Casting Spoons

[bigbassin']

What is your favorite way to fish a spoon such as Johnson silver minnow? Hopping, steady retrieve, etc? Trailer or no trailer? Preferred water clarity?

[B-Dozer]

yes to all of your answers. there is no wrong way to fish a spoon, other than leaving it in the box.

good for a variety of fish, other than bass

[bigbassin']

Thanks for the info, I'll have to give them a try next time I hit the water.

[WRB]

Spoons are the oldest bass lures and come in a wide variety of types from surface weedless spoons like the Johnson Silver minnow deep structure spoons and mid water flutter spoons. A book could be written on this topic and I don't have the time at this moment to to do justice to this topic.

Be back and continue later.

It's later.

The surface swimming spoons; Johnson Silver Minnow, Persaduer weedless spoon, Nemeric Red Ripper Weedless spoon are all good. The Johnson and Persaduer adding a spinner bait type trailer or a white pork bass strip works good and doesn't affect the swimming action. These spoons are designed to swim on their backs, hook upright. I prefer the Persaduer life like fish finishes and premium sharp hook. My favorite weedless spoon is the 3/4 oz Red Ripper in chrome when bass are targeting Threadfin Shad in the bushes or weed beds. The gold Red Ripper works better for me in the fall. This spoon doesn't need a trailer it has it's own silicone skirt and built in rattle.

Structure spoons are heavy metal spoons designed to fall straight down with a deign baitfish action. I prefer 3/4 to 2 oz for deep baitfish schools and add a white chartreuse chicken feathered size 2 Owner treble hook. Kastermaster, Hopkins, Luhr Jenson, etc make good Shad profile structure spoons.

Flutter spoons are larger size light metal spoons, 4" to 7" long and designed to flutter as the sink similar to a structure spoon except slower fall on a horizontal retrieve, no trailer needed.

Tom

[WRB]

What is your favorite way to fish a spoon such as Johnson silver minnow? Hopping, steady retrieve, etc? Trailer or no trailer? Preferred water clarity?

Continuing with this topic because it should get more response and timely for the fall and winter seasonal periods.

Weedless surface spoons take some trail and error to master the technique of casting and landing the spoon softly so it doesn't bury into the weed mat. You can start by casting to open water areas of pockets, reel quickly to get the spoon swimming on the surface, then up onto and over mats, letting the spoon fall deeper as it enters open water spots or weed edges. Bass will hit a weedless spoon on top of a weed mat just like they do a frog, just keep it moving at a steady pace, fast enough to keep it swimming.

To land any lure softly requires slowing down the cast speed and stopping the lure just before it hits the surface with a controlled landing, a light plop, then start the retrieving instantly.

Trailers should be thin and about 3" to 4" long like the spilt tail spinnerbait trailer. You can attach a finesse style soft plastic worm ot trailer to the spoon hook using a Owner CPS or Hicthhicker spring.

As mentioned earlier the Johnson is one brand, Persaduer makes a similar spoon and the Nemeric Red Ripper weedless spoon are all good choices.

Structure spoons are fished in deep water on a controlled fall so the spoons flutters and doesn't tumble snagging the line on the rear hook. You can fish structure spoons any depth from near the surface to very deep water depending on the spoon weight and shape. Most strikes occur on the fall, if the lure stops set the kook and reel. Vertical jigging a structure spoon is a common presentation sometimes called the yo yo technique, lifting the spoon upwards about 3' and letting fall on controlled slack up and down like a yo yo.

Using your sonar to watch how deep the bait and bass are located, then dropping the spoon into and just below that depth, very good method for both fall and winter bass schools.

Tom

[bigbassin']

Awesome info WRB, thanks for the reply.