I'm going up to auburn sports & marine this weekend to get some spinners and spoons and i'm looking for a lil advice on what to get. Right now my box is holding a couple pen tac 50/50's, copper rvrfshr, white rvrfshr, and 5 different colored cleos. for spinners i got 2 brass vibrax size 3 & 4, 2 chrome vibrax the same sizes, and a orange and chrome size 4. I don't fish hardware much, mainly because i've had some luck with bobber & jigs and i do fairly well drifting corkies and roe. I wanna fish a little more with spoons & spinners this year, maybe even get that first hardware steelie. Any tips or advice would help, thanks guys.

Sounds like your good to go. Find a riv with some good vis and start slingin' metal.

I might get some disagreement here, but if I had one spoon to put in my box, it would be the 2/5 oz 50/50 rivrfishr, and I would pound every tail out and slow hole around with it. No doubt in my mind whatsoever that it would produce consistently.
You may have noticed that they disappear quickly from the shelves. (hint)

i'm a tackle junkie anyways so i'll probly get one, but is the rvrfshr 50/50 better than the pen tac 50/50?

If you really want to be a good hardware fisherman, read Jed Davis's spinner book and Bill Herzog's spoon book. What you've got will catch fish, but I see a couple holes in your gear, namely wide-body spoons and deeper running spinners. You can get by with your gear by using the Blue Foxes for slow water, shallow water, and casting upstream/along side and using the spoons for fast water, deep water, and swinging tailouts. That said, I'd feel lost in winter without some #5 silver Pentac/RVRFSHR/R&B spinners for deep or fast runs and I like 1/2 oz Stee-Lee's for broad, slow runs.

i'm getting herzog's spoon book next month. thanks for pointing out some holes in my box, that's what i'm looking for.

Herzog's book is one of the all time great books on steelhead fishing.

I found Davis's book to be a complete and utter waste of $$$. Steelheading aint rocket science. Why go out of our way to make it rocket science?

You've got everything you need.

Stick and move. A steelhead will hit hardware on the first or second cast.

If I have a classic steelhead run all to myself I'll work it like this. First I'll work the tailout with a spoon. If you don't do this, as you walk to the head of the run, someone like me will come in behind you and catch a fish on the first or second cast out of said tailout. Once I'm certain there's no fish in the tailout I'll switch to a spinner and walk to the top of the run. I'll work the spinner up into the break line. I'll then switch back to the spoon and start casting across and let the spoon swing thru the meat of the run. From this point it's almost like fishing a fly. Cast, swing, step down river, repeat..........

I think fishing a spoon is sort of like flying a kite upside down. Too much pressure and the kite crashes to earth or the spoon pops to the surface. Too little pressure and the spoon "nestles" into the rock. It takes constant adjustments in rod angle and letting line out or gathering line in. Spoon fishing is the best. You certainly wont miss any hits

Enjoy Herzog's book. Extremely informative and inspiring!!

And almost forgot. If your fishing spoons correctly you'll occasionaly hang up in the rocks. No biggie as that's where you want to be. But have a file handy and extra hooks!

I'm not much of a hardware junky, but I've put plenty of fish on the shore with it. I mostly fish spinners in the summer time- purple and chrome vibrax 3's and 4's. I think knowing where to fish hardware is just as important as what hardware you use. I only fish hardware if thats pretty much the only thing I can fish in the spot I'm fishing. I've also learned that hardware will sometimes turn off the bite for other more subtle methods of fishing for steelhead. I definately won't throw hardware before I fish a jig or bait etc. in the same location. I think it goes hand in hand with pulling plugs, it's just a little more sporty.

Interesting point of view since Herzog, more than any other steelhead author, frequently references Jed's "threshhold of attraction", which was defined and explained in Jed's book. I find the two approaches to be complimentary and find Jed's systematic approach to reading water and choosing lure size and color to be universal across methods, if flawed in some instances. (the book ain't perfect)