I started fishing at 5:00 am Saturday morning. I thought I’d try the color black today. I got rid of the 30 lb line BTW. I found that although it works, it is rather stiff and too much coil for my liking. 10lb Power Pro back on. Today I thought I’d try black. In particular, #15 black body yellow dotted Panther Martin. The #15 is new for me this year. Most times I have thought it was too big, more for northern pike fishing or maybe steelhead fishing perhaps. This is 1/2 oz. Walking to my pool with my #15 tied on already, the blade would revolve around making a rather loud metal clinking. Something I have not noticed to this degree with smaller Panther Martins. I thought to myself “dinner bell” to a a gigantic trout.
Turns out I was right. First cast at 5am to the top of the pool with swift current, I let the spinner drop for two seconds and start my retrieve. Not less than three revolutions of my reel a trout hits. With the hook set the fish felt instantly small for some reason. Then I realized the fish was running right at me downstream and I reeled like mad. Then I felt the fish. We had quite the battle. I did not want to lose this one. Lots of standstill fighting with the beast hunkered down in the middle of the pool for a while. I had learned my previous mistakes of how too much pressure you can lose one of these good fish if there is not a solid connection with the hook.
Turns out I DID have a good hook set. The treble on the #15 is enormous. Plus this is a fresh spinner. 24″ female brown with a 14″ girth. This is a new personal best 
Also got a 19″ and a 15.” Probably made less than a dozen casts. After that fish I just stopped at a couple pools heading back to the car. The tall weeds and low light disoriented me a bit. All three hit the black/yellow silver bladed #15. Guess I will be using #15s more often!!!
