Red: A 50 year test report.

I am 64 years old, and was first taken fishing by my dad on Tar Blue Creek in SE Missouri when I was only 4 years old. I still believe that creek was the only muddy creek in the entire state. We caught bluegill until I could no longer hold that little cane pole, and a life-long love of fishing was born.

By age 10, most of my fishing was on Flat River creek and the Big River, both crystal clear at that time. Dad had me on a fly rod by then, using live grasshoppers, small craws, black gnats and other flies, mostly red. We really caught a lot of fish... bass, bluegill, goggle-eye, and Lord knows what else.

A few years later I was wading those and other crystal clear streams with that fly rod, and by then also using a 5' steel casting rod, silk line (I think), and a Pfleuger Akron baitcasting reel. I owned 2 "plugs": a Fred Arbogast Jitterbug and a South Bend Bass-O-Reno. Both were 5/8 oz. lures with red heads & white bodies, which was the most popular color pattern of the time. Even in water so clear that it was almost invisible, that red would draw strikes.

As time went on, the selection of color patterns in fishing lures grew faster than the national debt. All those colors seemed to catch fish somewhere, but few really survived the close scrutiny posed by those clear Ozark streams. Like most non-thinking, follow-the-leader humans in a world where style was more important than brains, I found my catch rate sinking fast. On one trip in the 70's, where valuable fishing time was being squeezed to a bare minimum by the demands of my job, I was getting skunked on the upper Gasconade river in SW Missouri. The Gasconade is, IMHO, one of the most beautiful streams in the world. The only thing that has kept it pristine is the fact it flows through both Fort Leonard Wood and the Mark Twain National Forest. Completely undeveloped, it is a wild, unspoiled river than can be absolutely miserable to navigate. That's how it was that beautiful day in September. A dry summer has the river so low that we had to drag that loaded 18' Jon boat over rocks more than we got to paddle. The fish were easily visible, with almost all bunched in numerous gravel bottom potholes. We fished every lure we had, with the same results. They would rush our lures the second they splashed in the water. They would nose them for a few seconds and then swim away with a total lack of interest. Even I was losing interest, and was beginning to focus all my attention on the case of beer we had on ice, and being grateful that my supplies would keep the day from being a total loss. It was still a little before noon, but I had declared the drinking lamp lit and was reaching for a cold one when I heard my buddy Jack shouting from behind me: "Big one on!"

I dropped the lid of the cooler and spun around to behold a beautiful sight; Jack was tied on to what proved to be a fat 4# SM bass. Our first of the day.

"What did he hit?" I shouted.

I first have to tell you about Jack. Jack loves Rapalas more than Al ever could, and he even pays for his. What Jack loves most is a #7 Rapala standard floating minnow in silver with black back. In fact, he loves them so much that on the Gasconade, which we fished together every fall for over 30 years, he never used anything else. Nothing! I would experiment all day changing lures, depths, retrieves, and more than everything else. Jack would simply cast his same Rapala as close to cover as possible, wait, twitch, wait, twitch, then a steady retrieve at a medium speed. On a really good day, my catch might equal his. Frustrating!

Now, a major fishing secret is revealed:

Anyway, as he released that smallie (neither of us ever ate fish), he showed me that he had cut a piece of fabric out of his favorite red T-shirt. He actually experimented with something, and scored big time! He had cut it to about 1/8" wide & 1-1/2" long, and stuck it on the front treble of his little Rapala. It not only drew that strike, but drew strikes from many species the rest of the day. I was fishing a fat little Texas rigged, hand-poured 4" worm-colored straight tailed plastic worm. I pulled the point out of the worm, put about a 3" piece of the same width red cloth on the hook, and replaced the point into the worm, and Bingo! Fish on! It worked.

After that day, 1/8" wide red cloth in various lengths became a mandatory part of my tackle. It didn't always make a big difference, but at times really saved a slow day. I never found it to hurt anything. Oddly enough, I never found that simply painting some red onto my lures made much difference. The red needed to have some kind of action of it's own, such as the rippling & flexing of the cloth strip (which is much more durable than a simple piece of red worn, or whatever.) I would hang it on the front hooks of topweaters, crankbaits, etc. and on a spinnerbait hook. I also used it on jigs and soft plastics, both Texas rigged and open hook.

