Spoons for walleye and bass

Spoons are an underutilized option in canoe country IMO. That's somewhat unfortunate considering their effectiveness especially in northern latitudes. Spoons can work anytime but I am partial to using them in spring and fall. On still waters I am much more likely to reach for a spoon than a spinner if I want something with flash (on moving water I like spinners but I digress).

When most folk think of spoons they think pike and that's to bad because spoons are very effective on all gamefish in canoe country. The trick is in the presentation. Spoons are generally quite persuasive in getting pike to strike however and thus most spoon throwers wouldn't dream of using one without some wire lest they be deprived of their piece of prized metal in short order. Here is where the spoon gets short circuited on being able to strut its stuff. Add the snap, the shiny steel leader and clunky swivel and it's no wonder that walleyes and smallmouths in the 4 and 5 lb class won't eat them. Hello?

How about this as a walleye and smallmouth catcher instead. Pick up a 2" blue and silver little cleo or the venerable "red eye" and plan on using them in the spring with light line. 6lb or a low diameter 8lb line will be fine. Make sure the line is fresh and you are fully capable of tying a good knot. Avoid any hi-vis line like the plague. Have a nice full spool so you can make a long cast.

We still have the pike issue to resolve and here is how we do it. Pick up some du bro single strand coffee colored wire in 29 thousandths diameter. It is very thin and very sneaky. (You need to Login or Register to view media files and links)
Cut a piece about 10 inches long. Thread one end through but then put the same end through again and slowly snug until you have formed a circle of wire on the lure. This allows the spoon plenty of freedom to do its thing. The loop should be about the size of the split ring you removed . Then you must finish the tie with a haywire twist. The instructions are on the back of the wire package and I suspect at least 1/2 dozen Utube vids. You must be careful when cutting the wire and leaving a tag end as it will cut you through the course of your fishing day if your not careful. I prefer to make a "paddle" type handle with the tag end and spin the extra wire off so it is perfectly flush with no chance of it sticking you.

That takes care of the lure end of our bite off preventer. Now onward to the swivel. You must use a swivel and it must be of the ball bearing variety. Remember you will be tying light line to it so it should be a little on the smaller side. If you have trouble getting your knot to stick try a tie fast gryp knot which excels in tying mono to something of somewhat larger diameter than the lines diameter (something most knots do poorly). It matters little if the swivel is shiny or black. In either instance it will appear as if your spoon is a small fish chasing its own meal......an excellent triggering mechanism IMO. Of course you secure the wire with the same haywire twist omitting the circle you made to help in the spoons action. I like the wire leader a bit on the short side for this say in the 5" class.

Now on to the hooks. Long casts with mono make for stretch and little room for error. Your hooks must be sharp. Like really sharp. I use a small hand file that is often sold in tackle stores as a hook sharpener (surprise ). The diamond pattern is the way to sharpen all hooks big or small as the result is 4 strong cutting surfaces. Dig around on utube until you find someone who demonstrates this method. Focusing just on the tip of the hook is ineffective and results in a weak point. It is helpful to have a small pair of needle nose vice grips here to help get the angles correct.

Now the retrieve. If there is limited trees in the water and the weeds haven't grown in yet I prefer to position myself close to the bank and make long casts and retrieve parallel to the bank. This keeps my spoon in "the Zone" for most of the cast. Bear in mind however that early in the spring the wood in the water warms very quickly and fish will gravitate to it and in such cases you will need to be out from the structure and hope you can pull them away. At the beginning of a long cast you should point your rod at the lure as you retrieve and as it gets closer start to create an angle by raising your rod as the lure gets closer. The reason being is the aforementioned line stretch. In tighter there will be very little line stretch and if you are still pointing your rod tip directly at the lure you can kiss it goodbye when Mr. Big grabs hold and you try and give a yank. Conversely if it is way out there and Mr. Fishy bites it is very handy not to have any slack whatsoever. It also helps in detecting a strike.

Strikes on spoons can be tricky. I set the hook on anything. When my spoon hits a weed or a rock or changes cadence (or gets slack!) my wrists are snapping and my handle speed is increased dramatically. You will be surprised how often these weeds and rocks turn out to be fish.

There is one negative with this presentation and single strand wire in general. It can kink and bend and then a new piece must be employed. If the small pike are hot and heavy then this option becomes a non-starter. But if your like me and like to target larger fish then a subtler presentation is usually in order and single strand wire coupled with a spoon in the spring will catch a lot of nice fish.  

be careful if you try trolling with spoons - they need a fairly slow retireve, or they will start spinning and put lots of twist in your line, and sometimes, too fast a troll will see the spoon rise to top and ride like a boat

even just casting and retrieving, a slower retrieve gives a better wiggle I think

I admit to being one of those guys who can count the number of spoons in his tackle box on less than one hand.  I'll give it a go this Spring.

Interesting thread.  Now I have an excuse to go back and drop a few more bucks at my local tackle shop. 

prouboy

MT:
Thanks for the post, interesting information and worth a shot.

MM:
I have used a similar jigging approach with some success. I know MT was not discussing NP in his post but I have also caught many NP "jigging" spoons in current from shore in spillways and along sharp drops below falls.

Spoons are very versitile lures.

J