Check out this rad footage of salmon and char chasing and biting my spinners. I recently trolled No. 7 spinners downstream with an Okuma Waterwolf camera rigged in-line and there’s definitely some cool stuff to be learned by seeing what’s going on down there!
Hook Placement: If it Bleeds it Dies, right? Not so Fast…
I used to think that a fish bleeding like this couldn’t be released…but that’s not entirely true.
Over the past several years, I’ve had the good fortune of being hired by various agencies to catch — with rod and reel — Chinook salmon for acoustic tagging studies. These have all been tracking programs to look at the spatial and temporal distribution of both spring and fall kings…but some very interesting anecdotal information has come out as well.
Some of the most compelling stuff had to do with the relationship between hook placement in a fish and its chance for survival.
As I started reflecting on some of my experiences, I got on the horn with noted Northwest guide and fellow “science angler” Bob Toman, who has done even more salmon tagging than I in Oregon. As always, he was extremely interesting talk to and had a lot of info to share as well.
So, here are just some random observations from our experiences – ones that I think may surprise you a bit…
If it Bleeds it Dies??
One of the longstanding beliefs I’ve held onto over the years is that a salmon or steelhead is likely going to die if it is pumping blood from its gills. Might as well bonk it, right? Well, not so fast…
After tagging hundreds of Chinook on the Yuba and Feather rivers in Northern California, I’ve had a handful of our fish hooked deep in the gill arches (mostly hooked on No. 4 & 5 spinners) -– all of which I figured were dead. A couple did die, but we also had several amazing stories of survival.
“The Bleeder” Despite a massive loss of blood, this big buck was found spawning upstream!
The most blatant example came one October while targeting fall kings on the Yuba. A dusky buck of nearly 30 pounds mashed my Kwikfish and took it down deep…way deep. When we got the fish to the boat, the K15 was barely visible in its mouth. It quickly became obvious that the fish had a severed gill arch as it was pumping an alarming amount of blood.
Fishing had been slow so far that week, so the biologists decided to outfit the king with an acoustic tag anyway. While they tagged and measured the salmon, I constantly scooped blood out of the livewell with a 5-gallon bucket and replaced it with fresh water. The buck was bleeding so heavily that I couldn’t keep the water clean and soon he was obscured by crimson in the tank.
When we released the big boy, we watched as he swam weakly off in a daze and figured he’d be buzzard food by morning. Well, a couple weeks later, the biologist texted me and said that she found our fish, dubbed “The Bleeder,” many miles upstream and hanging with a female on a redd!
Toman has had similar experiences with spring Chinook on the Willamette River. He said that 150 springers that he caught and tagged one session were released into a fish ladder so they could be monitored. Of that batch, a little over a dozen of the fish had been hooked in the gill arches and were bleeders. After their release, several of the wounded Chinook drifted upside down and were barely quivering against the back screen of the pen. The biologist figured those kings were going to die and almost pulled them from the pen to toss them downstream. But he decided not to and was blown away to see that the fish had righted themselves later and eventually all survived to swim out on their own.
The Ability to Heal
“Salmon have blood pressure just like you and I do,” says Toman. “When you make them bleed, the pressure drops off a bit and then they can often plug the hole and stop the blood loss. Eventually, their bodies remanufacture more blood and they can continue on.”
Though we tagged this beautiful Feather River springer in 70-degree water, it made its way back to the hatchery some 35 miles upriver of the capture site.
I had never thought about that – the fact that a fish can sustain a potentially mortal wound and then sometimes heal itself — but Toman’s point really makes sense.
“You see those fish with big seal, shark or killer whale bites and you know they must have been bleeding like a stuck pig when it first happened,” he says. “But, again, they are able to heal themselves and the lost blood gets replaced.”
Mortality Rates
Toman concedes, however, that mortality was as high as 83 percent on his springers when hooked in the gills. During his study years, there was a 60 percent mortality rate for gut-hooked fish. The most impressive and encouraging stat, however, was that just 2.3 percent of the fish Toman hooked in the jaw died on his projects.
Studies show that fish hooked in the corner of the jaw have an extremely high rate of survival upon release.
To support that evidence, I tagged 114 spring Chinook on the Yuba a few years back. When hired later that year to catch Fall-Run, I actually recaptured 5 of my springers! Pretty amazing when you consider it was 4 months later when I caught them again! Of those 5 re-captures, all were jaw hooked the first time and two were gill hooked the second time. All five “two timers” were later tracked upstream in the spawning areas.
