Red: A 50 year test report.

Bob are you still in southern MO? I live up in O'Fallon. Do any big lake fishing down there?
Kevin
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message om...
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')))

I live just a little east of you in St. Charles. My stinking health has me grounded at the moment, but my hopes are high that I can again harass my friends from the back of their boats.

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

"Kevin" wrote in message ...
Bob are you still in southern MO? I live up in O'Fallon. Do any big lake fishing down there?
Kevin
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message om...
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')))

"Bob Rickard" wrote in message
. com...
I live just a little east of you in St. Charles. My stinking health has me
grounded at the moment, but my hopes are high that I can again harass my
friends from the back of their boats.

When the ice goes away, you feel free to come on up here my friend. Between
Gil and I, I'm sure we can give you all the fishing you can handle.
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com

I'd love nothing better!

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

"Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers" wrote in
message ...
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message
. com...
I live just a little east of you in St. Charles. My stinking health has me
grounded at the moment, but my hopes are high that I can again harass my
friends from the back of their boats.

When the ice goes away, you feel free to come on up here my friend.
Between
Gil and I, I'm sure we can give you all the fishing you can handle.
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com

Bob , I don't know if your in the market for a new rod but Wal-Mart off 94 and junngerman has Falcon originals for $35-$49. That's about 40%-50% off. They are right by the sporting goods counter. I normally fish with low riders and caras but I couldn't pass that deal.
Kevin
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message . com...
I live just a little east of you in St. Charles. My stinking health has me grounded at the moment, but my hopes are high that I can again harass my friends from the back of their boats.

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

"Kevin" wrote in message ...
Bob are you still in southern MO? I live up in O'Fallon. Do any big lake fishing down there?
Kevin
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message om...
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')))

Wal-Mart ????? Is that you AL ?
"Kevin" wrote in message ...
Bob , I don't know if your in the market for a new rod but Wal-Mart off 94 and junngerman has Falcon originals for $35-$49. That's about 40%-50% off. They are right by the sporting goods counter. I normally fish with low riders and caras but I couldn't pass that deal.
Kevin
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message . com...
I live just a little east of you in St. Charles. My stinking health has me grounded at the moment, but my hopes are high that I can again harass my friends from the back of their boats.

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

"Kevin" wrote in message ...
Bob are you still in southern MO? I live up in O'Fallon. Do any big lake fishing down there?
Kevin
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message om...
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')))

I
"Jerry Barton (NervisRek)" wrote in message ...
Wal-Mart ????? Is that you AL ?
Go easy I am a true beleiver in the little guys. I buy 90% of my tackle from a small tackle shop called "Bullseye". Ever heard of them? Great place. There are not too many little guys anymore.
"Kevin" wrote in message ...
Bob , I don't know if your in the market for a new rod but Wal-Mart off 94 and junngerman has Falcon originals for $35-$49. That's about 40%-50% off. They are right by the sporting goods counter. I normally fish with low riders and caras but I couldn't pass that deal.
Kevin
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message . com...
I live just a little east of you in St. Charles. My stinking health has me grounded at the moment, but my hopes are high that I can again harass my friends from the back of their boats.

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

"Kevin" wrote in message ...
Bob are you still in southern MO? I live up in O'Fallon. Do any big lake fishing down there?
Kevin
"Bob Rickard" wrote in message om...
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')))

"Bob Rickard" wrote in message
om...
SNIP GOOD INFO

I agree, red may not be the "be all, end all" in fishing lure colors. But I
can't believe that it doesn't have some affect, at least some of the time. I
mean largemouth bass are predatory, carnivorous fish. Blood (and its color)
has to have some place in their biologics or thought process, somewhere,
surely.

I always thought my all time favorite lure had some of its success (with me,
anyway) due to the fact there was just enough red on it. Oh, the lure BTW,
is the smaller 2 hook "toothpick" Devil's Horse from Smithwick. Yellow with
black stripes, and a shade of red up near the head IIRC. And don't even get
me started on the "red shad" plastic worms that caught me a lot of fish last
summer, and summers before that too.


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

Best color bait for Lake Fork this time of year? Yep, you guessed it, a
large lipless crankbait, aka Rattletrap, in red, fished over the deep humps
and slow rolled like a spinner bait.
--
Doyce

"SimRacer" wrote in message
. com...

"Bob Rickard" wrote in message
om...
SNIP GOOD INFO

I agree, red may not be the "be all, end all" in fishing lure colors. But
I
can't believe that it doesn't have some affect, at least some of the time.
I
mean largemouth bass are predatory, carnivorous fish. Blood (and its
color)
has to have some place in their biologics or thought process, somewhere,
surely.

I always thought my all time favorite lure had some of its success (with
me,
anyway) due to the fact there was just enough red on it. Oh, the lure BTW,
is the smaller 2 hook "toothpick" Devil's Horse from Smithwick. Yellow
with
black stripes, and a shade of red up near the head IIRC. And don't even
get
me started on the "red shad" plastic worms that caught me a lot of fish
last
summer, and summers before that too.


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