When I started sending out evaluation samples of our Secret Weapon spinnerbaits back in 2000, one of the first models was our "Bleeding Minnow," a with shad colored skirt containing a few strands of red. It was far ahead of it's time, and was an instant success (and still is). Now the "Red Revolution" is in full swing, resulting in some lure manufacturers presenting entire lure model series with some kind of red application. We at Secret Weapon will NOT be coming out with a "Red" series. Instead, we have a much more simple, cost effective and fish producing solution: we are offering small red blades to be used in the front of our spinnerbaits in tandem configurations. This is a cheap, quick, easy and absolutely the best way to modify a spinnerbait with just the right amount of active red. I can't keep them in stock. Those who use 1st generation spinnerbaits can change the front blades of some of your lures to achieve a similar affect.

A quick note to the Spam Screamers: this is a damn good fishing tip, at no charge, and is not Spam!

--
Bob Rickard
(AKA Dr. Spinnerbait)
www.secretweaponlures.com
--------------------------=x O')))

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:33:33 GMT, "Bob Rickard"
sent into the ether:

I am 64 years old, and was first taken fishing by my dad on Tar Blue Creek in SE Missouri when I was only 4 years old. I still believe that creek was the only muddy creek in the entire state. We caught bluegill until I could no longer hold that little cane pole, and a life-long love of fishing was born.

By age 10, most of my fishing was on Flat River creek and the Big River, both crystal clear at that time. Dad had me on a fly rod by then, using live grasshoppers, small craws, black gnats and other flies, mostly red. We really caught a lot of fish... bass, bluegill, goggle-eye, and Lord knows what else.

A few years later I was wading those and other crystal clear streams with that fly rod, and by then also using a 5' steel casting rod, silk line (I think), and a Pfleuger Akron baitcasting reel. I owned 2 "plugs": a Fred Arbogast Jitterbug and a South Bend Bass-O-Reno. Both were 5/8 oz. lures with red heads & white bodies, which was the most popular color pattern of the time. Even in water so clear that it was almost invisible, that red would draw strikes.

As time went on, the selection of color patterns in fishing lures grew faster than the national debt. All those colors seemed to catch fish somewhere, but few really survived the close scrutiny posed by those clear Ozark streams. Like most non-thinking, follow-the-leader humans in a world where style was more important than brains, I found my catch rate sinking fast. On one trip in the 70's, where valuable fishing time was being squeezed to a bare minimum by the demands of my job, I was getting skunked on the upper Gasconade river in SW Missouri. The Gasconade is, IMHO, one of the most beautiful streams in the world. The only thing that has kept it pristine is the fact it flows through both Fort Leonard Wood and the Mark Twain National Forest. Completely undeveloped, it is a wild, unspoiled river than can be absolutely miserable to navigate. That's how it was that beautiful day in September. A dry summer has the river so low that we had to drag that loaded 18' Jon boat over rocks
more than we got to paddle. The fish were easily visible, with almost all bunched in numerous gravel bottom potholes. We fished every lure we had, with the same results. They would rush our lures the second they splashed in the water. They would nose them for a few seconds and then swim away with a total lack of interest. Even I was losing interest, and was beginning to focus all my attention on the case of beer we had on ice, and being grateful that my supplies would keep the day from being a total loss. It was still a little before noon, but I had declared the drinking lamp lit and was reaching for a cold one when I heard my buddy Jack shouting from behind me: "Big one on!"

I dropped the lid of the cooler and spun around to behold a beautiful sight; Jack was tied on to what proved to be a fat 4# SM bass. Our first of the day.

"What did he hit?" I shouted.

