Package received. Can't wait to give them a try, will post and let everybody know how they did. Looking forward to giving those lizards a try. Thanks again, I appreciate it!

Your welcome Aaron..Matt and I fished that 'Secret Lake' yesterday..It's pretty big and took about 2 hours to figure out where the fish were and best bait..They were in the back of the lake amongst a cow pastue in lily pads mixed with grass...Horny Toad was the only bait to fish..Matt hooked up with his best of the year..a nice one that nearly went 4 pounds..The deepest hole in the lake was 5 foot.

Aaron..the 3/8th ounce Rooster is my favorite finesse lure..fact I was striking out last Sat. ZERO hits..I somply tied on the Rooster..I go into detail how I fish it as they can be difficult ...

The water's edge was only about 2 foot with weedy structure..you will need an open faced spinning reel with atleast a 5.1 ratio and a nice 6 1/2 foor medium rod ...because it can be difficult to get the blade turning..if it doesn't turn..you have spooked the fish and wasted a cast...plus you need to be pretty darn good in casting..pin point accuracy..If you have these..you will do great..ok let's fish..

I went back to a body of water that rarely gets fished..I cast my rooster to the edge and within a 1 second.she has fallen about 1 1/2 foot.I've already sprung my rod tip back to get the blade turning and at the same time the lure is being swam toward me..all of this at a steady slow retrieve that look slike a foolish gizzard shad swimming in open water..1 st cast a bass inhales it..NOW rod tip up and drive that little treble hook good..on my next cast I got another

Another great way to fish it..I just leave the rod alone in the boat until I see a bass breaking the surface..because of the shape of the lure she will cast farther than most of your other lures..I cast about 10 foot past the jumping fish..count down 1 thousand 2 thousand 3 thousand. activate spinner..keep her at that depth...rod bent FISH ON.

I've lost count of the 5 pounders i've caught on this gem..Here's a quick fish story about this lure in 1981 when I came here to go to Bible college. I had accidently caught a tilapia on a Rooster Tail and they fight like crazy..I cast this lure into a 15 foot pit..I generally fish the Rooster like this..let the lure fall to the bottom..pull..get blade going and always fish it just fast enough to feel the vibration on the rod tip..so here goes...I cast long..let it sink.DARN "I'm hooked on a telephone pole." OH NO...the pole is swimming..and hard to the right!! Now to the left...UT OH!! I'm feeling slack..the fish whatever it is is surfacing..OH MY GOODNESS!!! A huge bass about 30 inches long..BIGGEST I've ever hooked cleared the entire lake..Eyes as big as 50 cent pieces...rod is slack ] -: ...lure is spit out..I'm sick..Very next week a shiner fishermen catches what I beleive is my fish at 12 pounds 6 ounces..He photoes it and releases it. Yep..those lures work when all else fails.

Don't fish them long as they will kink up your line..{ 15 minutes} I then tie on a differnt lure to straighten up the line.the entire lure spins slowly.My best..I once caught 23 bass in 15 minutes off that lure..It was literally every cast..Every local tournament I've won was off that lure..I like it because it 's real like...can make pin point cast..and fish at any depth...

Although I can not speek to much about those large bass like you had on down there. Up here when we hook into an Atlantic Salmon and it is heading up out of the water in one of those giant leeps into the air like they like to do. We have to drop the rod tip down quickly as it breaks the water. This allows enough slack for the falling back so it can not 1) break your line, 2) rip the hook free from it's mouth. You see the wieght of those fish alone falling back into the water can cause this to happen. I am thinking it would be the same with a 10 or 12 lb bass falling back on the fish hook if it not hooked very bad causing a rip out of it's mouth vurses throwing the hook out. So I am not sure on those big bass but it wouldn't hurt you none to try it. The line will still stay realatively tight just the same and it will allow it room to drop back into the water. Good Luck on the next big one.

Also thank you for the gift you sent me. I might not try the worms out until next summer. Although I may be able to for a little bit while I take my tree stand up on a point. Going by boat to the point will be easier when putting the tree stand up rather than carrying it in from land. The weather is finnally cooling down now up here so it is almost time to getting ready for bow season.

Thanks for the Rooster Tail tips, I was a little turned around on how to approach fishing this lure, but your post helped a lot. Reading your rod and reel suggestion, I have a rod and reel setup for the rooster tail that I believe will work decent with it, so I will put it on when i get a chance later this week. I also have a setup ready for the lizard and I am anxious to try it out in some submerged trees laying in a grass bed. That spot produced nicely for me last week with a worm. We are getting pounded by this hurricane right now so it might be a little while before I will get to try them, but they will get their fair shake for sure Thanks again lures and advice Chuck, I appreciate it!

Hey Aaron ..sorry for taking so long getting back..my classroom this year is ..very challenging to say the least.

The diver I sent you is a Strike King model..I'm beleiving it dives from 6-8 foot. the square type bill is for knocking on stumps to make noise. With my lake habitat I don't fish cranks too much ...although I still have about 25 left..{ -; ...I'm mostly a rubber worm man..for top water I love the Horny Toad frog but would love to find a similiar frog that floated longer..I know that would make a difference.

