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inline spinner for salmon?

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Salmon won't break the wire, but big chinook can reliably be expected to bend the spinners into pretzels. I would suggest .050" wire if you're serious. It is critical that you be SURE to put a swivel between the spinner and the hook. A swivel attached to an open-eye 5/0 or 6/0 siwash works great for that, and holds salmon very well.

Good luck, hope this helps.

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Salmon won't break the wire, but big chinook can reliably be expected to bend the spinners into pretzels. I would suggest .050" wire if you're serious. It is critical that you be SURE to put a swivel between the spinner and the hook. A swivel attached to an open-eye 5/0 or 6/0 siwash works great for that, and holds salmon very well.

Good luck, hope this helps.

thanks for the knowledge.I'll give that a go

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I think you're going to have some trouble finding clevices with a hole big enough to accomodate .050 wire, not to mention the difficulty bending wire that heavy. Bit of bent wire for a 40-50 lb chinook seems a better than even trade. If you're making your own spinners, a bent spinner is easily reconstructed with a new piece of wire. I'd still go with the .035 for ease of construction. In regards the swivel between lure and hook, I've never done that, seems just another bit to possibly fail. I do use a swivel (solid ring ball bearing) on a spreader bar ahead of the spinner, because in-line spinners are such bad line twisters.

Salmon won't break the wire, but big chinook can reliably be expected to bend the spinners into pretzels. I would suggest .050" wire if you're serious. It is critical that you be SURE to put a swivel between the spinner and the hook. A swivel attached to an open-eye 5/0 or 6/0 siwash works great for that, and holds salmon very well.

Good luck, hope this helps.

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I think you're going to have some trouble finding clevices with a hole big enough to accomodate .050 wire, not to mention the difficulty bending wire that heavy.

I'm not guessing on any of the advice posted above. This is exactly what I do-- make and use spinners for large saltwater fish including chinook salmon. I had to learn it the hard way, as I initially made the same assumptions you have here. Over time, I have learned how to do it the right way, and the suggestions given above come from direct and actual experience and after having caught a lot of large fish on my lures.

A standard large clevis will accommodate .050" wire. Get them here, or wherever you buy your components:

FISHING TACKLE for bass fishing, crappie, walleye, trout.Fishing lures, fishing hooks, lead molds. BARLOWS FISHING TACKLE.

Bit of bent wire for a 40-50 lb chinook seems a better than even trade. If you're making your own spinners, a bent spinner is easily reconstructed with a new piece of wire. I'd still go with the .035 for ease of construction.

I started with 0.37" wire. Let anyone who wishes to give that a go has been given fair warning lol! Salmon-- even smaller fish-- will twist a 0.37" wire spinner into, almost literally, a pretzel. Not just bent, but wrecked, and fish can easily be lost this way.

Working with wire is like anything else, a little skill and practice goes a long way. Myself, I have no difficulties bending and forming .050" wire, and I dislike having my gear ruined on the first fish. It's even worse when someone else is fishing your gear, and it gets ruined on the first fish. There's no reason to allow that to happen when it's entirely preventable.

In regards the swivel between lure and hook, I've never done that, seems just another bit to possibly fail. I do use a swivel (solid ring ball bearing) on a spreader bar ahead of the spinner, because in-line spinners are such bad line twisters.

If one uses swivels in a similar application, gear failure cannot be a rationale.

This is hard-won information founded in on-the-water experience with using spinners for salmon, lingcod, and halibut. I use strong swivels because these are strong fish. If one does not use a swivel between the hook and spinner, the spinner will be predictably ruined. In addition to that, salmon are good at spitting hardware, and a swivel-to-hook markedly helps prevent the fish from throwing the hook. This is even more critical when barbless hooks are mandated.

Just a head's-up based on my experience with this subject.

