Just went to sporting goods store and noticed a large display of Rooster Tail spinners. In my 50 years on the planet, I've never caught a fish on one. Has anyone? Mepps, panther martin, blue fox...yes. Zilch on a rooster tail.

Someone must be buying them, because they still make them.

Lots. Trout on green frog, bass on black.

Crome blade?

Cohos in Lake Erie 35-45 years ago on black rooster tails, northerns more recently on chartreuse.

Trout in several states.

I have caught a bunch using them.

On the Black rooster tail, gold on the green frog.

Use them a lot in the limestone slab creeks here. Most anything will hit them

Topic of many discussions in high school shop class 35 years ago

There are lots if small streams in the area with trout and they love a 1/32oz silver blade/black hackle Roostertail.

Heaven.

Thanks.

As a kid it was my go-to for a spinner…caught a 15 1/2 lb. Steelhead the winter of 1975….Hula poppers, pearl finish wobblerites and black rooster tails had my fishing needs covered…

Great lures, go to around these parts. 👍

Yep. Used them quite a bit in stock tanks and creeks when I was a kid. Caught lots of perch, Bass, crappie, And even the occasional channel cat on them.

Also used the Mepps spinners quite a bit back then too.
And the old Johnson Weedless Silver Spoon too.

Yellow shyster with yellow tail and silver blade works good on bass i a lot of less than real clear Texas creeks.

White on white bass on lakes.

I once laid down a decent rooster tail in the bed that I believed was just a benign fart...Wife wasn’t amused by my Shart.

Sorry for not posting this under Slummy’s thread on taking a dump w/o a shirt on. I was shirtless at the time.

🦫

🤦‍♂️

Hula Poppers on bass? What color. I used frog and yellow skirt.

I remember catching white bass on them in the local lakes casting them from the shoreline.

Nothing but smallmouth in fast water, but they seemed to like it.

Yeah....A real proud moment for me. LOL

🦫

Yep. Silver spoon any time you see bass chasing minnows or shad in shallow water.

Love them

Would include them in my top 5 favorites

Used to slay the smallmouth with them in the South Umpqua River on crawdad (brown)/brass, yellow/brass and black/silver, in that order of preference. Nothing else even came close. They worked on trout in the mountain streams and lakes too.

They are just Ok in my book. used them alot but found out the main wire is not that stout. After catching a fish or two they bend and that really screws up the blade from spinning easily. My go 2 spinner is the panther martin. They spin easier, come in many colors and you can really feal it working. Also, the rooster tail sometimes wont spin when retrieved and you have to give a quick jerk on the line during your retrieve to get it spinnin, not with the panther martin. IMO.

Yep! Same experience here, quit using them went to Martins and Blue Fox.

Lots of bass and bluegill. I haven't noticed the color making any difference, but I'm probably not nearly good enough of a fisherman to be able to tell.

Dog Catcher,

You and I must just not know how to fish them. I have part of an old tackle box full of the rusted, corroded, smelly things and they haven't caught much, if anything. I'd take a jig or a small spoon over bucktail spinners any day. Given the choice I'll take a Rapala over everything else.

I wish I had a quarter for every fish I've caught on Rooster Tails. They are my "go to" lure for creek fishing . Smallies and KY Bass like the smaller ones and I use larger ones for stripers and more open water. I never am without a few Rooster Tails. I usuallu use the White and Yellow ones, but in low light at dusk, Black and darker colors work best.

Orange fluorescent with a gold blade...Caught many fish on then including a few over twenty inch smallmouth and browns up to 7 pounds on Superior. If the blade stops spinning bend it with your fingers until it;s flat

I’ve got some trout with them.

A bunch of Ohio steelhead on metallic grey stained water or pink in clear water. Lost a bunch too, gotta be banging the bottom with these steelhead.

I’ve caught a few on Rooster Tails but most of my spinner fishing for trout is done with Panther Martins.

Didn’t seem to matter.

Black or red, 1/6 or 1/8 oz Is the first lure in the lake when fishing mountain lakes for trout in these parts.

