Rooster Tail

Rooster Tail (spinner)

Pros:

-Come in a ton of different colors (blades, body, and tail)
-Effective in both lakes and streams
-Suprisingly castable
-Inexpensive and easy to find (but catalogues such as Cabelas or Bass Pro Shops have the best selections of them)
-Tracks straight and blade spins even if the shaft gets bent
-Blade spins on even the slowest retrieve

Cons:

-They don't sink very fast so for deeper holes in bigger streams, other lures would work better

Applications: If you had nothing but Kastmasters and Rooster Tails you would have most of the bases covered for Sierra trout fishing. They don't appear to be a very castable lure, but you can chuck it pretty far on 2-pound test and a longer rod. Rooster Tails probably have more color possibilities than any other lure, so it is best to pick four-to-six colors and a few of each. After a couple trips you will discover your favorites and can swap out the ones that don't get bit as much with new colors. I stick to the most natural-looking colors like brown/red, dark green, black, and I maybe have one loud one like yellow and black or rainbow trout. Once cast into a lake, it doesn't take much to get the blade turning like in some spinners. A quick two or three cranks gets the blade going before slowing down to your retrieve speed, and once it's spinning (you can feel when it's spinning because of the slight change in drag as you wind it in) you can slow down quite a bit before it stops rotating. This feature is also useful in streams because it is easy (well, easier than most spinners) to get the blade going even if you are retrieving downstream, and you can also get the blade going immediately after it lands in the water which can entice bites from meadow-stream browns sitting under banks waiting and waiting for a grasshopper to fall in. While the wire that makes up the body is pretty light, the lure will perform well once you tweak it back into shape if it ever gets bent.