Hope this helps, cheers all! :yay:

Edited by sagacious
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I just tried .041 wire in the largest stirrup clevis I had, and it wouldn't go through the holes. And while .041 spring stainless wire can be formed by hand, it's a little uncomfortable. Having said that, there may indeed be larger clevis sizes which will accomodate .050 wire. I took a look at a couple of Luhr Jensen Tee Spoon salmon spinners (sort of the granddaddy of this genre), looks like about .035 (give or take a size) wire to me, and those things have caught a lot of BIG salmon. No swivel between the hook and spinner body, they do have a crane swivel at the front (for line twist). In fact they use a split ring between hook and lure body for ease of hook replacement, something I would not do. Big Blue Fox Vibrax # 6 spinners (another popular one around here), have even lighter wire...maybe .031, and no swivel at all. I think that their hook strength is suspect, but again, they account for a lot of fish. I realize that lure manufacturers are in the business of selling lures, so if they fail because the wire or hook bends, they might get to sell another one. However, if this was a common problem, I'm pretty sure they would use heavier components, it's just not that expensive, and tackle manufacturing is pretty competitive.

Of course we don't have chinook salmon, ling cod or halibut here in Oregon :rolleyes: so I guess I can't speak with the same authority, but I've NEVER had an in-line spinner "turned into a pretzel", regardless of wire size (or fish size for that matter). Occassionally one does get somewhat bent, whether on a fish or on a snag, and most of the time I just straighten it out. If beyond repair, I remove the components, and rebuild with new wire. Since I usually have a box of about 30 home built spinners along, changing out a damaged lure just isn't a big issue for me. I don't recall ever losing a fish because the wire bent.

I don't have a problem with over engineering a lure, as long as the action isn't impaired, but your making Chinook salmon out to be almost mythical in their power to destroy lures. T 55 flatfish and K-60 quickfish have a screw eye imbedded in plastic for cripe's sake, and they catch some pretty fair sized Chinook.

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That's a fairly personal reply, Pirkfan, and seems undeservedly unfriendly.

Sorry to disagree with your impressions, since your reply was open guesses and criticism of my suggestions, but now it's all turned to personal experience. I'm glad to hear your spinners only get bent on snags, and not fish, as that implies some fantastic luck. I wish you the best with that. I lived in Portland, OR for 9 years, and have spent a lot of time in salmon water there. It's a nice place to live.

As it happens, I don't usually offer guesses as suggestions myself. A quick review of my modest gallery here will uncover a photo I uploaded a while back, showing a barely-legal lingcod and a bent spinner-jig in its mouth. Note that no swivel is between the hook and wire frame. Probably it would have been wiser and less embarrassing to check that before suggesting my advice borders on the mythical, but c'est la vie. I learned that swivel trick a while back, those not wishing to learn that lesson the same way may wish to simply put a swivel between the hook and spinner.

To each their own. No disrespect meant. :)

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I want to chime in here because in- lines are my specialty. Ive been using them for 45 years and making them for over 20. .51 is standard for Musky bucktails. They do a number on them but never turn them into pretzels. I personally think you can go slightly smaller .35-.40 range for salmon. Ive had some bend and I just straighten them out and cast again. Personally I feel the lighter wire, the easier the blades spin and thus the slower you can go. Good luck buddy.

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I built 5 inline spinners specifically for silvers. I fished 'em up in Cordova during the first week in september while visiting the parents in Alaska.

They performed great and each one caught fish.

I used .031 gauge.

One day i was fishing and realized that after hiking about a mile from the car along a stream, I had brought the wrong reel, it was a backup reel that was drastically low on line. I couldn't let them take big runs anymore without risking being spooled, so I just cranked the drag up. I believe I was fishing with at least 20lb mono, I don't know what my dad spooled up his equipment with.

Turns out that when you hook up with a particularly feisty silver in the low double digits, they can wreck .031 gauge.

One of my spinners has a 30 degree bend halfway up the lure. I still caught the fish no problem, but I had to re-build the spinner again with some extra wire I brought along.

That was the only lure that bent, and unless you're cranking up your drag high on 20+lb mono or superline I'm sure that it wouldn't have 'failed' (failed is not quite the right word since I didn't lose the fish) .031 would have been fine, and served me on many many many fish without any more issues.

.051 is certainly tough enough for salmon up to small kings. Big Kenai river kings, I might think about going higher, but then again, .051 is tough and common enough in musky fishing that it might be just fine.

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