I mean, trout hit “shiny things” so it’ll catch fish, and yes I’ve caught a bunch of trout on Rooster Tails. But Panther Martins are the much better mousetrap and I’ve caught orders of magnitude more using them. You can cast them farther, and they catch more fish. Rooster Tails turn into little parachutes when you cast them.

The ocean salmon fishing off the Oregon coast was nuts this year. I caught over 50 of them (for the most part, you can only keep clipped-fin coho salmon, and the ratio is about 3:1 or 4:1 wild/clipped).... you wouldn’t believe the lures those things hit. None of this being line-shy or picky bidness like trout.

Wow! Totally surprised. I'll try them again I guess..

A red/white mepps, orange blade mepps, black panther with yellow dots, and yellow with red dots are my standard spinners.

I use them on the high mountain lakes here and have caught rainbows, browns, brooks and tiger trout with them.

Yep. I've caught a whole mess of sunfish and bluegills on rooster tails - even the odd large-mouth now and then, back when I was a kid.

Ditto

Rooster tails are my favorite spinner. Caught all species of trout on 'em including the occasional lake trout in the spring when they're shallow, smallmouth, largemouth, spotted bass, white bass, crappie, bream, and saltwater fish too. Barracuda and a couple others. I've even caught a few catfish on 'em.

They're a little more fragile than Mepps and others, the wire shaft is thin and it can get bent. But they seem to spin easier with less speed than the others, which is why I like 'em.

Bunch of everything but never found the tail to be essential.

Just what I had on hand.

These were caught on rooster tails this year in NM.

Rooster tails are great tool to have in your box. As are Panther Martin's and Mepps spinners. Never underestimate a spoon for certain fishing needs. Everything has it's place. The biggest steelhead I caught, was on a double tail Mr. Twister while walleye fishing below John Day dam on the Columbia River. You just need all the tackle your pocketbook can withstand. Just like guns, can't have to much or too many.

I caught my biggest cutthroat on a Roostertail. I don't know how many trout, bream and white bass with one, but it's a lot.

I usually can the treble hook and put a single on

Is that Quemado?

I gave all my rooster tails to my kids.
Panther Martins or Thomas Buoyant spoons for me.

Wow.... those are toads.... did you really need to kill them?

JellO emerges from the shadows

Recovered from his ladder fall and PTSD…

Younger days caught a bunch of blue gill and pond bass on them. Yellow and purple? Seemed to work best for me.

Dayom. What lake and lure color, pls. Be nice to hit Groundhog Res in Col when up there hunting.

Sometimes TPandW stocks trout in small city lakes in Texas in the spring.

Trout, steelhead, striper…… carp will smack them with their tail and get hooked.

When the fishing gets tough ...I tie on a Rooster tail or a Beetle spin.... I have caught Bass, Bluegill, Catfish and strippers lol.....Works most of the time !!!!!!

I thought dollars bills only caught strippers?

I’m bringing a tackle box full of rooster tails next time I go to the strip club

Rooster Tails have been staple in my tackle box for years. I've caught everything from bluegill to catfish to bass on them. And I've used them in ponds, creeks, rivers, and lakes.

I like them for bass. I usually use the 1/4 oz in white or yellow. They can be a little aggravating if the wire gets bent and sometimes the spinner blade doesn't want to spin at all.

A 1/4 oz yellow shyster used to be one of my favorites, but they got really hard to find. They were much more reliable than the Roostertail and the spinner blade much quicker to start spinning on retrieve.

when I was a kid, rooster tails were one of my favorites for bream and bass. caught tons of fish.

I used them a lot as a kid and still fish them occasionally I’ve caught everything from gills to pike on on them.

I have a friend that swears by them. Never seen him catch a fish on one.

Bingo. Same here , I’ve used them since I was 10 or so

they are killers in my little river. 1/8 oz white with black dots and yellow with white dots. smallmouth, sunnies, rock bass, etc.

Tough to eat them alive.