One season, we re-captured several springers again in the fall (both times on hook and line)
Toman says that the “official number” assigned to catch and release mortality of springers in Oregon is 12 percent overall, but that seems a bit high and he has been asking survey crews to ask anglers where their fish were hooked to try to gain more data about hook placement.
I think info like that is important for fisheries managers to consider when looking at quotas and regulations for rivers that have both hatchery and wild fish in them. Obviously, we want to keep angling opportunities available while minimizing any damage to the native spawner population. Some of that can be accomplished with catch & release and gear-specific regs. ?
Better Management?
We’ve already looked at mortality rates of spring Chinook based on hook placement and Toman thinks that data too could be used as a management tool to increase survival of released fish.
“One thing I’ve noticed is when we fished prawns straight or with a Corkie, the springers routinely swallowed them,” says Toman. “But when we rigged prawns with spinners, the fish hit them like a lure and were almost always hooked in the jaw – about 90 percent were like that. Though I get nowhere at all with it, I’ve been suggesting the managers look at maybe making some regulations that would reduce the incidence of gut-hooked fish. If you could use only, say, a prawn spinner on the Columbia, we could keep that mortality rate down around that 2.3 percent rather than the 12 percent they say it is. It would be a great tool for us because we would get to fish a whole lot longer.”
Speaking of gear changes, Toman says that he feels that there are several situations in which the mandatory use of larger hooks would also help because he believes they keep fish from swallowing the bait.
“We did a lot of underwater filming in Alaska, watching kings bite eggs,” he says. “A 2/0, 3/0 or even 4/0 hook can get swallowed pretty deep — but with big 5/0 and 6/0’s on there, a fish feels them pretty quickly and starts shaking his head rather than continuing to swallow. Then you hook ‘em in the mouth more often than the gills or gut.”
Of course, there are other things to consider – trebels or singles; how long a fish is played; how it is handled, water temps, etc., but Toman makes some interesting points here.
Food for thought anyway…
How to Back-Bounce Plugs for King Salmon
(NOTE: This is an excerpt from my eBook Plug Fishing for River Salmon, available on Amazon Kindle)
Back-Bouncing wobbling plugs like Flatfish and Kwikfish is one of the most effective ways to catch king salmon that are holding in deep holes in a river. It takes some time to master this method and it requires focus, practice — and some muscle. Get it dialed in, however, and you will have an extremely important salmon technique at your disposal.
The idea here is to use a lead cannon ball sinker to get your plug down deep. You need enough weight to touch the bottom but not so much that you end up anchored to it. There are a couple variations of this technique that I often employ: Traditional Back-Bouncing and Hovering. Here are the basics of both:
Traditional Back-Bouncing
Once you’re set up on a good hole, orient the boat just like we did while flatlining: Bow pointed upriver when fishing out of a sled and nose down when you’re in a drifter. Start by clicking the reel into freespool and then drop your gear into the drink. You want a rapid (but controlled) sink rate, so lightly thumb the spool on the way down.
When the sinker touches down on the bottom, smoothly lift the tip and then gently drop it back down, feeling for the tap of the lead on the rocks. If you don’t feel the sinker hit, let a short blast of line line slip out from under your thumb and then try to find the bottom again. Normally, you’ll have to repeat this process a few times to get enough scope out to feel the bottom on every drop of the tip.
The term “back-bouncing” is a bit misleading. What we’re really trying to do here is slowly “walk” the sinker downriver 6 inches to a foot at a time as the boat slips downstream at about one-half of the river’s speed. The word “boucing” implies herky jerky rod movement but instead you’re looking for a nice, easy pace. Lift, let the current walk the lure back, drop and pause for a second or two. Repeat. Remember, you’re not trying to impart a jigging action to the lure with the lift and drop routine. The objective is to simply keep the lure and lead following the contours of the bottom so you stay “in the zone” and out ahead (downstream) of the boat.
Feeling the bottom is one of the trickiest parts to pick up — especially on the initial drop. If, after a few bounces, you have not made contact with the riverbed, simply reel up and start over. When you are first learning, you may not feel the sinker hit bottom and then continue letting line out as you search for it. What’s often going on here is your lead is lying on the bottom and you’ve got an ever-growing bow in your line between the tip and the sinker. As the boat moves through the run, you pass your lead and it usually ends up getting snagged.
