Rooster Tails - love em or hate em?

[troutdude]

Kais,

I have personally caught hundreds of trout (and some other species), with Rooster Tails. No kidding.

Maybe you didn't have the right color for those days? Maybe you didn't let it drop and give the line a good tug, to get the blade rolling? Maybe the spot you were in didn't have any fish in it? Don't know. But I do know that they WORK WELL!

Keep trying.

P.S. Worden's Lures have sold them since 1952. If they didn't work, they would not have been made for so long.

 

[bassin16]

i have used rooster tails forever. i have caught my biggest bass and my biggest trout on them. when i caught this 9.5 lb bass i was using a very small one trying to catch bluegill. i have caught many bluegill, crappie,and one steelhead on them. almost any fish will hit a rooster tail given the right time and place. but there is a time and place for any lure to catch fish.

 

[Born2Fish55]

Rooster Tails fail. The ones they used to make were good and the blades actualy spun. Now with all this UV crap.... nope.

Blue Fox!!!!

I swear by Blue Fox spinners and spoons... they always have something close to the correct spin and/or flutter straight out of the box, very little tuning is ever required. I did finally figure out the perfect bend and positioning of it on Roostertails to get them to work without having to replace the blade, but it takes awhile and often is not worth it.

 

[GDBrown]

Tune or Not

Tune or Not

I swear by Blue Fox spinners and spoons... they always have something close to the correct spin and/or flutter straight out of the box, very little tuning is ever required. I did finally figure out the perfect bend and positioning of it on Roostertails to get them to work without having to replace the blade, but it takes awhile and often is not worth it.

If what I do is tuning the I'm a tuner.:shock: Being a fly tier, I add a little body (wrapped thread) between the hook and the weighted body of the lure so it pushes the blade higher and away from the feather. I have found this to eliminate any problems with the blade not spinning at the start. I have used them this way for years and like others I have caught my biggest fish with them. Including two steelhead in one afternoon down on the Trask while playing with the Cuts.

GD

 

[Born2Fish55]

If what I do is tuning the I'm a tuner.:shock: Being a fly tier, I add a little body (wrapped thread) between the hook and the weighted body of the lure so it pushes the blade higher and away from the feather. I have found this to eliminate any problems with the blade not spinning at the start. I have used them this way for years and like others I have caught my biggest fish with them. Including two steelhead in one afternoon down on the Trask while playing with the Cuts.

GD

Same idea... I fish naked, so I use a piece of toothpick jammed into the bottom of the body, pushing it up away from hook on Roostertails. This does the same thing as your adding body to it. I also found that adding a slight diagonal bend to the top of the blade, causing a 'bow' in it, causes it to rotate more easily and produces an erratic action to the retrieve. Tagged some really nice fish on the Coastal rivers.

 

[Phil_Bud]

If i could give a bit of advise id just say panther martins and blue foxes...nothin too crazy in color, I like solid colors like all silver, blue, or green in all different sizes for all different fish, I use small ones for creek and lake fishing and big ones for salmon and steelhead...a nimber 9 panther martin is always in my tackle box.
fish on bud

 

[SmallStreams]

I'm going to try swapping blades on some rooster tails. I've always been more fond of the flash from hammered colorado blades, so will see if I can swap them on... at the rate I was losing lures last year, I can easily afford to sacrifice a few to Frankenstein experiments

Yes, this is the slippery slope to making my own spinners from components. Wonder how long I can resist that?

Blade swap was accomplished, but I didn't do a good job of straightening the wire and reforming the loop, so the lure didn't run true and would rotate in addition to the spinner action. The "no spin" went away, but that could easily have been a result of shortening the wire while reforming the loop.

The hammered blade definitely flashed better.

 

[halibuthitman]

wow... I could get a rooster tail to work when I was 8....:think: hey, they only cost $3.. and nobody at the manufacturer is telling me that if I don't use them I won't catch fish and be handicappng myself... I can't believe these guys selling $6-$9 dollar spinners... thieves

 

[rickman]

I've caught plenty of trout and LMB with Rooster Tails (I live in AZ so our stocked trout aren't as picky). Certain colors work better than others. The Original Rooster Tails used the Swiss Swingblade which I have to give the spinner a quick jerk to get the blade started. The Sonic Rooster Tails use a French spinner blade blade which spin more reliably. Then there's the Vibric Rooster Tails that use the Sonic/Spinner blade that spins a lot better than the Original Rooster Tails.

All of these components are available online to make your own for a lot less.