Eating trophy fish... really?
Eat brookies, planter rainbows... long john silvers etc.... most people will never catch 1 rainbow that size in a lifetimes of trout fishing.
Your ego overrides your good judgement

1/8th oz black and golds were the ticket that day…. Pretty sure they were stocked, meat was white instead of red…

Yellow, white, black and brown trout colors work for me for trout.

Conservation is a thing.....
As is greed and selfishness

Damn man, what do I know about trophy trout… was the first trout I ever caught in my life…

What I did was legal and I have no regrets.

I think I will go to Florida and take a big schit in one of your spring creeks and claim ignorance....

Maybe you should stay in Florida

Whatever d*ckhead….

Caught a lot of trout on rooster tails.

I’ve caught tons on them. Bass, bluegill, walleye, pike, If I could only have 3 lures in my tackle box, that would be one of them.

lots

Any "go to" colors I should try for trout?

I was informed by a local in NM there‘s only 2 colors… Black and gold and Black and silver…rest was fluff…Gold was for the middle of the day, silver was for the early and late hours.

Oh your walking a very thin line!!! Your gonna piss off a snowflake, and they’re gonna tell you how to start acting and how to behave!!!! Haha 😂😂

Brother Jud, as sure as the sun comes up I will piss off a snowflake.....

WTF is it with people these days? Guess living in Hollywood is giving the dude issues.

You're just jealous because Hollywood is full of beautiful rich people.....

Even back in the day they were used to catch trout in Germany.

I'd cook them over a burning tire.

Whatever…

Haha 🤣

Haha me too!! I love it!!

PS, I’ll eat a good high mtn brookie, all others get turned back. Salmon are for eating.. 👍

Kill and eat them all..... over a burning tire fire....

Are you an indian? I am all for gillnetting the mouth of a river .... after all salmon are yummy .... and valuable.... An indian buy more booze that way.....

DITTO. Don't remember ever catching anything on a rooster tail, though I used to try them often on trout before switching to something that works, like Panther Martin, Mepps, Blue Fox or homemade spinners. A friend does well with them but I obviously don't have the knack for rooster tails because I have fished beside him and gotten skunked while using them.

Mtn brookies are yummy... I am not a catch and release trout snob.... but catch one eat one... simple, killing a stringer full of trophy trout is well.... what an east coaster would do, they should not be allowed in our woods

Tons of trout, bass and bluegills

Guessing my time deployed in Afghanistan, Iraq and Central America only counts for one state….Damn, just damn… All this hate over catching some stocked trout.

Oh my ..... and he pulls the hero card.... lmao
So can a vet hunt manatee's ?

i'd love to blast a manatee. they are so arrogant.

Nice catch.

And insufferable douche bags....

If they’re stocked trout, game on. No different than buying a couple trophy steers to slaughter at the county fair. I’d rather have a Mrs. Paul’s fish stick than a Fugkin rainbow trout.

Place I lived in Key largo always had manatees out by the dock. Guy that owned the complex was always bringing lettuce, cabbage, greens from the grocery store dumpster home to feed them. They Smell like hell.

Shusssh..... I was hoping for a bite....

Thanks. I need to try a stocked lake. Never did any trout fishing.

Ok I get it.... kinda like a high fence hunting operation..... my bad.... carry on ... internet hero's

🤮🤮fun to catch, ain’t worth a shiit to eat. Carry on

Put and take fisheries are great for flatlanders.... your tax dollars at work... I will take my trout wild, thank you

Work great on spawning white bass.

I used-to tear the small mouth bass and crappy up on Lake Murray and the two Santee Cooper lakes .... Rooster Tails are great spinner baits.

I actually had a garr hit one at Maddox Bay Arkansas years ago. I watched him do it right up close to the boat.

We crush peacock bass down here with them, along with road runners, beetle spins, crappie jigs, etc. Anything small, fast and shiny gets et.

I’ve caught quite a few trout with them and some sort of bass looking fish. And I suck at fishing so they can’t be all that bad.

What a coincidence...

75* today, too hot to hunt.

Hit the small creek that i grew up fishing on.