Keep an eye on the angle of the line between your rod tip and the water. If it’s straight down or pointed slightly upstream, you are hung up. Reel up fast!
Hovering
Sometimes, salmon will be suspended somewhere up off the bottom and that’s where hovering comes in handy. It’s also quite useful when you have a super snaggy bottom. The basic gist is this: you drop down to the level you want to fish and simply hold the rod steady. For this technique to work, you need to have water deep enough that the boat won’t spook the fish because you will be sitting directly above them.
Big Fred Contaoi shows off a monster Chinook that gobbled a plug. Typically, the biggest fish each year are taken on wigglers.
If you can see kings on your depthfinder, drop your rig down to a level that’s a foot or two over their heads. Remember, salmon see things above their position much easier than things below so err on the side of fishing too high rather than too low. If the fish are close to the bottom, let your sinker tap once and then reel up a couple cranks until you feel the plug throbbing. There is less current right near the bottom, so just be sure to come up enough to get the lure working.
Some folks like to sit, as if anchored, right over the fish and wait until one loses its cool and attacks. I prefer a more proactive approach and will let the boat slip ever-so-slowly down through the hole. Periodically check for the bottom and reel up or freespool more line as necessary.
Because you will have the boat “parked” over the fish, hovering is best practiced with oars or an electric motor. Also, be careful not to stomp around in the boat or drop pliers, sinkers, etc on the floor. The less worried the salmon are about you being there, the more likely the are to bite.
Whichever style you try, the same rule applies here when a fish bites: wait, wait, wait and then wait some more before you set that hook!
The Go Big Technique
On some rivers, you’ll encounter a unique situation in which the salmon will be holding in extremely deep, slow pools. In these spots, you’ll often see fish rolling but getting a lure to them can be problematic.
Typically, the water will be entirely too deep for a flat-lined plug — and yet too slow for traditional back-bouncing or hovering. That’s where a modified approach with giant plugs is the ticket. The idea here is to find a plug with enough surface area that it will wobble in slow flows and then match it with the right amount of lead so that it gets down.
It takes a while to find the right combination for a given hole, but this method is deadly when you get it right.
When looking for a slow water plug, you can’t beat Yakima Bait’s jumbo-sized T-55 and T-60 FlatFish. They feature a wider, slower wobble than do Kwikfish (though the K16 has its moments too) and work in awesome in froggy water.
She’s huge, but the T60 Flatfish will get pounded — even by averaged size kings!
Depending on the lure, depth and current, you may only need ¾-ounce of lead or less to get down to the fish. The weight of the sinker will take the lure down, and the wide profile of the lure will catch the current and pull your gear downstream.
Drop the plug into the water and let the current slowly pull it back. Lightly apply thumb pressure to the spool as it goes and then stop the lure about every 10 feet. Wait until the tip starts pulsating and then you can start the descent again. It’s a slow process, but stay with it until you get as deep as you want into the hole. Always make sure the lure is working and know that a barely noticeable pumping on the rod tip is okay in this situation. Once everything is working properly, begin to ever-so-slowly slip downstream with the boat. Stealth is key here!
Oddly enough, a lot of the grabs you’ll get fishing this way will be incredibly violent, rip the rod out of your hands type of affairs, so hang on and try not to react until line is ripping off the reel!
Help support this website: When you purchase a product through one of the Amazon links you find on this site, I get a very small commission – there’s no extra cost to you. I only highlight products that I have used and believe in. By using these affiliate links you can help me keep this website up and running. For more info, check out our Affiliate Disclosure page here.
Rods, Reels & Line
As with all plug fishing, back-bounce and hover rods should have enough softness in the upper end to allow the plug to work freely. There also has to be enough “give” there so that a king can chew on your lure with feeling a lot of resistance. And of course, it must have power in the lower 2/3 of its length to handle big fish.
The also need to be capable of lifting heavy sinkers — sometimes up to 12 ounces or more. My two favorites are the Douglas Outdoors LRSC 835M and the higherend DXC 835M. Amazing sticks with a crazy weight to durability ratio!
The good ol’ classic Shimano Calcutta is a great back-bouncing/hovering reel. I prefer the 200 size, but you can bump that up to the 400 series if you need the extra muscle and line capacity. For a little less money, you can also go with the standard Abu Garcia 6500 Ambassaduer.
As far as line goes, braided line is the way to go — great strength to diameter ratio, incredibly durable, sensitive and low stretch. I prefer 30- to 50-pound braid but guides on places like the Kenai River will go up to 80-pound when gorilla-sized salmon are a possibility. There are plenty of good brands out there. P-Pline’s TCB8 has worked well for me.
