My 35+ year old hand painted spinner still can catch trout..

[Brownie]

Hit the river at 6:00 am in what was bloody cold conditions, around 4 degrees.. Fine after 9:00am once the sun was high in the sky. Spent just on 6 hours chasing trout in started off poorly with me hooking & losing the first seven trout before I finally landed and small brown on the Mepps #0 Aglia brown spinner.. Lost another three after that, then decided to use a 35+ year old spinner, one that I had hand painted when I first bought several of them during a clearance sale for 50 cents each. The blades were originally chrome & the lures themselves were made in Japan. Any way no sooner had I put one on I was onto my second trout of the session, to cut a long story short I went on to catch & release another 11 trout from fourteen hook ups. A complete turn around to how that day started that's for sure. Also I hooked two rainbows & landed one, a rare catch in the Meander River now days..Went home feeling quite satisfied of how the day turned out in the end... After finding the three 35= year old spinners in my lure box I remembered I had a few more tucked away in a lure box in the shed somewhere.. Had a hunt around for them today & found them.. there's the original rubber Floppy lure, Wonder Wobbler, JJ'S Lures (probably Stumpjumpers I reckon), Flatfish, Jensen insect spinners and several other old 35+ year lures most of which I hand painted when I bought them all those years ago..

cheers
Adrian.

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Sure are some classics on that board mate. Recognise quite a few. :thumbsup:

[meppstas]

I gather the photos help to tell the story anyway..

cheers
Adrian

Quoted bt buggatti>> ** Yes, the photos do and they are the best. You have a good knack of combining words with photos in a great story telling way.

On the photos. I know now, that trout look downwards for some reason, when landed/





When you know in a photo when the eyes are down this trout is still alive & it hasn't copped the donger.. when the eyes are upwards or straight it's normally dead..

cheers
Adrian.

Dead, eye center, not down..

Dead, same as above..

Alive, eyes down..

Alive, eyes down..

[Bugatti]

I gather the photos help to tell the story anyway..

cheers
Adrian

Quoted bt buggatti>> ** Yes, the photos do and they are the best. You have a good knack of combining words with photos in a great story telling way.

On the photos. I know now, that trout look downwards for some reason, when landed/





When you know in a photo when the eyes are down this trout is still alive & it hasn't copped the donger.. when the eyes are upwards or straight it's normally dead..

cheers
Adrian.

Sheesh, stating the obvious, but they look bad when they are dead. I must be that use to them in your photos being alive, that they look "blank" and not as vibrant.

Thanks Adrian

[meppstas]

I got some of those old small spinners (black with yellow/red dots) in the photo) and gave them a rough paint job this morning. I painted them the same colour as the #1 (3.5 gm) Aglia Furia that I use. I wanted some small ones in the same colour so thought I use the old ones to see how they'd go. I didn't want straight lines where the colours met either & I got the effect I wanted.. Mepps don't make the Aglia Furia under the #1 (3.5 grams) so I thought why not test the colour out on the old small spinners. I can alays paint the small plain Aglia spinners if need be as well..

cheers
Adrian

This ones 2.5 grams..

2.5 gm & 1.5 gms

The Mepps Aglia Furia.

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[Bugatti]

Wow, they look real snazzy Adrian, job well done. They look like bought ones. I thought why so many but by the look of them (to my untrained eye) they look like they are also differently weighted. And again in an ingenious, oups, indigenous colour scheme. Nice

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Cheers, Bill

[Lightningx]

Nice Adrian they look good mate :thumbsup:

[meppstas]

Thanks guys, yes all different weights & blade sizes too.. I thought the colour was the same as the indigenous flag colour too,, the old Wonder Wobbler
also has the same colours.. I'm sure they'll catch a trout or two when I get in a river again.. very windy down here for most of the week so will be a while before I get to give them a go..

cheers
Adrian

[Stumpjumper]

A bit off topic Adrian, but have you ever played around with replacing trebles with singles on a spinner? Or do they unbalance a spinner too much?

[Paulanderson]

A few memories in that lot of lures Adrian. Frog pattern flatfish were my lure of choice when trolling at Ecumbene in the early days. Floppy lures worked very well in streams and also in lakes fished very slowly close to the bank just on dark. The red feathered blade spinners or similar were called Dickson lures when I was growing up around Western Victoria (a lot more than 35 years ago) and the Redfin in Mount Emu Creek and later the Glenelg loved them.

Paul

[meppstas]

The frog pattern was a real favorite with a lot of fishermen Paul, they were a great lure.. The Foppy (made in France) was another one that had a lot of success too, they were used a lot in the Murray River on the Murray Cod with a lot of success.. I did have a couple of small green coloured floppy's too, but they been misplaced somewhere over the years..I remember the Dickson lures too, those in my pic's are Kingston lures..
cheers
Adrian

A bit off topic Adrian, but have you ever played around with replacing trebles with singles on a spinner? Or do they unbalance a spinner too much?

Yes did try them, lost too many fish with the single hook.. not that it matters all that much as this season I've lost more trout even with the trebles..
They spinner still work fine with the single hook too.. In the top photo of the old lures you see an old Celta (top RHS) that I painted, it still has a single long shank hook attached to it..

cheers
Adrian..