 

[troutdude]

At some point in the early years of Rooster Tails, they were designed specifically for fast/moving water. If used in slack water, the blades would not spin correctly. This is according to some recent emails that I have received, from Yakima Bait's marketing manager.

That very fellow, also sent me some NEW Rooster Tails to beta test. This new product line, includes UV coated blades, and some change in their design to specifically allow the blades to spin correctly in slack water.

I have not yet had a chance, to go into beta test mode. But, I will start a new thread after testing is conducted. So, please stand by...........

 

[cookshot]

Cool! Make sure and keep us posted. Rooster tails are the best as far as I'm concerned, if they can somehow make them better then I'm pumped. Do they have a promo thing going at all? Or did you just get in on a sweet deal?

 

[troutdude]

I just got lucky. I wrote to Yakima Bait Company, via email. And I told them about some of our discussions on here, about how the blades don't spin correctly...have to "tug" on 'em, etc.

Then, I got an email saying he would send me some to beta test. I figured that I'd get 2 or 3. He sent me 13! That's about $30 worth of spinners for free! I'll be happy to try them out, and see how they do.

I will post a thread here, so youse guyz can read up on my experiments. Plus, I want the guy that sent them to read the thread too. That way, he'll see that he's getting some "bang for his buck" <the term "bang" used loosely here LOL>.

 

[GraphiteZen]

Damn I thought I was the only person that bent the blades on Rooster Tails. Who did I tell... Who did I tell... :think:

 

[Stradic2000]

Yeah if you don't give them a tug, sometimes the whole spinner will do a side-to-side wobble without any spinning. The blade gets pushed up against the body of the spinner and gets stuck there.

The only downside to using inline spinners is LINE TWIST!!! But.... there is an easy fix to this problem.... take some needle nose pliars and bend the line tie end up to a 90 degree angle (not too much of the wire should be bent, you don't want it to hinder the blade movement). There's an old Luhr Jensen inline spinner that came with a bent wire to prevent the body from spinning. It was called the spanky doodle or something like that, they had black polka dots. And the blade shape had ^^^^^ crinkle waves in it.

Mepps ThunderBugs are as good as Roostertails for bass, it's a shame they don't make them anymore. Cicadas work great too, but you have to order from Cabela's or BassProShops. You won't find them in tackle shops around here.

 

[Troutski]

I went to a very special place (Beaver Marsh) on Sunday....the first thing, right out of the package with a little twist on the blade...WHAM Native Cutthroat... I still don't get why other anglers don't like this lure, .99 cents a pop and they catch fish; a gunny bag full.

Chuck

 

[chrisohm]

There are wonderful little treasures all over this place! Great info guys!
I had a Bangtail and a Rooster Tail that both had issues but you can always expect a few duds out there. I just took the time to recycle the parts into my own spinners and from a tub test run they spun perfectly. I was also able to create the pattern I wanted. You can save some serious cash and have fun making your own spinners. You never know, you could end up with a hobby that makes you some side cash....reduce, reuse and recycle...now if I could just get the ones back I lost to a few rocks....

 

[cookshot]

You can actually buy roostertail parts from Yakima if people are interested in going that route. I imagine the only unique thing they offer is the body but I don't know that much about it. I also don't know how you get the catalog. I got one because of a rooster tail contest I won, but I'm sure if you emailed them they would send one out.

 

[Mike123]

Did I mention I HATE Roostertails?? hahaha. I guess you could snip the wire, take off the blade, and add a correct blade that actually spins. Then I would like the Roostertail.

 

[troutdude]

Or...you could buy some of the NEWEST Rooster Tails. I received a package of them, from the Yakima Bait Company a couple of months ago to Beta test.

These newly designed 'tails are especially made for SLACK water! The whole reason that original 'tails don't quite spin correctly in slow/slack/non moving water is that they were designed only for fast water.

The bodies on the new ones are offset (not plumb or "true" to the rest of the spinner). I have tried only one so far, while trolling. And the blade spun perfectly (even before dropping the whole flasher set and all into the water).

As soon as I beta test in other conditions, I will post a thread. I intended to do this two months ago. But, I sidelined myself w/ a shoulder injury. Go figure.

BTW, the new 'tails also have UV coated blades.

 

[Anyfishisfine]

I caught my first steelhead on a pink one 10-15 years ago totally by accident. I was trout fishing, had no tag or any clue how to catch a steelhead, and it was the furthest thing on my mind. I was after trout.

Then I got a snag that ran away from me.

Although I've always had a few in my tackle box, I can't think of any other fish I caught on one. I'm all about Panther Martins for trout spinners.