I first have to tell you about Jack. Jack loves Rapalas more than Al ever could, and he even pays for his. What Jack loves most is a #7 Rapala standard floating minnow in silver with black back. In fact, he loves them so much that on the Gasconade, which we fished together every fall for over 30 years, he never used anything else. Nothing! I would experiment all day changing lures, depths, retrieves, and more than everything else. Jack would simply cast his same Rapala as close to cover as possible, wait, twitch, wait, twitch, then a steady retrieve at a medium speed. On a really good day, my catch might equal his. Frustrating!

Now, a major fishing secret is revealed:

Anyway, as he released that smallie (neither of us ever ate fish), he showed me that he had cut a piece of fabric out of his favorite red T-shirt. He actually experimented with something, and scored big time! He had cut it to about 1/8" wide & 1-1/2" long, and stuck it on the front treble of his little Rapala. It not only drew that strike, but drew strikes from many species the rest of the day. I was fishing a fat little Texas rigged, hand-poured 4" worm-colored straight tailed plastic worm. I pulled the point out of the worm, put about a 3" piece of the same width red cloth on the hook, and replaced the point into the worm, and Bingo! Fish on! It worked.

After that day, 1/8" wide red cloth in various lengths became a mandatory part of my tackle. It didn't always make a big difference, but at times really saved a slow day. I never found it to hurt anything. Oddly enough, I never found that simply painting some red onto my lures made much difference. The red needed to have some kind of action of it's own, such as the rippling & flexing of the cloth strip (which is much more durable than a simple piece of red worn, or whatever.) I would hang it on the front hooks of topweaters, crankbaits, etc. and on a spinnerbait hook. I also used it on jigs and soft plastics, both Texas rigged and open hook.

When I started sending out evaluation samples of our Secret Weapon spinnerbaits back in 2000, one of the first models was our "Bleeding Minnow," a with shad colored skirt containing a few strands of red. It was far ahead of it's time, and was an instant success (and still is). Now the "Red Revolution" is in full swing, resulting in some lure manufacturers presenting entire lure model series with some kind of red application. We at Secret Weapon will NOT be coming out with a "Red" series. Instead, we have a much more simple, cost effective and fish producing solution: we are offering small red blades to be used in the front of our spinnerbaits in tandem configurations. This is a cheap, quick, easy and absolutely the best way to modify a spinnerbait with just the right amount of active red. I can't keep them in stock. Those who use 1st generation spinnerbaits can change the front blades of some of your lures to achieve a similar affect.

I agree!!!


A quick note to the Spam Screamers: this is a damn good fishing tip, at no charge, and is not Spam!


Remove the x for e-mail reply
www.outdoorfrontiers.com
www.SecretWeaponLures.com

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:33:33 GMT, "Bob Rickard"
wrote:

I am 64 years old, and was first taken fishing by my dad on Tar Blue Creek in SE Missouri when I was only 4 years old. I still believe that creek was the only muddy creek in the entire state. We caught bluegill until I could no longer hold that little cane pole, and a life-long love of fishing was born.

etc

Bob--please re-set your line length. This is too wide to handle!

Thanks!

I hope that this is
better----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------testing

Bob


"Guy F. Anderson Sr." wrote in message
...
On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:33:33 GMT, "Bob Rickard"
wrote:

I am 64 years old, and was first taken fishing by my dad on Tar
Blue Creek in SE Missouri when I was only 4 years old. I still believe
that creek was the only muddy creek in the entire state. We caught
bluegill until I could no longer hold that little cane pole, and a
life-long love of fishing was born.

etc

Bob--please re-set your line length. This is too wide to handle!

Thanks!

re-testing
wrap------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------


"Bob Rickard" wrote in message
news
I hope that this is
better----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------testing

Bob


"Guy F. Anderson Sr." wrote in message
...
On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:33:33 GMT, "Bob Rickard"
wrote:

I am 64 years old, and was first taken fishing by my dad on Tar
Blue Creek in SE Missouri when I was only 4 years old. I still believe
that creek was the only muddy creek in the entire state. We caught
bluegill until I could no longer hold that little cane pole, and a
life-long love of fishing was born.

etc

Bob--please re-set your line length. This is too wide to handle!

