Roostertails

C
chris61182
Growing up my favorite lure used to be a chartreuse roostertail in either 1/16oz or 1/8oz. Fast forward a number of years and my tacklebox had long since run out of roostertails, and I was now at the age where I have to buy my own tackle. Being relatively poor I only bought a couple and went fishing. Much to my surprise the blades didn't spin, but I explained this away being I just got a bad batch. More time passes, and I saw that they were on sale so I bought a couple more to replace the ones that didn't work. I went fishing, and these didn't work either. Now I'm starting to get a bit miffed, it's quite unlikely I'd find two bad batches separated by that much time. Finally, a couple seasons later I noticed they were on sale again, and figured I'd try my luck again and bought a yet again a couple more. Surprisingly, or not, these didn't work either.

By this point I've completely written the brand off as junk, there's no way I could have found three separate bad batches all separated in time and space. Over the intervening years between that last purchase and now I have only lost a few of those because how rarely they get fished. I usually reserved them for times when I wanted to throw a lure really tight to some nasty cover and didn't want to care about losing it, but even that didn't work well enough at thinning my selection of non-working spinners.

So now I come to the whole point of my post. Last week when I was in Corvallis fishing the Marys I encountered one of those super snaggy spots and wanted to get close to some cover to check for fish, so on went a roostertail. And I couldn't believe what I felt as I started the retrieve, I felt the blade spinning! Retrieving against the current, across the current, and unbelievably with the current, the blade spun. During the week I hit up the Tualatin and being quite snaggy I felt no qualms about testing out another roostertail in my collection, it worked too. As a matter of fact by the end of that day I had tested most of my roostertails, and their blades were all spinning. Then yesterday at Hagg I tried out what I believe to be my last untested roostertail, and by now it is probably clear that it worked as well.

Apparently, the years sitting in my not to terribly well cared for tacklebox has imbued them with some sort of fishing mojo. Or maybe some quality of the tarnish they've developed helps them spin better, I don't know. Either way the moral of the story is that if you've been bitten by the a brand new spinner that doesn't spin, if it's been sitting around long enough tie it on and give it a cast. Who knows maybe it's just gotten lonely from lack of use, and is willing to put on a show for you when you do finally give it some attention.

OK, well that was rather long winded for just saying that some of the junk in my tacklebox mysteriously started working again. Hopefully others will find themselves as fortunate.
 
F
Fishtopher
Ya think my car will fit in yer tackle box??:D
 
H
Hawk
Great story Bro.......................................:lol::lol::lol:
 
Troutski
Troutski
Tuning your spinner...

Tuning your spinner...

Maybe we should have a class on tuning spinners, there are a number of ways to tune them. Fishfinger is in the know, I use Rooster Tails and Blue Foxes but I must admit I do tune them before they go on my line. Any one else have a problem with spinners not spinning?
There are a few ways to make them irresistible to fish, first and foremost the blade, try bending the tip of the blade just a bit and run it along the side of your boat or the stream, maybe even bend the lead wire just a small amount away from the heave side of the treble hook. It does seem like there is a direct effect on spinners and water speed. I know this sounds crazy but I pre-tune my spinners in the bath tub before I take them into the field. Any one else out there with some help...?



Chuck
 
Last edited:
P
phish-on
im finding that i like rooster tails more and more. Lately ive been using the buckskin colored. to match the hatch. and have had very good success.
my first cast today i pulled out a little 6" trout. released it.
about 5 cast later i felt like i had snagged. ahh--but the snag started to swim up the riffle. pulled in a 16" rainbow, i think it was a rainbow. :D on the wilson.
 
Troutski
Troutski
Yes....

Yes....

phish-on said:
im finding that i like rooster tails more and more. Lately ive been using the buckskin colored. to match the hatch. and have had very good success.
my first cast today i pulled out a little 6" trout. released it.
about 5 cast later i felt like i had snagged. ahh--but the snag started to swim up the riffle. pulled in a 16" rainbow, i think it was a rainbow. :D on the wilson.

Those are the type of snags you want...nicely done. I know that feeling, very cool :cool:

Chuck
 
C
chris61182
phish-on said:
about 5 cast later i felt like i had snagged. ahh--but the snag started to swim up the riffle. pulled in a 16" rainbow, i think it was a rainbow. :D on the wilson.

I love when that happens. Sometimes I wonder who's more surprised the angler that the snag is swimming away or the fish who's food is strangely pulling it towards shore.

Oh and on the Wilson it should be a cutthroat, there are no stocked rainbows. Or I guess it could have been a tiny steelhead.
 
P
phish-on
chris61182 said:
I love when that happens. Sometimes I wonder who's more surprised the angler that the snag is swimming away or the fish who's food is strangely pulling it towards shore.

Oh and on the Wilson it should be a cutthroat, there are no stocked rainbows. Or I guess it could have been a tiny steelhead.


I need to learn my aquatic species.;) I think it was to dark to be a steelie,
 
F
FishSchooler
Rooster tail blades go rusty real quick if you dont dry them after fishin, i had the problem too.
 

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