Old Spinner - Pic and Question ???

[pearl]

I have a wad of old fishing hardware out in the garage that was around our family during the 40's, 50's and 60's. On night like tonight when the weather sucks I go out and pull a few pieces out to see if they're fit to fish another season?

Tonight’s gem is pictured below.

I have not seen a spinner like this before. The spinner body is 4" long and has two brass blades that are approximately size 3. Both blades are stamped Pfluger Indiana. The upper blade has a stop so it won't slide down on the lower blade. The treble is big enough for plunking steelhead, but small enough for cut throat or harvest trout that used to be in abundant in the Columbia and its tributaries.

Any of you experts seen this spinner before or know what species it was used for.

Thumper - I need your expertise



Thanks, Pearl

[Stan Zak]

I have used this type of spinner without the hook on it but have a hook about 12 inches back with a worm for cutthroat. have caght alot of fish with them.

[larryb]

i used spinners like that when i was a kid a long time ago for trout and cutthroat take hooks off put on a 4 to 6 inch leader add a worm caught lots of fish

[scoutfish]

I think that is called a Doc Shelton. They killed a lot of sea runs. If you take the hook off and tie 8 inchs of leader on it to a hook with a worm thats how it was fished.

I,m a fly fisherman don,t ask me how I know this.

Arnie.

[pearl]

Well looks like I should go back out to the garage and look for the worms from the 40's 50's and 60's to make this rig complete.

I think that is called a Doc Shelton.

Who is/was Doc shelton I know Doc Holiday, Dr. Kildare, Dr. Martin and Doctor Dimento but not Doc Shelton.

I,m a fly fisherman don,t ask me how I know this

Arnie, I have seen more than one bug flicker resort to worms when they really want to catch a fish :grin: Don't feel bad.

Any more info out there

[Buck]

Pearl - what you have there is called an Indiana Spinner. It is close to a Doc Shelton, but the Doc Shelton has sort of a modified half moon blade and the Indiana Spinner has the teardrop or Colorado style blade.

I still have some of these myself. We used them a lot trolling for trout in the high lakes like Marion and Duffy Lake. They work great with a 6-8" leader, worm hook, and half worm.

We also have used them in coastal streams in years past for stream cutthroat. You just work them slowly downstream from where you're standing and wait for a strike.

[DonOR]

I have a lot of old time spinners also. Some are even heart shaped on the outer end of the blade. Some have two blades and the clevis's are interlocked so they have to spin together but on the opposite sides of the shaft.

I will have to go look at some of my old stuff but I am sure a Doc Shelton blade is not symetrical at all. They are oblong, curved and the both sides are curved like )) this. If you took a ford fender and bent it sideways it would be close.

Don

[pearl]

Thanks to all that have responded.

It never ceases to amaze me that you can post a question and with in a couple of hours get a number of responses.

Thanks guys

[SlackBite]

Pearl,

I didn’t get onto the computer until late, but after seeing you old spinner I just had to share one of my treasured oldies.






They are kind of similar with the spring body, but this blade is about the size of a #8 thumper. This spinner was purchased in St Helens, Oregon 1939, way before my time.

SlackBite

[husker]

definitely an indiana spinner. works good for trout at hagg lake coated with a worm or my choice power bait


doc shelton makes smaller type trout attackers. i have used them in the past since i dont like 5' long lake trolls

[Troller]

My grampa used to call the double bladed ones indiana spinners and the single blade colorado spinners. Makes me wish I never used that stuff when I was a kid and lost it to the rocks in the river.

[Paddlefish]

Buck has it right: that old double Indiana, followed by a short leader, hook, and worm, was an Oregon standard, especially when all else failed.

See Francis Ames' "Fishing the Oregon Country." That combo was the norm for big spring cutthroats in Willamette Valley streams -- like the North Fork Yamhill :shocked: -- in the 30s, fished on baitcasting gear before the dawn of spinning reels. That was also his fallback method when other techniques weren't producing on sea-run cutthroats, Wickiup and Crane Prairie Reservoir, high Cascade lakes and most everywhere else. You can also switch the worm out for a fly: something small, perhaps, for trout, though similar combos with larger, grasshopper or caddis imitations took lots of steelhead.

The "Indiana" refers to the actual blade shape --pretty much a teardrop shape. The Colorado blades were almost round, by comparison, and the Bear Valley was somewhere in-between. A willow leaf blade is pretty self-explanatory, and the Doc Shelton, a proprietary brand name is, as said before, asymmetrical and almost cutlass shaped.

[reeldick]

It seems everyone used them for trout.
I am from Minnesota and as a kid we used those same blades in a couple of different sizes for lm bass, northern pike, and walleyes.
The difference in the rig is we never had a treble hook on it. Ours were rigged with a single long shank hook and we would tip it with a live minnow hooked through the lips or a night crawler. Caught a lot of fish when trolled.
We had them in silver or gold blades.

[YaHoeeFishOn]

Indiana 88 . Great trout lure

[Irie1]

The Indiana spinner(bull dog brand) has a seal in the right corner that says" Highest award for fishing tackle sesquicentennial" Philadephia 1926. It's a no. 511 size 6
the bottom spinner is a doc shelton #7
I am thinking these lures were purchased by my great uncle, sometime around the depression.
I still get a kick outta opening up that ol fishin buddy tackle box. Red feather trebles and red painted blades.