Also need to pick out single fish. When there are a bunch of fish rising one can get lazy and just cast to the middle of the action. That is like shooting at random into a flock of birds. Some days you connect, but it is not the percentage play. Concentrate on a single fish at a time and try to get your fly close to the fish - fish don't always move far if there are plenty of spinners on the water. One final tip if there are huge amounts of flies on the water is that when that happens sometimes trout develop a rhythm to their feeding. Need to cast when you expect them to be up in the rhythm. If the fly drifts over when they are down they wouldn't take.

Good luck.
 
I like tying a brown body parachute with grizzly hackle to represent wings and leave a short post for visibility.
 
Leave a short post? I see what you did there.;-)
 
DaveKile said:
I think the rusty spinner is my favorite fly... If the trout are not taking your spinner fly quickly (they usually smack spinners pretty hard) try giving it some action. Jiggle it or even skate it a little. Certainly, I would be headhunting and going after a rising trout, but always give a good drift a shot before anything else...
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Yessiree!!!

My best day ever fishing a Hendrickson spinner fall happened when I utilized a technique I developed to imitate the ovipositing females.

First I created a "Skating Hendrickson" pattern which is a reddish brown or creamy reddish brown synthetic dubbed body with a wide splayed Microfibbet tail, a centrally positioned, not too tall upright dark grey poly wing and it is heavily hackled with dun hackle, palmer style like an EWC with the hackle no more than 1-1/4 the gape of the hook...

Sort of a palmer hackled thorax fly...

When I fish it, I position myself at the head of a long riffle in the middle of the stream (conveniently, where no other angler typically stations themselves) because I knew the females would be dropping down to lay their eggs, usually with tons of barely noticeable fish picking off the spinners.

I grease the end of my line and the leader all the way down to the fly, treat the fly with my floatant of choice, cast directly downstream and hold my rod up as high as I can to keep as much line & leader as possible off the water so the Skating Hendrickson just bounces on top of the broken water as I dance it forward and let it drift back.

Deadly...!!!

If you are really lucky, there will be a light breeze that allows you to just hold the rod tip high while the wind re-positions your fly.

The first time I broke out this technique on a Pocono stream I fished one day in April until after 8:30 pm because the action was so incredible, I didn't want to leave. I caught over 40 fish that evening... :)

My Skating Hendrickson and a another color combination I tie to imitate Early Black & Brown Stoneflies are a must in my early season Richardson tray.
 
Bamboozle said:
Yessiree!!!

My best day ever fishing a Hendrickson spinner fall happened when I utilized a technique I developed to imitate the ovipositing females.

First I created a "Skating Hendrickson" pattern which is a reddish brown or creamy reddish brown synthetic dubbed body with a wide splayed Microfibbet tail, a centrally positioned, not too tall upright dark grey poly wing and it is heavily hackled with dun hackle, palmer style like an EWC with the hackle no more than 1-1/4 the gape of the hook...

Sort of a palmer hackled thorax fly...

When I fish it, I position myself at the head of a long riffle in the middle of the stream (conveniently, where no other angler typically stations themselves) because I knew the females would be dropping down to lay their eggs, usually with tons of barely noticeable fish picking off the spinners.

I grease the end of my line and the leader all the way down to the fly, treat the fly with my floatant of choice, cast directly downstream and hold my rod up as high as I can to keep as much line & leader as possible off the water so the Skating Hendrickson just bounces on top of the broken water as I dance it forward and let it drift back.

Deadly...!!!

If you are really lucky, there will be a light breeze that allows you to just hold the rod tip high while the wind re-positions your fly.

The first time I broke out this technique on a Pocono stream I fished one day in April until after 8:30 pm because the action was so incredible, I didn't want to leave. I caught over 40 fish that evening... :)

My Skating Hendrickson and a another color combination I tie to imitate Early Black & Brown Stoneflies are a must in my early season Richardson tray.
Click to expand...
That’s a very unique way of fishing a spinner. I’ve Never heard of it before but sounds effective and fun to try. Thanks for the advice!
 
In addition to a spinner fall don't disregard a #16 or #14 Rusty Spinner as a general searching pattern when nothing is really on the water. Sometimes it can be productive to fish a sinking spinner also.
 
There are times that the spinners on the water have an upright wing. This is typically when they are egg laying but before death.
 
This is an example of an upright Hendrickson spinner from Penns a couple weeks ago.
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I like the Rusty Parachute. Short para-post. Over-sized grizzly hackle. Cut hackle to shape, roughly.
 
Parachute patterns are very versatile. As Sylvaneous posted they make a good spinner imitation. If you want to get "techy" you can cut a V in front and back of the wrapped hackle but I don't think it necessary.

parachutes can be tied with a Zelon shuck or tail fibers. The hackle can be wrapped around the post Concave or Convex depending how you want the fly to sit in the water. They are visible with the right color post. Use a black post for glare or "chromey" light conditions. They are not the best floating for fast water but I can usually get a good drift.
 
Bamboozle said:
Y

I grease the end of my line and the leader all the way down to the fly, treat the fly with my floatant of choice,....
Click to expand...
I do this anytime I'm fishing the surface.
 
Bamboozle said:
Yessiree!!!

My best day ever fishing a Hendrickson spinner fall happened when I utilized a technique I developed to imitate the ovipositing females.

First I created a "Skating Hendrickson" pattern which is a reddish brown or creamy reddish brown synthetic dubbed body with a wide splayed Microfibbet tail, a centrally positioned, not too tall upright dark grey poly wing and it is heavily hackled with dun hackle, palmer style like an EWC with the hackle no more than 1-1/4 the gape of the hook...

Sort of a palmer hackled thorax fly...

When I fish it, I position myself at the head of a long riffle in the middle of the stream (conveniently, where no other angler typically stations themselves) because I knew the females would be dropping down to lay their eggs, usually with tons of barely noticeable fish picking off the spinners.

I grease the end of my line and the leader all the way down to the fly, treat the fly with my floatant of choice, cast directly downstream and hold my rod up as high as I can to keep as much line & leader as possible off the water so the Skating Hendrickson just bounces on top of the broken water as I dance it forward and let it drift back.

Deadly...!!!

If you are really lucky, there will be a light breeze that allows you to just hold the rod tip high while the wind re-positions your fly.

The first time I broke out this technique on a Pocono stream I fished one day in April until after 8:30 pm because the action was so incredible, I didn't want to leave. I caught over 40 fish that evening... :)

My Skating Hendrickson and a another color combination I tie to imitate Early Black & Brown Stoneflies are a must in my early season Richardson tray.
Click to expand...
I'm intrigued by this combination of pattern and technique co-invention. I kept this post open in my browser and re-read it a few times over a couple of days. Thanks for the explanation.
One question: You wrote "palmer style like an EWC". I assumed you mean EHC?
 
What
KeviR said:
I'm intrigued by this combination of pattern and technique co-invention. I kept this post open in my browser and re-read it a few times over a couple of days. Thanks for the explanation.
One question: You wrote "palmer style like an EWC". I assumed you mean EHC?
Click to expand...
Whatever you call a fly with elk hair for the wing... :)

I always call it an Elk Wing Caddis but knowing elk don't have wings, I guess that could confuse some folks.

Maybe calling it an Elk Hair Winged Caddis or a EHWC may be more appropriate. ;)
 
For the Rusty Spinner, I like an egg sac (made from a foam earplug) and crystal flash for tails - a good poly body and wing help to float it - use a Harvey type slack leader when spinner fishing as a dead drift is critical
 

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Trout will often hit a spinner as it falls. I throw mine out once they get rusty though. They don’t spin as well.

Edit: Whoops.
 
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