Panther Martin Salmon & Steelhead Spinners

by Terry Wiest

Panther Martin spinners.  They’ve been around for a while, a long while.  First thing that comes to my mind and probably most other fisherman is “Oh, yeah… great trout spinner”.  But, using the famous spinner blade that makes these such a wonderful trout lure, now Panther Martin has introduced a new size for Salmon and Steelhead.

Now I know there are a lot of spinners on the market and most of them work very good.  What’s different about these are twofold:

1. The blade is mounted directly on the shaft for effortless spinning which needs no kick start.

2. The body is weighted to not only cast like a bullet, but also to sink in the hole to get down into the strike zone faster. The “Big Belly” style is extremely effective at this.

One of the most important things about these spinners which you’ll find on all the top end spinners is that it does send our sonic vibrations.  Sound is definitely a key ingredient to a successful spinning presentation.

The Panther Martin spinners come standard with a treble hook attached and a siwash hook is supplied as well.  Those that know me understand that I am anal about my hooks and therefore while testing these spinners I changed them out to a sickle hook as I do with all my spinners and spoons.  Panther Martin does make the change out easy as a split ring is between the lure and the hook.  This also help out with giving the lure a little more give when a knarly coho tries twisting free.  I didn’t have any trouble with fish coming loose once I set the hook in my test.

There are a variety of colors and patterns but I stuck to the metallic, green, blue, copper and the old standards chartreuse and fluorescent pink.

These are some excellent new spinners by an old friend to add to your arsenal.  I like the #15 for coho, #20 for Chinook and the #9 for steelhead.

Once you cast these spinners the first thing you’ll notice is the instant the lure hits the water the blade begins to spin.  This can account for some vicious strikes.  Give them a go, you’ll be happy you did.