spoon fishing

[sicheneder]

anyone have luck vertical jigging spoons or casting spoons like the flutter spoons? i have tried the flutter spoons without much luck, but could see some situations were they could be useful. i know i saw the paa tourney in mo/ark was won vertical jigging spoons and it seems like on the ten. river they is a following now. i was surprised when last year when mark rose said he used a jig to fire the school up and then went to a spoon. anyways, just seeing if anyone has tried this.

[RK]

Hiya -

Been meaning to try the Lake Fork style flutter spoon thing but haven't gotten around to it. I guess actually getting the spoons would be a necessary first step, and I haven't even gotten that far yet. I think they might be interesting for suspended smallmouths though.

I do use jigging spoons for post-turnover smallmouths after they drop into deep water late in the season. Spoons, and actually more frequently blade baits like a Silver Buddy can really work on cold water smallies for some reason. Spoons like Northland Buckshot Rattle Spoons, Luhr Jensen Crippled Herring, Swedish Pimples etc., are what I've used.

I have a good friend who is a jigging spoon maestro for walleyes - he catches fish on them all season, especially along weedlines during the summer. I'll have to ask him if he ever catches many bass doing it.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[sicheneder]

is that on lakes? i have read about that sort of thing on the great lakes and some eastern smallie lake in the cold months.i fish for smallies quite a bit in the fall on rivers, but have not tried such techniques. for the sonars is it a constant retrieve or a pull and drop retrieve.

[RK]

Hiya -

This is on lakes. It's mainly in play once fish have moved off shallower spots for the last time and are on deep flats and in their winter locations. For retrieves - both spoons and blade baits - it's a cast, then lift/drop. Not really an aggressive rip off the bottom, but more of a steady lift, sometimes fairly high (3-4 feet off the bottom) and let it fall on a semi-tight line. Hits come on the drop most of the time. I use kind of heavy line (15# mono) to slow down the drop speed.

Jigging rapalas worked vertically work in the same situations.

Don't know how it'd work in rivers.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[kt]

I experimented with some spoons just before ice up this past november for smallies and did really well with them. I tried both casting and vertical jigging right below the boat and did best with the vertical jigging. The spoon worked when i couldn't get them on a drop shot or a crankbait anymore. The areas i targeted were at the base of deep hard bottom humps. Like RK mentioned most of the hits came on the fall. I had my best success on a (if i remember correct) luhr jensen krocodile spoon, which is actually a pretty big spoon.

[slipperybob]

Kastmaster is quite versatile and will produce too.

[Superduty]

I used to play around with a "little george" type heavy metal bait years ago on the tonka weedlines. Never had a huge amount of success with it, but caught fish. I too am intrigued by the big spoon bite on many tv shows and tournament wins for largemouth. I know we don't have the same shad based forage up here. Doesn't mean it won't work.

[Comit 2]

I was about to say, In a Bass magazine they had a pic of the "Lake fork spoon" it looked like a luhr jensen krocodile spoon with a eye on it.