Sheldon started dressing Mepps spinners with tufts of squirrel tail and buck tail after a happenstance occurrence on one of his favorite rivers. After having had a decent day of trout fishing, Sheldon was headed back to his vehicle when he ran into a teenager who’d also had a banner day. After inquiring what the lad had caught his trout on, most of which were larger than Sheldon’s, the teenager displayed a Mepps spinner. However, unlike Sheldon’s spinner, the boy’s lure had a tuft of squirrel tail tied in just above the hooks.

This started Sheldon on a major experimentation spree where he tried fox, coyote, badger, skunk, bobcat, bear and even Angus cow hair on the lures. After several seasons of testing, he had conclusively determined that squirrel tail and buck tail provided the best action on their lures.

Over the years, my favorites in the Mepps series included the Black Fury and the Comet, in addition to the Aglia. This is one lure that no spin-fisherman should ever leave the house without!

WORDEN’S ORIGINAL ROOSTER TAIL
Another lure that has more than stood the test of time is the Rooster Tail spinner. Manufactured by the Yakima Bait Company out of Granger, Washington, Worden’s Rooster Tails come in 10 different sizes and three styles of lures. Rooster Tails also come in over 50 color possibilities. They came out with a red hook version the past couple of years. This is also a lure originally developed with trout, walleyes and steelhead in mind, but it will also catch other freshwater species.

After taking over his father’s lure company in the 1950s, Howard Worden helped create and develop a number of popular lures. The Rooster Tail, however, is by far the most famous of this company’s offerings.

PANTHER MARTIN
One lure that has produced more often for me than not is the Panther Martin. Given that there have been more than 60 million of them produced and sold since its inception by a Polish angler in the late 1940s, it appears there are quite a few other fishermen who also hold this tremendous little lure in high regard.

Harrison-Hoge Industries bought the rights to the Panther Martin from Rockland Tackle in 1961. At that time, the Panther Martin was being manufactured in Italy. The first year Cecil Hoge Sr. imported and peddled the Panther Martin lure, it didn’t exactly sell out as planned. At that time, the company was operating out of a small warehouse in Harrison, New Jersey. Cecil Hoge Jr., who now runs the company, explained in a recent conversation that their lures are now being made in China and sales continue to be brisk.

In addition to their traditional sonic spinner, their fly spinner is another successful variation of the original lure, which has a tuft of colorful buck tail acting as a skirt over the treble hook. The two most popular color combinations are the black with the yellow spotted body and gold blade.