With temperatures above zero here in Calgary the past week, it was time I grabbed my tackle and headed down to the Bow River for some fishing action. I decided to take the vintage tackle for a spin the last few days! I went rummaging through my shoe boxes, where I keep all my old tackle, and removed a few Blue Fox Vibrax minnow spinners to bring with me. The old-style Blue Fox minnow spinner, which was made of balsa wood, with a number two (2) Vibrax spinner blade on the front, was discontinued around 1998 due to worldwide sales being low. The Vibrax blade would send out wounded baitfish echoes as it wiggled and glided through the water. I almost cried when I was told at the old Wholesale Sports, that these lures were discontinued. I remember buying as many as I could before the peg board went bare.
Many years went by before I seen another minnow spinner for sale. With the internet, and Ebay, countless years later I started to see them show up on Ebay in the U.S and Europe. Buy this time, they were collectables and quite expensive. By around 2006, they were running about 25.00 per lure Canadian. Finding an old color chart, let alone one of these lures now, is next to impossible! As I was browsing the internet back in 2006, I came across a lot sale on Ebay in from a dealer in England. There were four lures for sale (7/16th or 12 Grams), in the rainbow trout color pattern, for fifty pounds. I bid on the lures and won the sale. I then asked the seller in a private message if he had anymore of these lures for sale. I got a reply a day later saying he had eighty-five lures available. My jaw almost hit the floor! I asked him if I could purchase every lure he had, and for what price he would sell them to me for. He replied a few minutes later saying he would part with the entire lot of lures for 300.00 Canadian.
At that time, money was tight, so I asked him if I could break the payment up into two parts, paying 150.00 in two weeks, and then the remainder when I got paid a month later. To my surprise, he happily agreed! A few weeks went by and just as I was to be paid by my employer, the entire box of lures showed up at my door. I had not even paid him a dime and the lures were already in my hands. I remember thinking “what an amazing guy”. As soon as I got in and put the lures away, I got on my laptop messaging him straight away, letting him know the lures had arrived and how grateful I was for his generosity. I let him know his first 150.00 was on the way in a couple days. He stated, “I am not even worried about it, I can tell you are a stand-up chap, I know will get my money”. People in the fishing industry never cease to amaze me.
Once I opened the box of lures, there were fifty-two rainbow trout lures, eighteen gold and black, and fifteen orange and gold lures. He was also generous enough to throw in six green minnow pattern lures as well for free. It was like I hit the jackpot at a casino, even though I am not a gambling man. I got four colors that were hard to find and exceedingly rare. Besides the fact that the lures are rare, they work extremely well for all species of trout, which is what I target fishing the Bow River. I have seen the biggest browns and rainbows caught and released on this lure.
Time and time again, this lure has proven to catch the rivers largest trout specimens. You can fish it in all seasons, but it is most effective when the water tables are low in the spring, or winter months of the year. You can put a full-sized minnow imitation into two to three inches of water. This lure will stay at top of the water column depending on how fast you retrieve it, or you can slow the retrieve and let it dive deeper into the water column. This is especially important in cold water conditions, when the fish are very lethargic and will not swim fast to take a minnow imitation. On the back of the package it states, “For best results, retrieve slowly”. I can tell you firsthand that this is how the lure works best in cold water conditions. Another key element of these lures is their weight. They are quite heavy which enables you to cast great distances while shore fishing reaching more water, and inevitably hooking more fish. Using 8lb monofilament line, I can almost reach the opposite bank of the river, depending on what location I am fishing. Putting a lure like this way across the river and then retrieving it slowly gives me the best chance of taking those big hungry fish that are looking for a meal and noy a snack. A big fish will chase and eat a lure like this and be full for a few days. In the fall or winter months, the bigger the lure translates into bigger fish. Like the old saying goes, bigger is better!
If you can in fact find one of these old vintage Blue Fox minnow spinners, it would be wise to pick one up and give it a try on your local river or stream. If you justify throwing a fifty-to-eighty-dollar lure down there, with the possibility of losing the lure, then be brave and fire away. I would like to see Rapala, who now owns Blue Fox, start making these lures in balsa wood again. I know they have revived these lures and redesigned them, but they are not the same and don’t even come close to comparing to the original minnow spinners. I really hope that one day, there will be enough interest in these amazing lures, and Normark will revive these classics! Until then, we will keep searching for our personal best fish and have as much fun along the way as possible.
Sharp hooks…….tight lines,
~Mike