Big enough for paddlin a johnboat.

Mostly all i fish is rooster tails.

I’ll catch both bream and bass with them.

Usually bright colors as the water will be dingy at best.

4 bass today.

Throw em with a #20 plueger president and UL ugly stik.

dim som brims an shell crakas

And rgrx1276 it is pretty obvious by their colors, or lack of, they are stocked fish. They probably stock that lake every year with similar for a put and take fishery. Some "experts" here obviously don't know chit or they would see that too, or they are just jealous because they have never caught even one that big.
Good for you rgx, hope they tasted great.

Bill

Oh and for the OP, I've lost count of the fish of different species I've caught on Rooster Tails.

Bill

Damn, those are fat! The rooster tails I have in my tackle box don't do so well. They seem to have attracted me more than the fish. The most productive spinners seem to be plain jane brass blue fox for me. In any case, the only freshwater salmonids I eat these days are Kokanee and Brookies.

I think I caught a handful of grayling on them, but I haven't flung hardware at the waters since I learned to use a flyrod.

Go to lure for me. Tons of small bass and perch using yellow, black, white, & Chartreuse, (in that order).

Doubt id do much eating them as ive had smaller ones caught by a friend. He didn't cornmeal fry them so i was still hungry for fried fish the next day. I needed some smallish white bass, black bass, crappie, catfish or speckled trout rolled in buttermilk and cornmeal and fried.

Tag

Trophy trout tastes good- - - - -so does ivory-billed woodpecker!

Growing up, one of my favorite lures was a Rooster Tail....although it wasn't the lure I used the most. As kids, we always fished the local beaver dam ponds, which had a lot of underwater brush and snags. I simply couldn't afford to lose a Rooster Tail, so I primarily used black/yellow Beetle Spins...it took a little more work to get one of those hung up, and when you did, they were only $0.69/each (versus $2 for the Roosters).

Rooster tails are manufactured here about thirty miles from me. At least that was where they started. My older sister worked for them in the early years. Back then the employees got first pick of the blems or stuff that didn't make the grade.

That girl brought home handfuls of lures.

Many, many fishes on yellow and white spotted rooster tails! Many more on purple beetlespins.

I swam out and got my hooks back. I went fishing with 1 hook and brought it back or a story of the one that got away. Now I got tackle like I'm obsessed and I don't think I have more fun. Maybe a little more fun.

Great lures. I like the 1/4 oz (or so) yellow body, black spots ones for smallmouth, and the 1/8 oz (or so, anyway the little biddy ones) with the white body and black spots for trout.

Those look like last years planters in several lakes around here. We eat every one we catch.

Rooster tails? Until 1980, I thought fish were caught from the bank with a worm. Then I discovered the joy of trolling with spinner baits.

Lots of love here for Panthers. I have a few in the tackle box, but don't think I have ever caught a fish on one. My son loves them.

Blue Fox is a cheap imitation of a Mepps. If you are trolling, spend the extra money for the Mepps. The Blue Foxes twist and tangle lines. You spend more time untangling and respooling the kids fishing rigs than they spend fishing. And yes there is a ball bearing swivel ahead of every spinner tossed from my boat.

So, for us, it is Mepps, or Rooster tails, or hard baits, whether we are casting or trolling. Not so much for panfish, Crappie get plastic jigs, bluegill get worms.

A certain high mountain lake, just as the snow goes off the passes and it is first accessible in late June, we have found the trout bellies to be full of what appears to be black ants. You can catch a limit in short order with a white or yellow body rooster tail with a broken black pattern which resembles a segmented insect.

Trout, smallmouth, and squawfish will all bend your rod snatching a rooster tail. The roostertail, with the willowleaf blade is a little harder to initialize spin. I always sweep the rod forward to make it start spinning. Rooster tails require a bit faster trolling speed to make them work than do Mepps.

For slow retrieve, bouncing off the bottom, a Mepps works better.

And then there is another favorite mountain reservoir around Labor Day, in which the trout will bite nothing but a wedding ring spinner with green beads and blades, and a worm. Fish be funny critters.