Back to the Rooster Tail..before I had a depth finder..that lure was my depth finder and still is..I cast long and count down..if the count down is 9 thousand..and I pull back weeds..my next cast is 7 thousand..remember to sweep the rod to get the blade turning ..and reel in just fast enough to just get the lure looking like a little lost shad hoping it isn't spotted..You become the helpless lure..Bites will feel like a serious hang up..The hooks are small and you must drive them hooks deep. With much practice you will mentally know exactly the depth you want that little gem to fish ...and you will make it happen no matter if it's a 12" shoreline or 30 ' deep hole. I remember fishing it in a certain lake and catching many spawning 5 pound plus..I won't ease around the shoreline..find that little shady pocket..about 1 1/2 foot deep..flip the lure back and allow it to fall no more than 10 inches..with a high speed reel you can slowly reel it through the spawning area...BANG! rod tip doubled nice 7 pounder in the boat..[ -;

back in my college days and my wife home schooling the boys..we fished for survival..these bass were all caught on the Rooster Tail..back then the limit was 10 per day




and then once while going back to the boat ramp I caught one of these gems on my Rooster Tail..a sunshine bass....a hybred bass that is part striper and white bass..I wasn't sure of the limit so stopped at 7. Man these are the best eattin of them all..
I caught these in about 10 minutes..what a blessing..the little guy is Matt. [ -;


and my wife's first bass was caught on a Cottontail ..a cheap imitation of a Rooster Tail when money was scarce.LOL

I'm looking forward to giving them all a good shot. Those sexy shads supposedly do pretty well, I know KVD uses that color scheme, or variants of, almost exclusively.

I'm hoping that some crappie find that white rooster tail as well. I haven't had a good crappie dinner in a while, and I know this lake I fish has them because I have seen other fishermen pull them out.

Its finally starting to cool down a little over here, we are staying in the low 90's instead of upper 90's, and the water is noticably cooler. I am starting to catch a few larger bass closer to the bank than I was a month ago, and I can see a few stray shad jumping here and there, so I know the bass are starting to key in on them, just not real heavily yet. When they do though, I plan on throwing that crank along the inside weed lines and hope to catch a few nice ones lying in the weeds in ambush. Its nice that the shallow bite is slowly starting to pick up again, it just makes it that much easier to convince myself to get out and fish, haha.

for a first bass, your wife sure picked out a dandy. it would ruin me if my first bass was that big. :-D

I've only caught a 1/2 dozen specks/ crappie on them..Once you get a jon boat with a trolling motor..I 'd send you some jigs that will work.

Jigs are the way to go...here are 3 ways to fish them..

A. If your blessed with a nice gentle breeze..and you know the waer depth...let your boat drift..cast out 2 rods with a jig on the line and a bobber..your jig should be about 2 foot off the bottom..best jgs...small shad dart..I have extras.

B. If the bottom is not trashy...don't use a bobber..just drift the shad darts..a shad dart is a tiny bucktail leadheaded jig..red and white are hot.

C. now, earlier in the year you were talking about a small rebel minnow..I've caught quiet a few crappie on that lure..

D. if the wind isn''t blowing..troll with the jigs on your slowest setting..

Rooster Tail is not that hot for crappie..here's how it ranks for me...from most fish to least amount of fish.

#1 ..bass ...about 250
#2 bluegills..about 50
#3 Sunshine bass..15
#4 catfish { Blue} ..10
#5. gar...about 10
#6 tilapia..about 10
#7 crappie..about 8
#8 chain pickeral about 5
#9 bowfin / mudfish about 4

HOWEVER;;;I use the big 3/8th ouncer..if I used an 1/8th ounce I may get more crappie and diffently bluegill..but still nothing beats the jig IMHO for crappie for artificial bait.

On one of the other waters that I fish (shallow pond) i tear the crappie up with the rebel minnow F4901 (non mirror image), but I can't get a bite to save my life with one right now on the new larger lake I have been hitting up. It's much deeper, the crappie are deep, and I don't really have much success with anything other than horse head jigs(road runners) with curly tails or marabou jigs right now. And with those i still catch very little crappie. Im just trying to figure out a way to catch large numbers from this larger lake, but being bank bound i may have to wait until spring time for when they come up shallow again. Live minnows ALWAYS seems to work though

my friend ..only the real die hard crappie fishermen can catch them now..I'm not one of them..They are primarily a cold water fish..I'll catch a batch in Nov. & Dec..that 's about it.

Road Runners are good..although I've never caught one on them..I love the shad darts and Hal flies./ a southern style jig.

Here;s a batch of slabs I got last year..the reddish color..make sure you have plenty of water in the cooler when transportin gthem ] -; the limit is 20..and there is 20..most are 12 " or more.

Hey Chuck those hybred bass look a lot like our white perch up here.. Pretty tastety..