"The Rest of the Story" More About Stan
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"The Rest of the Story" More About Stan Stan's Archives By Stan Fagerstrom Part 2 What does it take to become one of the world’s top experts in a particular style of catching fish? One of the ways to learn what’s involved is to study the life Pete Rosko, the jig fishing wizard who developed the Mack’s Lure Sonic BaitFish. If you read my last column you know it shared a portion of his biography that Pete Rosko shared with us. You’ll find Part 2 of that fascinating story here this time around. ------------------------ Pete Rosko, shown on the right, has put thousands of fish in the boat on the lures he has designed. They range from the salt water beauty shown here to walleyes as well as bass and panfish. “My background in biology, anatomy and dentistry went to work on an artificial lure that would imitate an injured bait fish. “Initially, my progress did not match my enthusiasm and I was burning through what little money I had left. By 1982, I was almost broke. I had to leave Port Angeles and return to Ohio where I could practice dentistry and earn an income again. “I left behind a very modest mobile home and a 14 foot fiberglass boat with a 6 horse kicker and a tiller- operated 40 horse main outboard. To this day, I still return to that same mobile home and the same boat. Only major changes are the two 4-stroke Mercs now attached to its transom. Since 1980, this boat has seen over 10,000 salmon brought to its side. It’s been a great friend that is hard for me to replace. “After reaching Cortland Ohio, and re-establishing my dental practice, I also went to work on a lure for Pacific salmon. Through the previous two years of trial and error fishing off Port Angeles, I decided to develop a metal jig. It would be a full-bodied imitation of a Pacific herring. “During that time period, I may have left Port Angeles but it didn’t leave me. I now had the knowledge of what worked in a lure to attract salmon. Basically, it had to have a certain balance to act as a crippled bait fish as it was dropped in the water. “I had the design fixed in my head and would call it a Crippled Herring. That was the easy part. Getting to the finished product was another story of frustration and very costly mistakes. “For over the next three years, I was like a lab scientist that lost his mind. When I wasn’t being a dentist, I was working on my lures…at every opportunity, seven days a week. “Not only was I involved with the Crippled Herring but also with a new weight-forward spinner named the Erie Shiner. It was designed primarily for the Lake Erie walleye market. On its maiden Lake Erie voyage, in October of 1986, the Erie Shiner put a limit of (48) walleyes on ice averaging over nine pounds. “By the end 1986, things were finally beginning to take a turn for the better. I named my company Green Point Lures, after Green Point, a few miles east of Port Angeles. It was there where I first started catching salmon on my crude Crippled Herring prototypes. “White worked best so I always carried an 88 cent can of white spray paint to cover-over the salmon teeth marks. That same year, the Crippled Herring was awarded a U.S. mechanical patent. “My only sales people were on the Pacific Coast. They included my only brother Bob, in California, his friend Ron Peterson, in Oregon, and a father-son wagon jobber team near Seattle. “A year later, I met Mike Hall from Ogden Utah. It was July, 1987 at the AFTMA (now ICAST) fishing tackle show in Las Vegas. In short order, I would discover what a fishing genius Mike was. At the time, and to this day, he was one of the best things that ever happened to me. Pete Rosko will tell you the guy pictured here is one of the most knowledgeable anglers he's ever met. Here Mike Hall provides evidence of why Rosko feels that way. How many yellow perch the size of this whopper have you caught lately? Hall caught it on one of the Sonic Baitfish lures Pete designed. “Mike’s brilliant fishing mind, and his burning passion for the sport, were matched by his loyalty to me as a special friend. During those years, Mike was a prolific speaker and educated many anglers in the tri-state region of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. “He was also a driving force in teaching anglers how to fish the Crippled Herring. I fished with Mike numerous times on Flaming Gorge Reservoir and each time it was like attending “Mike Hall University”. Mike never stopped teaching when you were around him. After 27 years, that friendship has remained, unwavered. “In those early days, I only had that tiny sales crew… basically just in four western states. But, it was their quality knowledge of the Crippled Herring that sold a surprising number of lures. That crew is now long gone except for Mike who is still teaching fishing and doing it well for Mack’s Lure. Salmon and walleyes grab the Mack's Lure Sonic BaitFish Pete Rosko designed, but so do trout and panfish. Here's pictorial proof of that. Mike Hall caught these fish through the ice last winter. Look close and you can see the Sonic Baitfish he used to catch 'em on the side of the dandy trout at the top of the picture. “In 1987, I received a call from Al Lindner of In-Fisherman fame. Initially, I did not know who was calling. It went like this in his very excited voice…“Pete, they are eating them up!” “Afterwards, Al identified himself and relayed his story. He was passing by the demonstration fish tank, at the Chicago Tackle Show, while the Crippled Herring was being jigged in the tank. The lure’s action caught Al’s attention. A few CH samples, and a few days later on the water, were enough to have Al call me. Basically, he was jigging the Crippled Herring off deep water points and was hammering walleyes, smallmouth bass and northerns. “That was the beginning of the Crippled Herring being featured in the In-Fisherman magazine and twice on In- Fisherman TV for walleyes and lake trout. Upper Midwest sales soared, thanks to Al and his brother, Ron. “Shortly afterwards, I began fishing with Ron in the Florida Gulf whenever he wintered in Naples. This is another example of the lasting treasured friendships we find in sport fishing. “In 1989, an accident forced me to prematurely retire from dentistry. Plans were made to relocate to Florida. A year prior, in early 1988, my company could no longer keep up with the demand created for our lures. Besides the Pacific Coast, Rocky Mountain States and Midwest, mail orders were now coming in from Florida. “I contacted John Lape, owner of Lape’s Fish Lures in Lima Ohio, to see if we could join companies. John had an excellent reputation for integrity and quality work. We formed a partnership that lasted until early 1990 when the rights to the Crippled Herring were acquired by the Luhr Jensen Company. “For three years prior, the Crippled Herring had been catching quite a large number of big chinook salmon in the Columbia River near the town of Hood River. The Luhr Jensen factory was located there on the bank of the Columbia. “In short time the Crippled Herring became a dominant fish-catching jig for the company. It was a most enjoyable and productive 15 years that I spent with Luhr Jensen. It ended when Rapala purchased the company in 2005. “During those 15 years, I worked closely with owner, Phil Jensen, media liaison John Thomas and Roger Neufeldt, regional sales manager. John Thomas was a dynamic leader in steelhead and salmon conservation. He sadly passed away far-before his time. “My wife (Judi) and I relocated to Naples Florida, in May of 1990, after the license agreement with Luhr Jensen was signed. From there, I split my seasons primarily between Florida, Alaska, the Great Lakes and Port Angeles. “After the development of the Crippled Herring, I felt like I completed just half of the “puzzle” to a complete set of highly effective metal jigs. They had to be easy to use, highly versatile (cast~jigged~trolled) and could catch all fish, that ate bait fish, in both fresh and salt water. “The two basic bait fish shapes are round (herring & shad) and slender (candlefish or sand lance & smelt). The two most important strike-triggering actions in a fishing lure are flutter and vibration. “When considering versatility in a metal jig, the location of the hook is critical. After dedicating almost 35 years of my life to achieving the most versatile metal jig, one fact has not changed. That’s hook placement. Pete Rosko has spent a lifetime studying and experimenting to come up with lures that have just the right flutter and vibration to attract both fresh and saltwater fish. He started doing this when he was a 10 year old kid and he's still at it. “To be able to effectively cast~jig~troll, with the same metal jig, the hook must be attached to the tail! The very best style of hook is the siwash with its deep throat and wide bend.