You don't say whether you are fishin from the bank or a boat. Almost all my freshwater fishin fer silvers has been done from the bank. Spinners are my best bet for silvers. Spoons also work. I usually make my own from PennTac or Mortac components. I use Vibrax or Mepps if I hafta use pre-made. I've caught them on a variety of sizes and colors altho they seem to prefer oranges and reds. W/gin clear water you might want to start out w/small, drab spiners as suggested in previous post, Copper or brass should work well (never tried black for silvers, might work very well?). Altho if that doesn't work go to a 4/0 or 5/0 in silver or, a bright flourescent orange or red. Someitmes you just hafta really piss them off!!. I usually replace the trebles w/a siwash and sometimes place a lil piece of flourescent tubing on the hook shank.

Many rivers require the use of single hooks and, while I've been in exile for a while, I seem to remember htat there is also a rule about the maximum allowable distance between the hook point and the shank. Wa has the most F'd up fish n game regs of just about anywhere so be sure and check em out (and the emergency closure website) before you go fishin.

I'm a firm believer in washin yer hands and use a scent to coverup any people smell (i.e. L-serine (sp?), my personal pref is Pro-cure w/a drop of Dr J.

Another trick is to add the smallest hootchie you can find (you might even hafta trim a few of the tentacles to get it to fish right) to the spinner. Unlike fishin silvers in the salt I have found that a slow retrieve, just barely fast enough to make the blade spin to be very effective on lockjaw silvers. Also if you can find a concentration of fish that aren't jumping too much they seem to bite better than the jumpers, IMHO. Another very effective method is to use plugs, Hot shot SEs and wiggle warts, altho they can be a lil hard to fish from the bank. Spoons that have the lil flipper thing at the rear work well at times also.

If hookin the large mature hooknose who've been in the river for a while I will set the hook two or three times since their mouths get very hard and bony after they have been in freshwater for a while.

Kind of puzzlin since fresh, chrome bright silvers usually bite fairly well (for me anyway). Cloudy days w/a lil drizzle or recent rain seems to help put them on the bite.

Maybe try a different river or part of the river you're fishin?

Good luck and let us know how ya do

Take care

Sincerely,
Roger