Why The Spinners?

The fundamental reason for making these lures is because we want to catch fish. But, of course there is a bit more to it than that, and even some subtleties and nuance at times. First of all catching those elusive trout has been the pleasure and goal of the brand creator, Squaretail Daddy, for several decades running; and, having developed unique casting techniques for the tight Northwoods conditions, explored hundreds of stream miles in Minnesota and Wisconsin, teaching the techniques and skills to the next generation, is now ready to offer a unique assemblage in a spinning lure that answers a host of needs for fishing in our small and exciting Midwestern streams in the Driftless and Great Lakes regions. The first, and what will always be the primary goal, are creating ultra-light, high quality spinners designed for our namesake, salvelinus fontinalis, more commonly referred to as brook trout, coasters, and squaretails. These are the native gems among the Salmonids of this continent. The single-hooks accomplish a basic goal of being less invasive, i.e. less damaging, to the fish, and in many places more and more this is the law, hence offering a product for the spinning lure fisherman that pragmatically needs the right tool for the job, but we are also offering a finest quality product, hand-made, each one unique and designed to as best as possible match the pattern of common bait-fish such as chubs and shiners; these lures of course are also intrinsically artificial, so we add every embellishment possible to increase visibility and opportunities for strikes. So, for example, while we focus on natural and sustainable materials selection for our lures, such as feathers from specialty breeds for tying grown from a flock in our backyard, to natural hair fibers derived from local businesses, we also employ first class tying materials such as Steve Farrar's flash blends, the best of its kind in our opinion, as well as a few sticks of UV reactive rubber skirts strands to add color, depth, and ultimately attraction. We are also making lures for other scenarios, where larger fish and larger species may be the target, and in these cases the hooks are designed with higher impact in mind so high-carbon steel hooks are the choice, but at the heart of our brand will always be the stream trout in which our passion grew from.

It should be somewhat obvious to the experienced angler that these lures are based heavily on the famous, and a personal favorite, easily my most heavily used lure historically, the Panther Martin spinner. They are excellent lures. However, as noted, the treble hook can cause more damage than is appropriate for the sport to our opinion, and over the years that amount of damage they would cause to fish that weren't intended for keeping... whether one calls it sensitivity or sensibility growing with age, either one works, switching to single-hooks was the natural evolution for me. Panther does offer single-hook spinners as well now, but they are just boring, bare naked hooks with no dressing... I think the dressed hook produces more strikes. So initially the intent was simply to fabricate a lure with a single hook for the purpose of less carnage, and while I particularly like the color and pattern and productivity of the "wild brook trout dressed" spinner made by PM, still there seemed an opportunity to basically just have fun creating a dressed hook, and then from there a dressed hook that reflected some refined crafting in terms of the quality of the build, but also the look, or the imitation of the forage type I was trying to match. And, to be honest, it didn't happen all at once. I started out making some somewhat terrible to okay lures based on the skills I had, the materials on hand, and to my surprise managed to catch fish with them. Quite a few actually. So, after the first couple seasons playing around with it, improving my skillset, and recognizing the pleasure that was being had from it, I was also sensing an opportunity to improve my favorite toy qualitatively in a number of ways. So, watched a lot of YouTube lol. A lot. And, practiced new skills, upgraded materials, discovered the wealth in the breed of ducks already owned and appropriate for the craft, added new chicken breeds, built a nice studio dedicated to the work, and connected with others to source materials, ideas and skills. The result is our single-hook spinners that we are offering beginning August of 2025, though pre-sales will begin in July. Squaretail Junior and I have been out using these lures, catching fish in the Northwoods and by the Big Lake, and have uploaded some videos (hopefully) on YouTube for you to enjoy with us putting these spinners into action. Please feel free to drop a line (yeah, that was intended hahaha) to our email at squaretailfishingtv@gmail.com and always cast upstream!