Inline spinner

The whole lure is a single wire with a weighted body, a treble hook at the back and a blade that rotates around the shaft. There is no arm and no skirt, which is what separates it from a spinnerbait. It is one of the simplest lures made and one of the few that works the moment it is moving, with no rod action required from you at all.

The blade does two jobs. It flashes, which is a visual trigger, and it displaces water, which a fish feels through its lateral line before it sees anything. That combination is why a spinner works in stained water and in fast riffles where a fish gets a fraction of a second to decide.

In a stream the standard presentation is to cast up and across the current and retrieve just fast enough to feel the blade turning, so the lure travels downstream toward the fish the way real food does. Trout hold facing into the flow and take food that comes to them, so a lure dragged upstream past a fish is moving the wrong way. The take often comes at the end of the swing, so let it hang for a beat before lifting.

Sizes from a sixteenth to a quarter of an ounce cover most freshwater. Silver blades suit bright days and clear water, gold and brass suit stained water and low light.