One of the most widely used types of lures for rainbow trout, lake trout mackinaw, steelhead, landlocked king salmon, salmon, brown trout, landlocked coho salmon, pike, walleye, and striped bass, are spoons. Their vibrant colors and unique action have proven themselves again and again to entice strike after strike. When picking out the perfect fishing spoons, you will want to pick out the colors, shapes, and sizes, that will mimic the natural prey, or colors known to attract that the fish that you are targeting. Spoons work so well due to the way they flash, and the way that the put off vibrations in the water. When a spoon wobbles back and forth in the water, it makes vibrations that the fish can detect, and that is an attractant to the fish that they just cannot resist. Depending on the colors and the style, they put off a flash which mimics the flashing of an injured or an erratically swimming bait fish that entices a hungry, or irritated predatory fish to strike.
Casting Fishing Spoons
Casting Spoons need to be heavy enough to cast from shore, depending on your line weight. The lighter the line, the better, which also lets you use a lighter spoon to be able to cast out, or further up along the shore line, to where you want to be. Your retrieval method should be slow to medium, just fast enough to stay off the bottom, but slow enough to make your lure an easy meal so the fish don’t have to work too hard to catch it. The motion should be steady, with a little bit of change of motion by slowing down and speeding up a little, to change it up a little. Reel and pause, reel and move your rod tip, reel a litle faster, reel a little slower. Keep changing it up. There is nothing worse than a lure that just does the same thing without any modifications to the behavior of the lure. Fish will smack a spoon and hit it hard, if they are there. If your not getting any bites, you should switch styles or colors, or your spot, or your technique. Move along the bank, or move your boat to a new spot, to keep trying to find fish that will bite.
Trolling Fishing Spoons
Trolling Spoons are my favorite. My trolling spoons are a little larger, and a little more wobbly, as I’m covering a lot more ground. Vary your depths, vary your speeds, vary your driving pattern, to constantly change up what your lure is presenting to the fish. I get a lot of strikes just as I change the motion of the lure, whether it’s turning the boat a little bit which slows the speed down and the direction a little, the lure drops a little deeper and changes the motion, and entices that strike. If your not getting bites, change the style of spoon, the size, the color, keep changing it up until you find the fish. It’s never a good idea to pull a lure around for hours and expecting your luck to change. You have to change your luck, and entice them to bit. You can also add scents, or a small piece of baitfish to add just a little scent trail to bring them in. My favorite part about trolling spoons is that you really never know what your going to catch. On a single lake, like Folsom Lake, in a single trolling run, I have caught Rainbow Trout, Bass, and Kings, all within a hundred yards of each other. I typically troll about 40 to 60 feet deep, to try to get into the Landlocked Kings during certain parts of the year, on down to around 100 feet in other times, and the Smallmouth Bass usually hit about about 40 feet deep, and closer to the top for the rainbow trout from top lining down to about 20 feet, depending on the time of year, and where they are holding up. This is where the fishfinder is a necessity!
Jigging Fishing Spoons
Jigging Spoons are great for enticing big fish off of the bottom. If you see a big lake trout mackinaw or other fish on the bottom, you can entice them to bite by jigging your jigging spoon around them enough to annoy them to bite to attack your lure. These spoons are usually solid, and heavier, so they drop down to the bottom, or into the fish zone, and jig up and down and move through the are of the fish. This is not for snagging fish, that’s not legal in most if not all areas, and it’s just not as rewarding. Your goal is to entice the strike, not hurt the fish. So your jigging is not to rip into them and through them, it’s to jig up and down lightly around them, just to get the vibrations and the crazy motion of the lure to entice them to strike. Find some fish on the fish finder to target and give it a whirl for about ten minutes, and if they are not interested, move onto the next fish you can find. The key is to keep moving until you find them. In all types of spoon fishing, whether it’s casting, jigging, or trolling, the key is to change it up. From lure type, to size, to color, add fish attractant, add a small chunk of bait fish, slow your retrieve or troll. Change the motion of the lure, reel slower, troll slower, reel faster, troll faster, move the rod tip four feet in the other direction right or left, anything you can do to change what the lure is doing just enough for the fish to see a change, or a little erratic behavior of the lure, or to have it fall a little bit deeper, or a split second of being motionless, it’s the “change” that gets the strike.
Moonshine Lures Fishing Spoons
Super visibility plus an exciting wobble make the Moonshine Original Spoon a deadly choice for salmon and other game fish. Its superior glow finish produces long-lasting flash at all light levels following exposure to natural or UV light – this is one of the brightest glow lures on the market! Highly UV-reflective, durable finish; quality Eagle Claw® treble hook. These spoons are a top choice for trout fishermen.
Johnson Silver Minnow Fishing Spoons
The Johnson® Silver Minnow™ is a classic fishing spoon. This spoon is weedless, so it can be cast, trolled, jigged, or twitched along the bottom or shore line. It is deadly on all game fish, and a favorite for trout and bass. If you are looking for a trophy fish, just add pork or plastic and toss it into the thick stuff to unlock it’s true trophy potential!
Michigan Stinger Fishing Spoons
Every Michigan Stinger Stingray Spoon is built with top rated materials to provide you with a realistic, highly durable finish in true fish catching colors. Its fish enticing action is effective at almost any trolling speed. It has a curved profile, which causes the Stingray to wobble and flutter through the water, and trout and salmon just cannot resist the temptation. Built to provide maximum flash and vibration, to bring in fish from further away. Perfect for cold water fish, like trout and salmon, as well as pike, bass, and walleye. Premium hook and hardware finnish off this fish catching machine. Pick yourself up a few eye catching colors today. Michigan Stinger makes small, medium, and magnum large spoons, so they have a spoon lineup for the fish you want to target. About The Author Mike Mendenhall is the the founder of Mendenhall Outdoors. This website is an extension of the Mendenhall family’s lifestyle and passion for the great outdoors. Everything that they learn, and experience, along the way that they find may be valuable to our website visitors is on the site for you to enjoy. We highlight products and services that you might find interesting. We frequently receive free products from manufacturers to test. This does not drive our decision as to whether or not a product is featured or recommended. If you click a link on this page, then go on to make a purchase, we might receive a commission – at no extra cost to you, and does not impact the purchase price of any products that you may purchase. The Best Fishing Spoons Shopping Experience Awaits!