Plugs
I already covered the jumbo plugs I like in those extremely slow, froggy pools but for most situations, I go a bit smaller. A great all-around back-bouncing plug is the silver/chartreuse bill T55 Flatfish, as is the K-16 Kwikfish.
Rigging Up
The basic back-bounce rig looks like this: You side a quality barrel swivel like a Rosco or SPRO over the end of your mainline and then slide 1 or 2 plastic beads up the line. Tie another barrel swivel to the end of the main line and add a 3- to 5-foot leader (25- to 60-lb. test, depending on the river and size of the fish) to the other eye. At the end of the leader, tie on a duo loc snap with a Palomar Knot.
To the other end of the swivel that you initially slid up the mainline, tie a 6- to 24-inch section of 12-pound test and finish it off with another snap. This is the dropper line to which you’ll connect your lead. Go with a shorter dropper in faster/shallower water and a longer one in slower/deeper water. Cannonball-style sinkers work best for this technique and, depending on the water you’re fishing, you may need anything from ½-ounce to 12 ounces.
Learn More
This is just a small sample of what’s inside my eBook, Plug Fishing for River Salmon, available on Amazon Kindle.
How to Catch Big Stream Trout on Jerk Baits
To catch a big trout the next time you go stream fishing, ditch all the usual stuff — salmon eggs, small spinners and worms — and give the fish something meatier: Jerk Baits!
While aquatic invertebrates account for the bulk of the average stream trout’s diet, the largest fish in the creek prefer to dine on smaller fish. Jerk baits imitate forage fish extremely well and by using them you will see the average size of your catch go way up.
Jerk Baits
Jerk Bait is a term that refers to a wide array of minnow shaped plugs that are designed to be retrieved with a JERK-JERK-JERK-PAUSE type of retrieve. In my early days of throwing minnow baits for trout, we had a few basic ones from which to choose — chief among them were Rapalas and Rebels. Thanks to the explosion in the popularity of this technique among bass anglers, there are now more plastic baits than you could hope to try in ten trout seasons. In the warm-water world they’re often called “rip baits” and are pretty slick tools designed to solicit reaction strikes from bass. It just so happens that big trout love ‘em too!
The old balsa and plastic baits I used as a kid were basically cast out and crank-in types of lures. The modern ripbait’s function is to be tossed out and retrieved with an aggressive popping (ripping) of the rod trip and cranking of the reel, punctuated with frequent pauses.
These new baits feature all kinds of fancy technology like tungsten rattles and weight transfer systems for bomb-like casting (remember the way a light wood plug would pinwheel when you’d throw it?), but the most important feature is their neutral buoyancy.
How far down these lures dive is governed by the size of the bill, but once you’ve cranked it down to its working depth and pause it, a jerk bait will hold its place in the water column. There’s no sinking or rising up like the baits of yesteryear and that’s one of the things that make these things so deadly.
The new generation of minnow baits is designed to be fished fast (though they also work well in cold water on a painfully slow retrieve), which allows you to quickly cover lots of water. Additionally, they’re adorned with some extremely sexy laser finishes and super realistic paint jobs. When you look at all the attractive attributes of rip baits, it’s easy to see why bass of all persuasions love ‘em – and it doesn’t take much critical thinking to understand why big trout also fall all over themselves for them too!
Help support this website: When you purchase a product through one of the Amazon links you find on this site, I get a very small commission – there’s no extra cost to you. I only highlight products that I have used and believe in. For more info, check out our Affiliate Disclosure page here.
The Best of the Best
As I noted earlier, there are dozens of companies making ripbaits – and there are a lot of really good lures out there. In fact, if you wander the aisles of your local tackle shop or flip through the pages of one of the big tackle catalogs, there’s a good chance you’ll get a little overwhelmed by all the choices. I’ve fished a bunch of different models and brands of rip baits for trout and have pretty much settled on one for most stream fishing situations: Lucky Craft’s Pointer 65.
They’re a bit pricey (typically around $14 to $16 a pop), but the little Pointer 65’s will get straight up medieval on rainbows, browns, cutties, dollies and brookies. They’ve got an erratic side-to-side darting action that I just don’t think any other lure can touch. I actually started fishing the larger versions for stripers and eventually added Pointers to my trout kit. Now, I hardly throw anything else – spinners, spoons and crawlers included.
