What kind of spinners??

I've been looking to troll spinners in some of the nearby trout lakes and wanted a little input. I was recently looking at the spinner section of Wholesale Sports and saw a seemingly endless variety of colors and patterns of Blue Fox and Rooster Tails. I pretty much just walked away scratching my head trying to figure out where I would even start! I remember using small panther martins (silver blade and yellow body with orange dots) in the mountains of Wyoming and they worked pretty well for brook trout. They don't work as well here I guess. I'm not looking for your secret weapon, just looking for an idea of what colors/patterns are a good place to start when building an arsenal of hardware.

I'm also looking for input on spinners for bass too if you're feeling generous. 

Got to have:

Black w/silver blade
Brown/with bronze blade
Fire Orange/black spots
Silver w/ silver blade

My favorite Roostertails.
-Scott

As The Nothing has mentioned several times, Kastmasters! 

Cast and retrieve, or troll both seem to work in Hagg Lake.  Plain Chrome, Green and Gold, Green and Chrome, and Red and Chrome.   I just picked up a few today from Wal*Mart, Plain Chrome and am going to try Green and Gold with Perch pattern.

I also have had luck with Perch colored Krocodile blades.

Yellow/Chartruese Rooster Tails, as well as Brown Rooster Tails.   Have also seen luck with Black Rooster Tails.

My favorite slow troll is just a big Wooly Bugger fly with a small split shot to get it to sink a bit.

For lakes you couldn't go wrong starting with wedding ring spinner.  There are lots of color combinations that can work, and it might depend upon sub-species, but for most trout lakes in Western Washington,  red beads w/silver spinner would be the go-to lure.

I have had good luck with rooster tail type spinners in the creeks.  I've heard they can catch fish in lakes

I like panther martins.  Black body, yellow dots, silver blade.  Rooster tails ... green, or yellow coach dog.

Triple teaser or dick nites ... red head with silver body, or half and half.

-Allen

Seems like my bigest lake fish, have always been caught on Flatfish type lure, with any kind of green.

I also seem to get action on the kastmaster too.  Blue and silver is my fave. 

I'm ditching the Green this year and going Orange...

no, i'm not talking college sports, but Kastmasters.  No, they're not spinners, but I love 'em. (i need to send an email or two to Acme i guess)


But, back to the spinner topic.  I've got some Roosters, but the only time I've ever landed fish on Roosters, they were hitting EVERYTHING that day. Yes, they (trout) were hitting bare hooks too.  I have a witness (kevinsdriftboat on ifish).  The spinners i've head the best luck on have been Blue Foxes.  I've got a couple in salmon and steelhead sizes, and a couple for trout, but I don't get crazy on colors.  Just chrome for nice days/water, gold for stained.

Awesome. Thanks for all the info! That helps a lot!

Yes, I have a few Kastmasters. For some reason, they've just never produced for me. I have a chrome/green one, a chrome one, and a gold one. Maybe I just haven't been using them the right way. Do you tie directly to the split ring or add a swivel or... ? Seems to me like they should need a swivel or something. Or maybe that's what I've been doing wrong.   What size of those is a good trout size? I think the ones I have are the 1/4 oz. model.

Thanks again everyone!

My favorite lake trollers are are:

-Black roostertail with a silver blade (small)
-Half and half baby kastmasters
-Pink or orange wedding ring with a smile blade
-Jointed Rapala
-Small flies on a long, light leader

If the bite is slow, you can spice things up with by tipping with a worm or some powerbait.

 

I also seem to get action on the kastmaster too.  Blue and silver is my fave. 

What deep said, same fav. color.  

Kastmaster, Blue Fox, Panther Martin. different colors. I like to use a Seps flasher in front of a spinner/lure. If you haven't tried the Seps flasher, look into them, there miniature lake trolls like  a ford fender, alot less drag.

I've tied drirectly to and used a swivel with a Kastmaster and see no real difference. I normally use a swivel and I use the 1/4 ounce ones. I probably use my blue/chrome kastmaster 50% of the time in my local lakes.

Lets not get into Spot's Jointed Rapalas.... i've been trying for a year and haven't been able to reproduce that one...


It hasn't seemed to matter if you tie Kastmasters to the leader or snap into a swivel.  It'll work either way.  The swivel will give a larger appearance to the fish.  I prefer 1/4-3/8ox for freshwater.

90% of the time (last year) I picked up fish on a plain kastmaster, sometimes tipped with worm or powerbait.  if the bite was just plain off, i'd drop in a koke troll with 1/2 nightcrawler 24+" back.  Seemed to work out well...

I had a chance to run some field tests of all my lures this morning at Estacada Lake because fishing was slow for everyone.  By the way, what a secret jewel just 40 minutes from Portland.  I'll go back anytime if anyone is up for it.  Steelhead were jumping all over the place early in the morning.  And a HUGE chinook almost jumped into the boat.

No one was having any luck catching anything though.  I started with blue and silver kastmaster - snagged and lost it.  Wooly bugger - nada.  Wedding ring - nope.  Small kwikfish - nothing.  Then I remembered what The Nothing posted here about dirty water, so I put on a gold kastmaster and - bam.  Limited out in about an hour.  All were 11 inch planter bows with one 14 incher.  It's always fun to outfish the PBs.  Thanks for the good advice.

I had a chance to run some field tests of all my lures this morning at Estacada Lake because fishing was slow for everyone.  By the way, what a secret jewel just 40 minutes from Portland.  I'll go back anytime if anyone is up for it.  Steelhead were jumping all over the place early in the morning.  And a HUGE chinook almost jumped into the boat.

No one was having any luck catching anything though.  I started with blue and silver kastmaster - snagged and lost it.  Wooly bugger - nada.  Wedding ring - nope.  Small kwikfish - nothing.  Then I remembered what The Nothing posted here about dirty water, so I put on a gold kastmaster and - bam.  Limited out in about an hour.  All were 11 inch planter bows with one 14 incher.  It's always fun to outfish the PBs.  Thanks for the good advice.

Sounds like an interesting place to explore. I'm looking for ideas for the upcoming weekend...

Jay

I had a chance to run some field tests of all my lures this morning at Estacada Lake because fishing was slow for everyone.  By the way, what a secret jewel just 40 minutes from Portland.  I'll go back anytime if anyone is up for it.  Steelhead were jumping all over the place early in the morning.  And a HUGE chinook almost jumped into the boat.

Funny you mention that, I was doing a little research on trout lakes in the PDX area and that one looked real nice along with a few others in the area. I can see myself spending a lot of time at that lake after I relocate to the Portland area later this year.