Thanks!

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 02:05:38 GMT, "Bob Rickard"
wrote:

re-testing
wrap------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------
I hope that this is
better----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------testing

Yup, that did the trick, at least in my newsreader.

Guy A
Ripley, TN

Guy, you appear to be using Agent. Go into messages and click on word
wrap. I think that might help. Bob's sentence length was ok in my
Agent.

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 17:24:58 -0600, Guy F. Anderson Sr.
sent into the ether:

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:33:33 GMT, "Bob Rickard"
wrote:

I am 64 years old, and was first taken fishing by my dad on Tar Blue Creek in SE Missouri when I was only 4 years old. I still believe that creek was the only muddy creek in the entire state. We caught bluegill until I could no longer hold that little cane pole, and a life-long love of fishing was born.

etc

Bob--please re-set your line length. This is too wide to handle!

Thanks!


Remove the x for e-mail reply
www.outdoorfrontiers.com
www.SecretWeaponLures.com

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 21:10:06 -0600, "Dan, danl, danny boy, Redbeard,
actually Greybeard now" wrote:

Guy, you appear to be using Agent. Go into messages and click on word
wrap. I think that might help. Bob's sentence length was ok in my
Agent.

Thanks--but my word wrap is on, has been on. Just one of life's
little mysteries? BTW, how do you like Agent? I like it so well that
I've actually bought and registered it!

Guy A
Ripley, TN

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 13:26:47 -0600, Guy F. Anderson Sr.
sent into the ether:

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 21:10:06 -0600, "Dan, danl, danny boy, Redbeard,
actually Greybeard now" wrote:

Guy, you appear to be using Agent. Go into messages and click on word
wrap. I think that might help. Bob's sentence length was ok in my
Agent.

Thanks--but my word wrap is on, has been on. Just one of life's
little mysteries? BTW, how do you like Agent? I like it so well that
I've actually bought and registered it!

Guy A
Ripley, TN


I have been using it so long. Early 90's for free Agent and probly 8
years for Agent. I need to upgrade to the latest one mine is VER
1.92, old like me. I do not understand how people use MS Outlook. I
have to use it at work and it drives me nuts. Very poor do all
program. I also us Eudora for mail and it out performs Outlook and
doesn't get bombed by things designed to damage MS products. That is
another plus for Agent also.

I am going 3 blocks down to the dam and cast a line for smallies. I
let everyone know if I catch any.

There now it is on topic too :}

Remove the x for e-mail reply
www.outdoorfrontiers.com
www.SecretWeaponLures.com

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 13:43:59 -0600, "Dan, danl, danny boy, Redbeard,
actually Greybeard now" sent into the ether:

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 13:26:47 -0600, Guy F. Anderson Sr.
sent into the ether:

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 21:10:06 -0600, "Dan, danl, danny boy, Redbeard,
actually Greybeard now" wrote:

Guy, you appear to be using Agent. Go into messages and click on word
wrap. I think that might help. Bob's sentence length was ok in my
Agent.

Thanks--but my word wrap is on, has been on. Just one of life's
little mysteries? BTW, how do you like Agent? I like it so well that
I've actually bought and registered it!

Guy A
Ripley, TN


I have been using it so long. Early 90's for free Agent and probly 8
years for Agent. I need to upgrade to the latest one mine is VER
1.92, old like me. I do not understand how people use MS Outlook. I
have to use it at work and it drives me nuts. Very poor do all
program. I also us Eudora for mail and it out performs Outlook and
doesn't get bombed by things designed to damage MS products. That is
another plus for Agent also.

I am going 3 blocks down to the dam and cast a line for smallies. I
let everyone know if I catch any.

There now it is on topic too :}

Remove the x for e-mail reply
www.outdoorfrontiers.com
www.SecretWeaponLures.com


No Smallies near the damn today. Not bad out, must be at or near
freezing. It felt good to cast a lure.

Remove the x for e-mail reply
www.outdoorfrontiers.com
www.SecretWeaponLures.com