why dont many people use casting spoons?

[bulldog1935]

5 minutes ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

This actually answered the questions I had. Thanks . I don’t see any reason not to convert to stinger hooks unless they snag on the bottom more . 

It's a bonus with our winter nite-lite dock fishing.  

Speckled trout follow, test, and reject quickly.  

Have seen them in pairs on the surface pushing the live bait closed-mouth to test it. 

With a stinger hook, they may get hooked even closed-mouth.  

[Big Hands]

32 minutes ago, WRB said:

 

The 6” & 8” long Lake Fork type flutter spoons are newer to bass fishing but have been around decades for Lake Trout in Canada for example. 

Jigging a spoon or swimming a spoon can be done successfully with any spoon.

Peace,

Tom

There is a YT video specifically about the history of the Lake Fork Flutter Spoon with none other than Joe Spaits. He tells how he developed and modified the early prototypes based on those used up north.

 

I have been to his modest tackle shop a handful of times in my travels to Lake Fork and have had the pleasure of talking to Joe and he even gave us a behind the curtain tour. Such a gentleman and he makes great spoons. 

 

My biggest Lake Fork bass (8.5 lbs) came on one of his spoons, but it wasn't the flutter spoon. It was one of his smaller hammered jigging spoons. Those little spoons are also some fish catching slabs. 

[jimmyjoe]

2 hours ago, Skunkmaster-k said:

This actually answered the questions I had. Thanks . I don’t see any reason not to convert to stinger hooks unless they snag on the bottom more . 

 

Sometimes, yes they can be "snaggy".

 

The best way to reduce snagging is to go to a weedless/snagless spoon, like the Johnson Silver Minnow or the Dardevle Weedless. Notice that I said "reduce". I didn't say "eliminate".  ?

 

There is another way to reduce snagging on the bottom, although it doesn't really have an effect on snags caught by moving spoons. That's to replace the treble hook with a duplex hook ("frog" hook). The barbs of the hook should point up, aligned with the concave side of the spoon. As for me, I add a small bit of bucktail or marabou to the shank ..... just enough to create a bit of resistance.

 

The spoons I use flutter down concave-side-up. The dressing simply accentuates this. When it hits bottom, the barbs are pointing up, and the spoon is ready for a clean snap.

 

   If you wish to try this, I advise you cast a few spoons in your local swimming pool. Some spoons flutter concave-side-up and some don't. You need to know which are which.

 

   Good luck!          jj

[WRB]

We call the Tady “iron” by the salt water anglers.

A good bass casting/jigging spoon is P-Line 3/4 oz Laser Minnow spoon a decent replacement for Megabait jigging spoon.

Tom

[PressuredFishing]

On 9/1/2021 at 10:52 AM, bulldog1935 said:

I also fish XUL spoons for winter glass minnow imitation

These are 3 to 5 g

The white is glow for nite-lite dock fishing

yes, they came from Japan, and the stinger hooks are Vanfook

why do u perfer single hook vs a treble hook?  do you add trailers to the single hooks?

On 8/31/2021 at 7:13 AM, TnRiver46 said:

I cast and jig all my spoons? Didn’t know there was a difference 

yeah, I think that you can use jig spoons and cast them but I guess "casting spoons" would be considered more of a swimming spoon, like a johnson sprite spoon, ment to be swam instead of cast, they have more wobble and are usually thinner and weigh less than a jigging spoon, but not as thin and light as a flutter spoon. so for instance, here are a few spoons that are kasting style ive been using by the reccomendations of tom and many others (although I have added feathered hooks on the baits) Although I have leaned twords just pure silvery colors most often when fishing them.

 

[bulldog1935]

On 9/9/2021 at 2:01 PM, PressuredFishing said:

why do u perfer single hook vs a treble hook?  do you add trailers to the single hooks?

 

The treble that would fit that 3-g spoon would be a size 18.  Size 6 or 4 single has a lot more hooking power.  The stinger hooks are pre-rigged Vanfook Twin Dancer.  

The small spoons have a specific niche, which is winter glass minnows in salt tide passes and nite-lite dock fishing.  

The fish below happens to be on a fly rod and size 6 whistler fly, but this is the same target -  schoolie male seatrout that sweep through the lights at night and slash into "balls" of minuscule bait.  During the daytime, the same tiny bait is dominated by wind currents and focused on structure.  

Spoons, even big spoons, are usually the best way to imitate the smallest baitfish, because the gamefish doesn't often see the individual bait, but the larger flash as the bait ball evades in chorus.  

[PressuredFishing]

On 9/11/2021 at 4:00 AM, bulldog1935 said:

The treble that would fit that 3-g spoon would be a size 18.  Size 6 or 4 single has a lot more hooking power.  The stinger hooks are pre-rigged Vanfook Twin Dancer.  

The small spoons have a specific niche, which is winter glass minnows in salt tide passes and nite-lite dock fishing.  

