I must admit, as a devoted trout fisherman I've always had a certain affection for inline spinners. In my experience fishing many different types of trout waters over the years, I've found that there is nothing quite as effective as small metallic spinners. So when I was introduced to the Kennebec Inline Spinner, I knew right away they were a natural for the type of fishing I love.
The Kennebec Spinners is manufactured by the Kennebec Lure Company, located in Old Orchard Beach in Downeast Maine. Formed in 2004, the company is a small, modest operation owned and operated by Lance Scarborough and Jim Gagne. Lance and Jim have been fishing buddies for almost 25 years. The luremaking operation came about primarily out of angling necessity. In their combined experience one the water using a mass-produced spinners, they concluded that much of what was available on the market didn't quite satisfy their own fishing needs locally. Many of these spinners, which were manufactured with multi colored, plastic coated, and metal plated materials, just didn't hold up to the rigors of fishing in the log and boulder-strewn streams near their homes in Maine.
“We were tired of having a tackle box full of chipped and cracked spinners that had their coating scraped off,” said Lance. And all those fancy, neon like color combinationsdidn't look like anything they'd ever seen swimming in maine waters. "I know we have all stood in the tackle aisle of our favorits storeand said, " just where the heck do these colors actually work?"
Lance's father, Hank Scarborough was already known in local fishing circles for his High-Quality streamers. Made by hand,and sold essentially word of mouth, hank's streamers, known as "Masterpieces by Hank", were purchased by loyal fishing aquaintances and a few local tackle shops. Lance didn't have much luck making streamers, so when Hank suggested making his own spinners, Lance dismissed the idea offhandedly. ("yeah, right, how the heck ya gonna do that?") But Hank was persistent. He shared with Lance his own experience in lure making and passed on some of his tips, tricks, and techniques. Before long Lance began to realize that it might not be such a farfetched idea after all.
The plan was for Lance to try and make some spinners for his own use-lures that would not only catch fish, but ones that would last. He was greatly influenced in
So in the winter of 2003, Lance took advantage of the off-season downtimeto begin experimenting.He gathered some cannabalized spinner parts and other materials in various sizes and colors and began to build a few prototypes. Unfortunately, with the fishing season closed he had no choice but to wait a few months before any serious testing.
By the time spring finally arrived, Lance was anxious to begin live testing. He decided he would only fish with the newly crafted lure prototypes, nothing else. For the sake of comparison, his fishing buddy Jim would continue to use the same tackle that they always used.
"I keep a log of every time I fish and soon realized that there was definitely something to these spinners," Lance said. "They were not only holding their own, but often out-fished all the other tackle! I think the clincher happened one day at the river, using what would become our trademark trout spinner.I was reeling in, with the spinner right at my feet, and this huge four pound brown trout came right up and slammed the spinner. The drag started continued