Those trout would have been stuffed inside a young seal before going over the tire fire.

You must be fishing in cesspools!

Lots of good info on this thread. Thanks

I've fished them since the early 70's. Caught hundreds of trout on them since then. All with either a 1/8 oz or 1/16 oz rainbow trout body with gold blade and a red/yellow body with a gold blade. I used to order cards of them at a local Ace Hardware back in the day.

Thats been my experience too.

Fooking trout and the catch and release fly fishing brigade.
Most are stockers. If not, doubt it’s in the regs to keep them. They eat like schit regardless.

Anyway, nice fish!

Caught Bass of more than one kind, trout, catfish and drum on them.

We used to fish the N. Fork of the Shenandoah for smallmouth. In the spring the carp would be up in the shallows sunning and every now and then you'd snag one on the dorsal fin. For a few seconds there, it would fell like a state record bass and then you'd realize it was a carp, what a letdown. A 10-lb fish hooked on the dorsal with an ultralight spinning rod will give you a tussle though.

Never had as much luck getting a Rooster Tail to catch fish like say a Panther Martin. Oh sure, Roosters will catch fish, especially bass, which hit about anything, but I'd sooner have one Panther Martin over 10 Roosters.

Anymore though, I don't use spinners much for trout because stocked trout are way down the good-eating list and if you catch a trout on a spinner its usually done for and has to go in the cooler.

PMs spin more reliably. The blade of a RT needs a faster retrieve or sometimes a quick snap to start spinning.

My go to graying lure !

100% .
I either use ones Ive put together or the venerable black and gold PM.

Dogcatcher223: I have been using them (successfully!) for over 60 (sixty!) years now.
They are especially good for Rainbow and Brook Trout - in my extensive experience.
I always have some Roostertails along on my fishing ventures.
I have even caught Grayling using them in both Montana and Alaska.
When fishing Grayling infested lakes and streams here in Montana I remove the treble hooks and replace them with barbless single hooks as most places here in Montana require catch and release on Grayling.
Try'em again - in the long run I think you'll like them.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

firststrikelures.com and randblures.com both make very good components if interested in twisting up your own

Post a pic a fish you caught with a rooster tail

Or better, easier...post a pic of a rooster tail lure right now in your tackle box.

If you cannot or won’t then resign yourself to be just like one of the other mouthy foucks like Slavek or Elkslayer.

Thing is you haven’t seen your tackle box since probably the last time you were able to even see your dick. Maybe 1978?? lol

Ya fûck

Let me go ahead add your name to the useless dickhead thread.

Jake's Stream A Lure is way better than a spinner that looks like it got in the moss.

Black rooster tail best lure ever.

Thank you! You just helped me find a Christmas present for my son. Appreciate the info.

Yes, and my absolute favorite is the smallest ones (1/32 oz) with the propeller spinner. I use them on short striking fish as an extra dropper behind a larger spoon or other lure. The combination is deadly on bass, rainbows, walleye, and panfish.

Panther martin guy here, but I have been known to slum it with a rooster tail and even catch a fish with one from time to time.

Lonny,
You bet. They make make great lures.
One of those has a bell-shaped lure body like blue fox. If you like blue fox lures you are going to love these because they're solid brass and very heavy, so they cast and sink well.. unlike the original blue fox

Well since your state ruined it's trout fishing decades ago and have had to resort to put and take tax payer funded fishery.
My state, Montana is desperately trying trying to conserve a vital natural resource that is a huge driver in our economy.
Franky I am sick and tired of fuggin Washintonians coming here and exploiting our resources.
Wild trout are a fragile and special resource and deserve to be preserved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw424ImpO3k

They have been my go to Brook Trout lure since the mids 70's. I add a chunk of crawler to the hook for wait casting and smell.
My favorite colors are chartreuse and black.

My experience also.

Caught more on a Kastmaster. Panther Martin too.