The fish below happens to be on a fly rod and size 6 whistler fly, but this is the same target -  schoolie male seatrout that sweep through the lights at night and slash into "balls" of minuscule bait.  During the daytime, the same tiny bait is dominated by wind currents and focused on structure.  

Spoons, even big spoons, are usually the best way to imitate the smallest baitfish, because the gamefish doesn't often see the individual bait, but the larger flash as the bait ball evades in chorus.  

That makes alot of sense, Here on the west coast our saltwater fishing isnt near what it is out there but, when the perch are eating tiny 2-3 inch smelt in the late summer, I throw 10-15 gram spoons on 6-8lb line spinning cear and they hit it pretty good. also our saltwater species in the surf arent huge lol, so we dont need really saltwaterish gear, perch here are about the size of bluegill or crappie.

[Big Hands]

On 9/13/2021 at 2:18 PM, PressuredFishing said:

. . . our saltwater species in the surf aren't huge lol, so we don't need really saltwaterish gear. . . .

I said as much to a friend back in the late 80's and he invited me down to Seal Beach one Friday evening in the summer time during a  full moon. He told me to bring the heaviest, longest setups I had that I could cast a long way with. My 8' Truline O36 (similar to a D8 jig stick) with an ABU 9000 2 speed and 25 lb monofilament was the closest to that I had at that time.

 

We used a 1 ounce egg sinker with a 5/0 5x treble hook and pinned a whole fresh dead squid to it, and cast it out as far as we could into the surf. He had rod holders that were 5 ft tall to get the tip of the rod as high as possible. I caught seven bat rays that evening, with the smallest being 12 lbs and the biggest going 60 lbs. His wife caught a 90 lb bat ray. You have to use the strongest treble hooks because those bat rays will crush a normal treble hook in their powerful jaws. Supposedly they get up around the 200 lb range in the surf right there in Seal Beach (and who knows where else). That 60 lb bat ray took me for quite a ride on 25 lb test on an 8' rod. It was like battling a muscular half-sheet of plywood.

[bulldog1935]

On 9/19/2021 at 7:36 AM, Big Hands said:

I said as much to a friend back in the late 80's and he invited me down to Seal Beach one Friday evening in the summer time during a  full moon. He told me to bring the heaviest, longest setups I had that I could cast a long way with. My 8' Truline O36 (similar to a D8 jig stick) with an ABU 9000 2 speed and 25 lb monofilament was the closest to that I had at that time.

 

We used a 1 ounce egg sinker with a 5/0 5x treble hook and pinned a whole fresh dead squid to it, and cast it out as far as we could into the surf. He had rod holders that were 5 ft tall to get the tip of the rod as high as possible. I caught seven bat rays that evening, with the smallest being 12 lbs and the biggest going 60 lbs. His wife caught a 90 lb bat ray. You have to use the strongest treble hooks because those bat rays will crush a normal treble hook in their powerful jaws. Supposedly they get up around the 200 lb range in the surf right there in Seal Beach (and who knows where else). That 60 lb bat ray took me for quite a ride on 25 lb test on an 8' rod. It was like battling a muscular half-sheet of plywood.

One day we hit an amazing blackwater day in the surf at Cedar Bayou, the remote barrier island pass where Jean Lafitte used to scrape off the Mexican Navy.  Half-a-dozen long boat rides before, we had arrived to find the aftermath - a million pieces of mullet bobbing in the surf, and couldn't buy a strike.  

Our dues were all paid up this day, low tide, low wind, low surf -  we had finger mullet hiding at our feet, rafts of big mullet being slashed at the gut, and every wave crest carried a daisy chain of surfing speckled trout.  

You didn't have to cast, could daub a mullet-looking fly and hook up.  

I hooked a 25-lb stingray on the fly rod, and fought it while each of my friends filled a limit stringer of specs.  

It's ok, after I got my fly back from the stingray - trick is to roll them over on their back and hold them down - 

- after recovering my fly, still got my spec limit, too.  

 

And to make this post on topic, a couple of fly rod epoxy spoons.  

Wading and sight-fishing Fence Lake, the mylar spoon took my PB redfish (32") and the crab took my PB black drum (25")

[Big Hands]

8 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

And to make this post on topic, a couple of fly rod epoxy spoons.  

Wading and sight-fishing Fence Lake, the mylar spoon took my PB redfish (32") and the crab took my PB black drum (25")

That crab spoon is. . . . awesome.

[bulldog1935]

@Big Hands

thanks, I got the idea for a scooting crab watching crabs on the beach, running sideways and holding their big claw up to threaten you. 

It's loosely spun bucktail trimed, burned-ends mono eyes tied-in, first epoxy coat, final trim on the bucktail, and final epoxy coat.  

The only place you can really fish it is in the mud patch along the edge of the mangroves - all the way to the back of the lakes.  

 

Both that big drum, and another redfish on another day saw me - if you're stealthy, they don't know you from a heron in a funny hat.  Each time, the fish was slowly gliding away from the fly - and me - stopped, shuddered, raced back and grabbed the fly.  

Of course while all this is going on you're not breathing, and your heart may skip a few beats, too.