Panther Martins VS Rooster Tails

[Jig Thrower]

Today i went trout fishing.  i switched between rooster tails and PMs and there really wasnt much difference.  i caught about the same amount on both or had just as many hits. is there realy not that much of a difference or was this just a lucky chance?

[Jake.]

The Panther Martins' blades spin alot better than the Roostertails' do in my experience. They also have better hooks.

[SDoolittle]

I've always prefered rooster tails for trout fishing. The panther martin blades do spin better, but they seem to have a larger profile and I like small lures for trout.

[BassFishingMachine]

I have found out, it all comes down to what the fish want at that time period. Which makes me switch from panther martins, to rooster tails, to mepps spinners. Sometimes I find a white/green panther martin or a small all gold panther martin kills. Other times I've found the rainbow just go crazy for a black roostertail w/silver blade, or a chartruese roostertail w/gold blade. And lets not even bring up the gold featherless mepps spinner, with the lil red rubberband on the hook, and the gold blade, or copper blade.

Like with any other lure, you have to throw it to find out what they fish are prefering. I've seen times where I didn't have a black/orange or black/red spinner, and that was the only color they'd hit. I have also been in situations where I didn't have a black roostertail w/silver blade, and I couldn't buy a hit, meanwhile the guy next to me with that roostertail was catching em. It all depends what the fish are going for on that day. Roostertails have their moments, and so do panthersmartins, and so do mepps.

[Marty]

I'd think on any given day anything can happen, but in the long run I'd say you'd get similar results with most, if not all, of the leading brands.

[VolFan]

I get less line twist with Roostertails, but they both work pretty darn well.

[Paul Roberts]

It's been a long while but once upon a time I spent A LOT of time fishing for trout on small to medium sized streams with spinning tackle. I used RT, PM, and Mepps.

They all catch trout, but, like all lures each have their advantages.

Roostertails:

I really liked a black #2 RT a lot. It was my favorite on woody brown trout cricks. The flash from the willow blade is just great, and they fish around and over cover really well. They often need a quick tug with the rod tip to engage the blade, or re-start it after contacting something just make it part of the retrieve. I think this spinner takes the most practice, to get the most out of them.

RTs are pretty buoyant which allows them to be backed into hard to reach spots, or fished over obstructions without hanging fairly well. They are also pretty snag-proof. The blade is long enough to shield the hooks when it contacts a branch. If you are deft on the retrieve, the blade stops on the branch and the lure will slide right over. Retrieve too firmly, or try to jerk it away, and you'll hang that lure. With practice it can be fished through some pretty gnarly tangles.

Mepps Aglias:

These are more buoyant than RTs, and the slowest in speed of the three; Good for keeping the lure in place longer, in winter, and in slow water without current support, as in fishing with the current, whereas the RTs I used mostly casting downstream. They engage pretty well but may need a kick-start, but less so than the RT.

I used 00 (tiny and most buoyant of all a great thin water spinner) thru #2 (another snag-less spinner and great on big browns), and #3 or #4 for steelhead.

Panther Martin:

I used all sizes. They are more compact, heavier than the other two, and fish faster. The smaller ones are buoyant enough to fish shallower, or somewhat slowly. The larger sizes are heavy and fast.

They engage immediately which is great for pinpoint casts to very small strike zones.

They snagged easier than the others so I used them in somewhat more open pools, although accurate casting can get you into a lot of places. I liked them for running deeply down, or across (a great trigger), a riffle or pool, or backing into a faster deeper brown's lair (that provides current support). Their speed makes them great for fishing quickly and deeply though pools, and trout really like the speed and flicker.

If I had to choose a set of spinners to cover most of the stream trout situations I fished it would be:

Mepps 00 (small trout, very shallow), Mepps Aglia #1, #2 (big small-stream browns).

Roostertail #2 (black/silver, and white/silver for roiled water)

Panther Martin #1 (almost interchangeable with Mepps00 or 0), #2, and #4.

If my FF buddies ever saw some of my photos from the early days, they'd probably dis-own me LOL.

I doctored my spinners some too: The trebles were often too damaging to small trout and I went to single hooks on many of my spinners. I also bent the wire shaft just behind the line tie on some of my spinners (RTs, M) to about a 40deg angle, which reduces line twist substantially on a slow retrieve if you do this make sure you leave enough wire so the bend doesn't crowd the clevis. Regardless, every now and then nip off the spinner, cut back, then hang the line out in the current to remove the twist otherwise, you'll be sorry.

Notice the bent shaft (In-lines are dyno on bass too lots of people have forgotten that it seems):

[roadwarrior]

I fish Panther Martins only: Gold blade, black with chartruese spots.

8-)

[Paul Roberts]

Yeah, a single spinner type can take you a long way. Most spinners can adequately cover a fairly wide range of conditions and situations. Notice the adequately and fairly.

One often good way to approach things is to pick a lure and find water that matches it, as that's where you will catch most of your fish with that particular lure, (whether you recognize it or not). If you have a lot of that type of water to fish, this approach can catch you a lot of fish, and save you some money by keeping the bait monkey from looking over your shoulder every time you visit the spinner aisle at the tackle shop.

But...

Having gotten into stream trout pretty heavy, and fishing many different streams at all seasons, I found that different streams, reaches or sections of streams, through the seasons, offered very different challenges. Water levels, current intensity differences (heightened at both very high and very low extremes), presence of cover, water temperature, trout species, and the particular lie a particular trout happened to occupy, ended up favoring one spinner type and size over another.

This became particularly sensitive when I got to know certain stretches really well, and where some of the larger trout held. Some big trout occupied logjams with strong currents barreling into them. Others were beneath undercuts with moderate to even slow current some surprisingly shallow. Others lived at the bottom of pool basins some within a strong eddy or "eye", others deep in a basin with either laminar or turbulent flow. Most used cover, especially wood, brush, grass, or boulders.

In hard fished water (where the easy trout had been removed) precision could be absolutely critical (inches accuracy I called it). Much of the year, larger browns literally required you place the spinner, the blade engaged, just exactly right; Next to or well beneath a particular branch sometimes between or through a maze of branches. Further, I felt that the first cast was the one that counted, especially with larger browns since they were often so easily put off. Too many failed attempts would put that fish down, I believed. Even on under-fished streams, low flows in summer shrunk habitat so much that accuracy was simply critical to catch any decent trout.

So, while a few lures can go a long way more are better. The bait monkey has a real purpose after all. Lures are simply tools, and some really do fit better than others.

[Low_Budget_Hooker]

The old senko, trick stick,dinger theory.

Pick one, as you've proved, they all catch the fish