Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Spoons on various bass, crappie, and walleye

Anyone using them, and method? Jigging or ?

I have used all kinds of lures, plastics, and spinners quite often. All effective. In the past, my limited use of spoons had been fairly geffective but the waters around here are very prone to snags and keeping me from using them more often.

I would think in open water with good visibility they would be quite effective. Anyone? Thanks.

I caught some bass on a Dardevle years ago. Just recently moved back to bass and crappie country and I brought all my ice jigging spoons with me with the intention of using them on the local crappie population. Haven't yet but it is that time of the year.

65BR, they work wonderfully well in the coldest and hottest months of the year. Jigging near ledges, sharp drop offs and over standing timber in 20-40ft of water will yield surprising results. You will use loose very few spoons when jigging timber as the weight of the spoon will usually knock the bait free after some popping of a tight line. 1/2 -3/4oz work best when jigging over deep water and remember they key is to pop the jig up as high as possible and then let it fall on a slack line. The bite will almost always come on the fall. powdr

Good stuff. Any color combos better and in what water clarity. I'm in dingy waters here but may be back up in northern AR. I have a few chrome and a chrome/blue. I believe 1/4 and 1/2 oz. Not sure if I have other combos.

A buddy was telling me about using braid and popping the line to unsnag.

I've not done it but he said you hold the line tight and pull it back from the side and let go. Is that your method?

Thanks guys.

The colors are purely personal. It's not as good of a method in dingy water. One of the upsides to this type of fishing is the fish is able to see the bait. The chartreuse spoons work well sometimes on cloudy days but generally the chrome spoons work best. It took me a long time to figure out the 1/2-3/4oz spoons work the best. They seem to fall differently than the lighter spoons. As a general rule, bass can see 10ft to our one foot in the water. 65 just look for the clearest water you can find and do a test. Put your spoon over the side of the boat and see how deep it sinks before it becomes no longer visible. So, if you can see the bait down two feet then jigging at a 20ft depth is OK according to our 10-1 rule. You may fish 5-10 areas before you get a bite but when you find a good area it's well worth it. powdr

There must be better fish catchers than myself here, but, what works at the time, and body of water, is what to use.

i use slab spoons quite often for sand bass and
stripers in open water if that counts

I use 1/4 - 3/8 oz cast masters and Swedish pimples on post spawn bass. They suspend in our deep lakes after the spawn and they are a pita to catch. I sometimes find them around bridge pillars. I don't vertical jig them and I don't work them horizontal either. I make a long cast past the pillars and let it fall on a taught line, snapping it up and letting it fall not retrieving any line so it pendulums toward the boat and the path of the lure is diagonal from the surface to below the boat. Strikes come at 15 to 30 feet deep. Spotted bass and smallmouth are deeper largemouth are usually 20' and shallower. It's a feast or famon type deal. My best day ever was about 4 years ago in may, I caught spotted bass about every 3 casts for an hour and a half, it was awesome. You usually catch a bonus fish or two every trip too, like a big crappie, white bass or striper.

Great info guys. Thanks much to all

I've had good luck on largemouth bass with the Johnson weedless silver minnow. I added a white skirt (the kind used on spinnerbaits). It works well in heavy cover and in grass flats.

Try one with a small say 1/8 oz jig like a tube jig on a loop with a small spoon on the bottom about a ft below the jig around bridges and other structure. Change out the jig skirt color to suit.

I've had good luck casting them like spinners or trolling them slow for trout, pike, pickerel and walleye in lakes. Color doesn't seem to be too critical, though most of mine are silver/blue combos.

I used to use a Johnson silver or gold spoon with a trailer of some sort quite a bit in the places you describe. Nowadays it's usually a soft plastic senko or fluke rigged weedless and weightless.

Good stuff, thanks guys

We use spoons for 'eyes trolling on Lake Erie. Takes everything, 'eyes, perch, drum, bass, steelies...

1/4 oz little cleos are my lure of choice for lake fishing, kastmasters are my second choice, spinners are well in the rear.

Depending on light conditions silver, silver/green, silver/blue, silver/red, brass, brass/green, brass/blue and brass red.

In salt water a 1 1/4 oz little cleo in silver or silver/blue will just about anything, though obviously not heavy enough for fishing deep.

Good stuff. So are the Little Cleo's better because of their "wobble" action?

Thanks.

Not sure why, but the little cleo's just seem to have an action that attracts fish.

I think the lakes should be all melted out so I'm looking forward to getting home and hitting the lakes for rainbows, dolly varden and arctic char