At first glance, a 65-millimeter (2 ½ inches) lure seems kinda over-the-top in a small stream. It takes a little getting used to throwing them, but what you’re doing is targeting the biggest fish in the creek. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to have to sacrifice quantity for quality as the smaller fish eat ‘em too. While the 65’s are my all-around favorites, bumping up to the Pointer 78 size is a good call on larger rivers. When fishing big browns and macks on lakes (a topic I’ll cover in a future article), Pointers as large as the 5-inch No. 128 can solicit some punishing strikes.
As far as colors go, the best advice I can give you is try to match the shades of the natural trout forage in the waters you fish. Some of my favorites include Rainbow Trout, Ghost Minnow and American Shad.
That being said, color isn’t as important in this style of fishing since the lures are moving through a trout’s territory so rapidly. The idea here is to present the bait quickly enough to a fish that he doesn’t have much time to think about things.
I run my rip baits stock out of the package with only one minor modification: I pinch the barbs, which makes releasing fish much easier. Also, be sure to tie your line direct to the bait – swivels and clips will compromise the lure’s action.
Technique
As the name “ripbait” implies, the basic technique is to “rip” the lure aggressively through the water with a combination of sharp pops of the rod tip and corresponding turns of the reel’s handle. Ideally, you fish these things from a position above the water (as in a bass boat), with the rod tip pointed down and across your body towards the water. Obviously, that’s not practical in most stream fishing situations, so a modified approach is in order. Depending on the water I’m fishing, I’ll hold the rod parallel to the water or with the tip slightly up.
I generally start out with a rip-rip-pause-rip-rip-rip-pause type of retrieve and then experiment from there. The fish will tell you how they want it on a given day – just keep varying your cadence until a pattern develops. And try to keep the speed up – remember, we’re looking for a reaction strike here.
When you’re tossing a ripbait in still water, the majority of the bites will come when the lure’s lying motionless on the pause. It’s a different deal, however, in moving water. You still want to throw pauses into your retrieve but they need to be a lot shorter in duration. Perhaps it’s better to think of them as “hesitations” instead, but they’re still extremely important. I think it’s that change from the darting action to the stop that really makes fish want to eat the lure.
Depending on the type of water you’re fishing, casts can be made directly up or downstream, though the down and across swing type of presentation seems to draw the most grabs.
Gear
As is the case with so many of the other “outside the box” methods I’ve written about in the past, nobody makes a technique-specific rod for throwing small rip baits for stream trout. Luckily, there are some light bass rods designed for drop-shotting and small darter heads that fit the bill pretty nicely (check out the Daiwa Aird, which is a nice stick for under $50).
Basically, you want a rod with a soft tip and a little bit of beef in the back end – something that won’t collapse on the hook set. Most of us are used to throwing hardware for trout on ultralight gear, but the standard 5 ½-foot ultralight stick is going to be way too soft for this style of fishing – and you’ll lose most of the fish you hook.
Pair the rod up with a quick-retrieve spinning reel. The Abu Garcia Revo S in a sweet reel in the $100 range, while the Orra S is still nice but a few bucks less. I usually run 6-pound mono when fishing smaller streams and then bump it up to 8- or even 10-pound on larger waters. Line with some stretch like P-Line CX is a good choice because you want a little “give” in your mono when a trout decides to try destroy your plug.
Have Fun
In addition to being a super-effective technique for catching trout in moving water, tossing ripbaits is a total blast. The strikes are awesome and the results can be, too! So, go ahead and feed those big fish what they want…give ‘em “meat for dinner.”
The RoeMaster Spinner: The world’s most deadly lure that never was!
Could the RoeMaster Spinner have been the world’s deadliest lure? We’ll never know! A radically new concept conceived of by a diabolically brilliant lure designer, it appeared briefly in the early 1990’s but then disappeared into the night and was never heard from again.
But what happened?
I’m glad you asked! Considering I was the “mastermind” behind the RoeMaster, I guess I am qualified to tell its story…and in case you haven’t already guessed, the answer is no…No, it wasn’t destined to become the planet’s greatest fish catcher of all time. But it was fun to pretend. :)
Two Great Tastes that Taste Great Together!
As a college student at Humboldt State University, I must confess that I spent more time pursuing girls and steelhead than good grades. Back in those days, we skipped a lot of class to fish the nearby Mad, Eel, Klamath, Trinity and Van Duzen rivers — and those endeavors are what inspired the RoeMaster.
