spinner rig questions

[night_eyes]

I fish a lot with spinner rigs and have had good success with them. But im always looking to better my techniques so i've got a couple questions.
1. I fish Mille Lacs alot and commonly use lindy rigs with 10' snells. So when i switch over to a spinner rig what would you all recommend for a spinner snell length? Keep the 10' snell or go shorter?

2. I was on Mille Lacs last weekend and my buddy and i were drifting in a good wind over a mud flat with lindys and crawlers when he decided to switch to a spinner and leech. Now when i use a spinner and leech and get a hit i usually point the rod at the fish for a split second and then set the hook and i usually connect on them. Now when he got hits he was free spooling and giving line like i would a lindy rig and he had pretty good success connecting with the fish too. So my question is this...do you all do that too...the freespooling i mean?? Or do you give maybe a split second and set the hook? Or maybe set the hook instantly?
Thanks in advance!!

[Eyez]

1. Usually with spinners, snells longer than about 4 feet will just drag on the bottom, and you won't get any benefit from it. I usually use them about 3 feet. There's exceptions if you use unusually tall bouncers, or you hold your weight off the bottom enough, but spinners sink, so at some point or another, it usually ends up laying on the bottom. Also, any snell that's dragging is snag prone.


2. How you play a bite is really dependent on how agressive the fish are and what you're comfortable doing. I usually start out with just pointing the rod at them and sticking them, but if I get my crawlers bit off a few times I'll feed line like your buddy was doing. It's a matter of finding what works best at a given time. I don't, however, feed line if it's not necessary, hooks are too easy to swallow.


Eyez

[RANGER]

#1...My spinner rigs are uniformly 2 ft. Over many tries, I settled at this length and it works for me.

#2...This depends on how the bite is. I use all said tactics. Most frequently I point the rod at the water before setting the hook.

One thing to mention - this year I have been playing with the circle hooks. I say "playing" because that's exactly what I am doing. You don't "set" these things, you just lift and steadily pull your rod. I WANT to set it - no can do! This is as bad as getting a new truck with the gas tank on the opposite side - I don't even want to begin to tell you how often I screw it up at the pumps!

RANGER

"KEEP YOUR LINES WET, YOUR POWDER DRY and THE BEER COLD"!