FISHING 411 WITH MARK ROMANACK LAKE ERIE TROLLING SECRETS EPISODE 7 WORD COUNT: 734              
Back in May of 2012, Fishing 411 Host Mark Romanack teamed up on Lake Erie with walleye pro and long time friend Tommy Skarlis. The focus of this meeting of the minds was to help other anglers better understand the dynamics of fishing “spinner rigs” for open water walleye.            
The word “spinners” is used often in fishing circles and it means different things to different people. The typical trout fisherman hears the word “spinner” and thinks of his favorite Rooster Tail lures designed for casting applications.            
To walleye anglers “spinners” are essentially modified versions of the garden variety nightcrawler harnesses most of us grew up fishing. For open water spinner fishing, the rigs used are even more specialized but the components are fundamentally the same; a couple hooks snelled onto a leader with a few colorful beads for dressing, a clevice and a spinner blade that rotates on the clevice around the leader.            
The finished walleye spinner is going to be 40-60 inches in length and is most often fished in combination with a weight or diving device to get the spinner to depth. On the segment filmed with Tommy Skarlis a number of options were explored including the Pro Weight System Snap Weight, Guppy In-Line Weight and the Tadpole Diver all produced by Off Shore Tackle company.            
Snap Weights can be added to the fishing line anywhere between the lure and the rod tip to encourage depth but at the same time provide a stealthy presentation. When a fish is hooked and reeled in, the angler simply reaches up and snaps off the weight as it approaches the rod tip. Slick, easy and effective the Snap Weight can be matched with weights ranging in size from 1/2 ounce to three ounces.             The Guppy is a minnow shaped weight that can be rigged in-line to help spinners achieve depth. Simply clip a snap from the terminal end of our rod/reel set up to the front of the Guppy and add the spinner rig to the back of the Guppy. Like Snap Weights, the Guppy comes in various sizes designed to achieve all the depths a walleye angler is likely to encounter.            
The Tadpole Diver is a diving planer that is non-direction or in other words is just dives. The snap from your fishing line clips over an arm on the Tadpole that allows the diver to dive like a crankbait when fished. The instant a fish is hooked, the snap slides into the forward position and turns the Tadpole Diver into an in-line weight with nearly zero resistance in the water.            
Tadpoles are super easy to fish and effective down to 30 feet or more.
MODIFYING THE HARNESS            
The typical spinner rig used for walleye fishing features two single hooks. For open water trolling modifying this rig to include a No. 6 treble hook at the end and a No. 2 single hook in the front makes for better hook up ratios. These specialized open water spinners are best fished suspended in the water column were they are not going to contact bottom and snag.            
Another modification of spinner rigs is to tie them using fluorocarbon line. All my spinners are tied using 15# test Vicious Fluorocarbon line. Fluorocarbon is about twice as tough as monofilament, virtually invisible in the water and the  ideal material for spinner tying.            
Big blades, multiple blades and other attractors like Spin n Glo bodies are ways that anglers can “customize” these spinner rigs for open water trolling applications. FINAL THOUGHTS            
A spinner rig is absolutely deadly for open water trolling. Because these rigs are going to be fished suspended in the water column, it’s absolutely essential they be fished in combination with in-line planer boards like the Off Shore Tackle Side-Planer or Mini-Board. The outward lure coverage in-line boards provides allows an angler to fish a whole set up of spinners at different depths literally saturating the water column.            
The best spinner trolling speeds tend to range from 1.2 to 1.5 MPH, but at times a little faster or slower will produce better results. The big key to open water spinner fishing is to experiment with depth, lure color and most of all to spread out your lures using planer boards.