OH MY GOSH CHECK THIS OUT...: Steelheader.net- Steelhead, Salmon and trout fishing

Mr BrownTrout,
In response to your question about the lures I use on the Boise for big browns in the winter, I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to share my approach with anyone who is interested….
If you want to catch browns on the Boise in winter with hardware, get yourself some ¼ oz. or larger chartreuse, yellow or bright green Roostertails with brass blades, head down to the very end of ParkCenter blvd, where you can park on the gravel and walk over to the greenbelt, find a nice looking spot and start chucking wherever looks deep. Work your way up or downriver. I prefer downriver from that point. The fish picture I posted earlier came from a spot about 200 yards down from here. I’ve had good luck from sunup to noon. Then again right at dusk.
I use a spinner I build myself. It's based on a swing blade spinner like a Worden's Roostertail. I started building my own because to get into the right spots (deep and in the rocks) you wind up losing a lot of lures. (Hence my subtitle “Chumming with Lures). I couldn't afford to lose a half dozen Roostertails or more every time out, so I got myself a Tackletool from Fishermans Shack, found a source for quality swing blades (with the cool scale pattern stamp like the roostertail blades) which is a place called Jann's Netcraft. I mostly use brass #5 swing blades, but have been experimenting with the nickel.
I build what I think is a better spinner than the Roostertail for a number of reasons. First of all, the clevis Worden's uses are a folded type clevis, and I believe the stirrup clevis reduces friction on the spinner shaft, which enables the blade to spin more freely. Anyone who has spent much time tossing Roostertails will find that by the nature of the design, they can be a bitch to start and keep spinning, and the stirrup clevis makes a big difference. Another problem with these types of spinners is the brass blades are thin enough that they start bending around the body after being cast and flung around for awhile, and this severely inhibits the blade from initializing a good spin. I keep needle nose pliers in my pocket and when the blade starts to “curve”, I give it a little sideways pinch to flatten it out again, and quite often bend the very tip of the blade out. (See picture) This really helps get it spinning quickly. I like to use the sharpest hooks I can find because I'm a staunch believer in the hook being the most important factor in the strike to net ratio, and again, the hooks on most store bought lures leave something to be desired. The spinners pictured here have treble hooks, I now use single siwash hooks for all of the spinners I make. And I pinch the barbs.
I make the bodies out of ¼” hollow core pencil lead. I unroll it and cut it into ¾” to 1” pieces, then I give the ends a quick once over with a file to round ‘em off a little.
Sometimes I need to ream the core a bit to get the wire through. I heat each one with a lighter or mini-torch and dip it into a colored powder coat then quickly into the clear top coat with sparkles. You gotta have sparkles!

. It’s very important to bake them in the oven for twenty minutes to make the coating indestructible. I didn’t do that at first and the coating flaked off after 10 minutes. The final assembly takes about two minutes apiece, and the final cost per lure (depending upon the hook you use) is about $0.50.
Chartreuse and bright green. I actually caught three browns in a row last winter using an orange-red body, and have since occasionally gone back to that with very limited success. Yellow, bright green, chartreuse; I can’t stress it enough. The limited light in the winter and the visibility of the river (usually one to three feet at best) during November through March dictate that you need to use a color that will get their attention. It’s possible that other colors work better on different days depending on the light, but I could spend years….so I just stick with this color 85-90% of the time in the winter.
-Gary

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Front row of the balcony