During those river sessions, I quickly learned that salmon and steelhead were really susceptible to roe – and well presented spinners. So, why not combine the two and make the world’s most deadly offering: A spinner/roe combination?
An evil plan indeed…and with it, I would soon rule the salmon and steelhead world!
Well, not so fast there, junior!
RoeMaster Comes to Life!
So, with my idea now hatched, I borrowed some cash from pops and bought some components and started bending wire. After some trial and error, I settled on a design that consisted of a French blade (RoeMasters were available in the odd size range of #1, #3 and #5) and then a hand-painted lead bullet weight (or worm weight that bass anglers use with Texas Rigs)…though I eventually switched to brass worm weights on later versions. Then, the “roe” was a Luhr Jensen Gooey Bob slid up the shaft below the weight. I’d then finish it off with a Gamakatsu treble or siwash hook (your choice).
One of the original early models
Before I had a wire forming tool, the early editions were bent with a set of pliers and the results were…well…let’s just say they weren’t super pretty!
Design Flaws
Well, it all seemed like a good idea, but the RoeMaster wasn’t exactly the best design of all time. First off, at high RPM’s, the blade would hit the Gooey Bob, causing it to stall out. At super slow speeds, however, it worked okay. Then there was that whole faux roe thing. My idea of combining two of the great salmon and steelhead offerings into one kinda fell flat on its face when you consider that the rubber egg cluster was totally lacking in one key ingredient: that milky, smelly goodness that leeches out of real roe. Hmmm…didn’t really think that one through! Sure, you could lather it up in scent, but it was still no match for the real deal.
Early Tests
Despite all the lure’s imperfections, it actually fished pretty darned well. Its first day on the water took place at the confluence of the Eel and Van Duzen rivers, where it actually hooked a few nice steelhead and out-fished my buddies who were using the standard for that spot, gold/red Little Cleos.
My bride (then girlfriend) with a cutthroat trout taken on a small RoeMaster. She’d probably kill me for posting this pic! :)
That winter, the RoeMaster had its finest hour on the Mad River just below the hatchery in Blue Lake, where I hooked 6 winter steelhead in off-color water one February afternoon while the other 23 anglers in the lineup hooked a grand total of 3 while using an assortment of drift gear. The fact that I was standing in the meat of the hole was totally lost on me and I chalked my success up instead to the deadly effectiveness of my new creation!
The first-ever king taken on the RoeMaster — Feather River, CA
That fall, the new brass weight edition of the RoeMaster made its debut on the Feather River’s infamous Outlet Hole. Again, the lure preformed well and the Chinook seemed to like it.
The Rise & Fall of the Empire
Bolstered by the success of the tests, my dad and I got down to the business of marketing the lure that we were certain would soon propel us into Fortune 500 status. Step one: Come up with a catchy name…RoeMaster. Done.
Step two: A clever slogan: “It’s not a lure, it’s a Weapon!” Ah yes, we obviously turned the queso index to “high” to come up with that one! Cheesy tag line accounted for, we then went to the only place I knew of to advertise such a fish-catching machine, Salmon Trout Steelheader magazine.
The ad that ran in Salmon Trout Steelheader Magazine
So, the RoeMaster ad made its debut in the Feb/March 1992 issue of STS and ran three times that year. The ad copy included several bullet points, highlighting the lure’s attributes. My favorite was “Field tested and recommended by fisheries biologists.” The biologists were my uncle and his buddy and I can’t help but think about how damned funny that sounds now. One could argue that if the fishery biologists were endorsing the product, maybe it was because they realized it posed no serious threat to fish populations! Obviously, a marketing guru I was not…
The last there remaining originals have a place of honor on my fishing shack wall.
I think most hard-core anglers could see the inherent flaws in the design right in the picture in the ad and RoeMaster sadly never took off. Needless to say, thanks to sales that could be counted on one hand, I never got my Gulfstream G3 and that island in the Bahamas. Instead, I ended up with a garage full of components (that I cannibalized down to nothing over the years), and a couple good laughs looking back after all the years. These days, there’s not much left of the mighty RoeMaster except for bags and bags of unused Gooey Bobs and a couple originals left on the garage wall.
Oh well, it was a good ride. Maybe someday I’ll have to update the design and bring RoeMaster outta retirement. Or, perhaps some things are best left alone…
We even had some shirts back in the day…
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- …
- 130
- Next Page »