If I could chose one lure for all species of freshwater fish in North American it would a be a Rooster Tail or Little Cleo spoon. They seem to work on most everything. I used to buy the 1/16 oz gold blade brown body for East Tennessee mountain trout. It works like a charm.

I used to use the purple ones a lot, but they discontinued that color.
Pike and small mouth really liked them.

My favorite on highcountry trout...

Susquehanna River smallmouths on white Rooster Tails back in the day.

Nice. I like 'em cooked in foil, right on the coals.

Grew up on those things, we lived on a golf course and it would be me and my bike, a rod across the handle bars, and small tackle box of rooster tails going around to all those golf course ponds. Caught many a bass, brim, and some crappy on them.

Healthy Cutthroat! Miss catching those & enjoying the pink meat

They look the same, but IMO same size and color , same lake, same day, rooster tail/ panther martin...the panther martin will outfish the rooster tail 2 to 1. Kokanee, rainbow and brookies, non hatchery fish. There are some cavitation dimples in the spinner, maybe that has something to do with it. My test subject is an 11 year old master angler.

Humm, seems we were always talking about girls....

Plenty of trout on yellow but I seem to do better with Panther Martins. Both good IMO they cast well and have enough weight to get down to the fish.

In the high lakes here (above timberline) they're not pink, no crustaceans up that high. But they're still really good to eat.

One of my favorites for Texas Hill Country streams and stock tanks was the 1/32 propeller in chartreuse.

Try the inline vibric rooster tails. You won't have the issue with them.

Kast masters are a favorite. I’ve had good luck swinging them like a traditional spoon for steelhead and slow rolling them for warm water fish like bass and even walleye.

The PM are great too. Black with either a copper or silver blade. One is getting hit, switch blade color. Killed a bunch of trout with them👍

Trout make great bait for halibut.

That is probably the highest best use of those Washington planter trash fish..... your tax dollars at work.... hahahahhahahahaha

Yep.

And here you are bitching about trout caught in a pond in New Mexico. Lol.

Hey now, I acknowledged I was mistaken and assumed they were wild trout...

Lol. All good man.

I love catching wild freestone river trout. Little native cutthroat in Colorado or native brookies in GA.

Don’t keep many, if any at all, just because I don’t enjoy eating them.

I didn’t know that is what caused the flesh color to change! Nice factoid!

I fished for years in the Wind River & Bridger Wliderness out of Pinedale, Wy. Specifically Trappers Lake to up near Green River Crossing and even up to Elbow Lake near the CD but those were mostly Goldens. So tasty over a willow fire.

They work. In a wide variety of applications and species. Brookies to muskelunge. Everything in between. There’s a pattern, size, and color for anything. I keep some in every box. Particularly good for tying into novice lines. Kids. When you just have to have something biting anything to keep the attention span on-point. I’m more into trolling spoons and collect vintage suttons for salmonoids. But, if you’re gonna cast, they’re the original ‘Spinnerbait’. I like jigging ice with bucktails.

We DO have native EBT’s and LL salmon in Maine and parts of NH as well. It is a rare resource, but it’s not exclusive to the west..

Yep, they put ground up shrimp shells in farm-raised fish feed to give the flesh color.

For table fare , there is a long list of fish that eat better than trout

And/or dyes...

I wish I took more pics or a single one lol

Nice pics gents.

Ocean or river striper are my favorite.

Halibut. Cod. Tuna. Trout. Salmon.

Fug catfish……. Yuk.

worms. worms work. Never caught a fish on a rooster tail, despite much trying.

Stupid fish....

Read that someone mentioned kastmasters. They work great, cast a mile even in wind and can be twitched while being retrieved. switch out the stock treble for a gamakatsu and you have a fish catching machine if used properly.

Giant Springs, Bitterroot, Big Springs and Ennis Hatchery's , come to mind as Montana fish hatchery's. There may be others I'm not sure. Like all western states Montana, screwed the pooch on trout fisheries before anyone here was born. Brooke's are an invasive species to all western states. Just keeping things straight. And rooster tails work everywhere one might go, as well as many others.

😂

The money I have wasted trying